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Released by: Severin Films
Released on: July 8th, 2014.
Director: Ted Post
Cast: Anjanette Comer, Marianna Hill, Susanne Zenor, David Manzy, Ruth Roman
Year: 1973
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The Movie:
Directed by none other than Ted Post, the same man who gave us Magnum Force among other big time Hollywood productions, The Baby follows Mrs. Wadsworth (Ruth Roman) and her bizarre family made up of her two foxy daughters - Germaine (Marianna Hill) and Alba (Suzanne Zenor) - and her son, Baby (David Manzy), who is not quite right and who wears diapers and lives in a crib. He crawls around the house goo-gooing and ga-gaging and drinks out of a baby bottle - but he is a fully grown man. Oddly enough, his mother and two sisters are fine with his current state and don't show any interest in trying to get him any help or getting him any treatment, this in spite of the efforts of a few well-meaning social workers who have come and gone over the years.
The latest social worker to be assigned to the Wadsworth case is a kindly young woman named Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer), who feels that Baby deserves a better life than he's getting at home and who wants to take him to a clinic for therapy, but of course, there's no way Mrs. Wadsworth is going to allow that. In fact, when Ann persists, Mrs. Wadsworth basically kicks her out of the house and tells her never to return. The old lady softens up after some time passes and invites Ann to Baby's birthday party, to which she arrives only to find some very non-kid-friendly activity going on. It turns out that Ann's been set up, however, as she soon finds herself drugged and tied up in the basement of the family home. She makes her escape and makes it out of the house alive, with Baby in tow, and Mrs. Wadsworth soon finds out that there's more to this social worker than she first expected.
Surprisingly sleazy for a PG rated movie, and far darker and considerably more twisted than it probably should have been, The Baby is wrong on so many levels that it's hard to put it into words. First off is the character of Baby himself, played freakishly well by Manzy but frequently dubbed by the sounds of an actual infant crying. Then there's the presence of Ruth Roman, best known for work in more mainstream fare such as Strangers On A Train, here wallowing in exploitation sickness and seemingly all the better for it. Her performance is a determined one, she definitely gives her all and makes a surprisingly believable matronly type, as damaged as she and her children might be. Throw in Marianna Hill and Suzanne Zenor as two well-constructed but 'off' young ladies and the presence of a pot smoking Michael Pataki as one of their boy toys and you can easily see how Anjanette Comer's Ann has definitely got her hands full.
The story itself is compellingly tasteless at times, the best example being Ann's trip to a class for mentally handicapped people or the scene where Baby tries to breastfeed one of his babysitters. The film features minor drug use, tends to get violent in spots and definitely gets sadistic in the last half but as trashy as it all is, Post manages to get some great performances out of his cast and to squeeze some genuinely unsettling atmosphere out of the story. The house where most of the action takes place has got some great gothic style to it while the seventies fashions and hairdos combined with a truly odd score from composer Gerald Fried just add to the film's very substantial weird factor.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Severin presents The Baby on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. This isn't a massive upgrade over the past DVD release but you can definitely notice the difference that the HD transfer provides. This is most obvious in close up shots where facial detail stands out more. There's some video noise here and there and a few minor compression artifacts in the darker scenes but skin tones and color far nicely here. There's more texture and stronger detail noticeable throughout.
The audio chores are handled well by the disc's LPCM 2.0 Mono track, no alternate language options or subtitles are provided. There's a little more depth and clarity here than was present on the Dolby Digital Mono track that graced the DVD release, you'll notice this in the film's use of sound effects and its score. Clarity and range are improved as well and there are no issues with any hiss or distortion to note.
As far as the extras go, the previous Image release contained an isolated score and a Spanish language track and the Geneon DVD was completely barebones. Severin's Blu-ray doesn't have either of those (the isolated score would have been a nice inclusion) but it does carry over the extras from their previous special edition release. The most interesting is the audio interview with the film's director, Ted Post, who is quite honest about his feelings on the script and it's overtones and who talks about how he was basically chased down by a few parties and coerced into taking the job directing the film. More positive about the film is actor David Mooney, who is credited in the film as David Manzey, who also provides an audio interview. Here he talks about what's he's been up to since he made this movie (he's a teacher!) and how he feels about the picture and how he enjoyed his time working on this movie.
Aside from that, be sure to check out the amazing theatrical trailer for the film, and the bonus trailers for other Severin releases available now or coming soon. Menus and chapter stops are also provided.
The Final Word:
A totally twisted mindfuck of a movie, The Baby is just as bizarre as you've heard and Severin's Blu-ray offers a decent, if sometimes modest, upgrade over past DVD issues of the film.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
