The Baby Is A 1973 Slice of Absurdism

One of my favorite experiences as a fan of film is when I see something I absolutely can't place in a category. Something unlike anything I've ever seen before. When a movie is entirely unique it isn't subject to the normal aesthetic parameters of whether it's a good film or a bad film. Being unique is enough to recommend a film in almost all cases in my experience. Certainly there are exceptions, but when i come away from a movie thinking this is unlike anything I've ever seen that usually satisfies me. After everyone went to bed a few weeks ago I took a chance on such a film on Netflix and that's how I came across...

The Baby. A 1973 film you will surely assume is much more lurid and prurient from looking at this poster. The truth is The Baby is an interesting, even entertaining film simply because it's played straight. The absurdity of a grown man still being treated as if he were a baby by his mother and two sisters is played straight. There is violence and perversion in this movie, but far less than you might imagine and far less than you would expect if this had been filmed as a typical exploitation movie. It wasn't. It was filmed as a straight ahead story that become a pretty good action movie culminating with several cast members finding their ways to bad endings. 

I don't really do "reviews" in the sense of evaluating whether a movie is good or bad. My goal is to bring to the attention of niche and sub-genre fans movies they might have otherwise missed. This is one of those. If you're expecting something ala David Lynch or John Waters here you'll be disappointed. But the story is told in a straight forward style as if this were something happening in every neighborhood in every town. And...

Marianna Hill of Messiah of Evil (Dead People) is in it, so that's an added bonus. It's on  Netflix and if you have an extra  ninety minutes and want to see something out of left field The Baby will probably entertain you.

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