6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
A social worker who recently lost her husband investigates the strange Wadsworth family. The Wadsworths might not seem too unusual to hear about them at first - consisting of the mother, two grown daughters and the diaper-clad, bottle-sucking baby. The problem is, the baby is twenty-one years old.
Starring: Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, Marianna Hill, Susanne Zenor, David MooneyHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Ruth Roman was an elegant, husky voiced actress who made an impression in a number of notable films like Champion, Three Secrets and Strangers on a Train. Nevertheless, Roman never quite captured the brass ring of true stardom; she was a journeyman (journeywoman?) of sorts, working regularly for decades but rarely if ever attaining true renown. She therefore didn’t have quite the cachet of actresses like Bette Davis, Olivia De Havilland or Joan Crawford, all of whom found a second career of sorts in the popular Gothic horror films of the sixties like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? or Hush. . .Hush, Sweet Charlotte. Roman is still one of the more unforgettable elements in a film virtually awash in unforgettable elements (not necessarily in a good way) in the completely bizarre shocker (some might prefer schlocker) Baby, a sort of smarmy enterprise that might have made a good Movie of the Week had it been stripped of some of its more questionable and disturbing aspects. In fact, Baby’s director was television regular Ted Post, another journeyman of sorts who did scores of episodic tv outings while occasionally migrating into big screen forays like Hang 'Em High, Magnum Force and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. In an audio interview included on this new Blu-ray as a supplement, Post doesn’t seem particularly fazed with the dubious content of The Baby, despite the fact that the film centers on a grown man kept in an infantile state by his harridan mother and equally pernicious sisters. The Baby is inarguably shocking, but it’s frequently the kind of shock that comes from watching absolutely despicable behavior and situations and not being able to do much about it (other than perhaps turn off the Blu-ray player). Is there a subtext to The Baby? A couple of ideas float around the film in an oddly inchoate manner, including a female empowerment subtext, but it’s obvious that the filmmakers were out to make an exploitation flick of sorts that would give Roman a chance to chew the scenery and several other actors a chance to do everything from assault people with a cattle prod to wear adult diapers.
The Baby is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Severin's press materials state that this transfer is "fully restored from the original camera negative", and the results here are largely good, if still occasionally problematic. The elements still have their fair share of quite evident damage, including scratches, flecks and specks. While colors are generally accurate looking, it does appear that some minor fading has occurred over the decades, and things like flesh tones are often slightly on the brown side. Grain structure is healthy, though rather rough looking at times, especially in outdoor scenes. The two biggest issues here are variable sharpness and image instability. At times, the film looks really good, with well above average clarity and fine detail. At other times, though, it's noticeably softer and less defined, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when and why this anomaly occurs. Also, eagle eyed viewers may notice some slight but jittery image instability. It doesn't quite rise to the typical levels of telecine wobble or gate weave, but there are very slight, incremental but still noticeable jumps throughout this presentation which become more noticeable the closer you sit. Some may therefore feel that 4.0 stars is generous.
The Baby features an LPCM 2.0 mono track that delivers dialogue completely cleanly and clearly with no attendant problems whatsoever. The film actually has a well above average score by the always reliable Gerald Fried, and that also sounds just fine here. Fidelity is very good, though dynamic range is somewhat limited.
Note: The authoring on this disc is incorrect, so that the link pointing to the Post interview actually starts the Mooney interview, and vice versa.
As I mentioned above, there's no denying that The Baby is unforgettable. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's any good. It's disturbing, distressing and more than a bit smarmy. If that's your thing, the film at least has above average production values and some midlevel star power in the likes of Roman and Comer. This is the sort of cult horror item that many genre enthusiasts want to see at least once, but I doubt it's the sort of film that even those folks would put on heavy rotation. Technical merits here are good enough for genre enthusiasts or just the curious to consider purchasing it.
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