Big Baby
Success has not brought contentment or acceptance to writer Adam Lewis, upset beyond proportion when his recently released film The Blackest Moon is singled out for derision and mockery on the Bloodsoaked podcast run by attention-seeking “Vampire Greg and Steve Strange,” his more sanguine girlfriend Kate trying to calm him and maintain perspective but he determined to drink and pour his rage into the pages.
Seeking a new angle on the familiar, something which will demonstrate he too can craft “elevated horror” which will bring him recognition for artistic merit beyond the ghetto of the genre, a nightmare brings him the idea, the babyfaced killer, a child who was pushed into the water and suffered brain damage, now a towering simpleton who wears a baby mask and seeks revenge on his former bullies.
Potentially a commentary on horror and its creators, fans, foibles and facades, Big Baby is written and directed by Little Bites’ Spider One, with Blair Witch’s Brandon Scott and Terrifier 3’s Krsy Fox as Adam and Kate, Torio Van Grol and Kate Freund as their friends James and Patrice, eating snacks of Stars and Stripes plates, and Jordan Elsass and Radek Lord as the insufferable podcasters who are more interested in baiting listeners than offering substance.
With Adam Marcinowski in the title role of the angry baby who is long past time for a nap, the intention of Big Baby is ambitious but the steps are clumsy; Stephen King having manifested his alter ego as murderer to kill a facet of his parallel careers in The Dark Half, the premise which underlies Adam’s script is basic with no twist on the slasher genre to justify his initial enthusiasm, the emotion coming from his nightmare rather than any inherent value.
The ensemble doing their best to bring life and death to underwritten parts, they are functions rather than characters with Adam unsympathetic from the outset, indulging his wounded ego then snapping at Kate who offers to act as a sounding board for his ideas, reading his outline and giving feedback only to be harangued and disregarded, a mere woman unable to understand the creative process of a man.
Kate given the face and voice of his insecurities and doubts, there are ideas which would have been worth developing in Big Baby but it is stunted, more interested in the obvious kills of the film within a film of Adam’s imagination than exploring the situation he has created, Dave Made a Maze and The Draft! having explored similar scenarios of creations which cannot be controlled more creatively and entertainingly.
Big Baby had its international premiere at FrightFest and will be available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download from Monday 7th September
