Baby Blues (2008)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

I saw this movie on a rented DVD in 2008. Read some good reviews. Was looking forward to it. One word, it is not for everyone. This movie is scary, shocking n full of tension without any cheap jump scares, ghosts, revenge or gore. The situation/plot of the movie is scary enuff. This is a disturbing film with some intense moments. It is psychologically disturbing as the horror is real. Nothing can be more scary than a sick mother hunting down her own small children on an isolated farmhouse in the father's absence. Fans of High tension, The shining, Inside shud definitely check this out. The psychotic mom is believably portrayed by Colleen Porch. The eldest son was portrayed well by Ridge Canipe. The ending of the film is more shocking then the events that preceded them. Regardless of its weaknesses (obvious set pieces/predictability) this film presents some tense moments and some real moments of sadness. The secluded farmhouse in the middle of nowhere gave more creeps n knowing that it's based on a true event is frightening. This movie is a fictionalize depiction of the Andrea Yates story. The makers of this film shud be given more projects to direct.

Baby Blues reminded me of Casualties Of War. They are both good movies, with superb acting. However, just like Casualties Of War, these just aren't films I go around recommending to my family and friends. Casualties Of War delivered stunningly great performances from both Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox, I just don't go around saying : "Hey! Guys! You have to check this movie out, it's about a woman who is repeatedly raped. It's really, really good." Baby Blues, in the same sense, is nothing I would go around recommending for anyone to watch. It's dark, it's disturbing, and the most delicate part of the matter is...this all is based on a true story. The movie depends heavily on the acting of the children, which is handled almost perfectly. Now, again, I can't recommend this movie to even the most general horror fan, because it's about a mother who goes off the deep end, and exterminates her own children. Interested? The things that make it problematic are serious factors that bring the movie down. For example, in the very beginning of the film, we're not clear on some basic information that we would like to know since this was based on actual events; What year did this happen? Where? The mentions of Atari would give you a time frame of late seventies, early eighties. And how about a follow-up towards the ending. How are the survivors? Where are they today. Unresolved matters. Can't say I love or like it. So, very briefly, let's explore the movie. It takes place on a farm separated far from all walks of life. This sets a dark tone, since it makes it very difficult to call anyone for help. A small family lives on the farm, mom, dad, two boys, a little girl, and a baby. It becomes clear, early on, that the family is living under some stressful conditions: no air conditioner. Bad TV reception. Limited uses of entertainment. Not to mention, mom is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and dad just seems to be in and out. She begs him not to leave, but he takes off in a truck anyway, leaving the family to their own devices. Certain triggers seem to aggravate moms breakdown. Isolation, not to mention she seems to hyper focus on certain objects: the annoyingly bad reception on TV, the baby monitor, and...I won't spoil the disturbing scene she experiences at the clothesline. She's coming apart at the seams, she's very sick, and the shocker comes almost too soon. The bottom line is Baby Blues is a slasher movie. What makes it unique, is we aren't dealing with some sick psycho in a Scream mask, the slasher is a sick mother, and the victims are her own children. Now, the children are in survival mode, led by the smarts of the eldest son who tries his best to protect the remaining children left, and protect them from the one person that raised and loved them. It is a good movie, however, I can only recommend Baby Blues to anyone who likes movies that are based on true stories.

A young mother (an excellent and terrifying performance by Colleen Porch) suffering from post-partum depression goes dangerously crazy and turns on her own children. It's up to ten-year-old Jimmy (a sound and credible portrayal by Ridge Canipe) to protect both himself and his younger siblings from their mother's murderous wrath. Directors Amardeep Kaleka and Lars Jacobson (the latter also wrote the dark and uncompromising script) don't pull any punches in their telling of this genuinely scary and upsetting tale that was inspired by an actual incident; the extreme scenes of brutal violence against children (some of them are even killed!) are intensely painful, gut-wrenching, and hard to watch. Moreover, the meticulous and convincing evocation of pedestrian everyday reality adds an extra frightening plausibility to the already bleak and unnerving narrative. The best and most distressful horror films hit home (in this case literally) by showing how ordinary life can be ripped asunder by an equally mundane, yet deadly and unusual phenomenon. One becomes very afraid of what this unhinged and dangerous woman might do to both herself and her own children; her descent into psychotic insanity is the stuff of real nightmares. The film further benefits from sterling acting by an able no-name cast: Porch and Canipe are remarkable in the leads, with fine support from Joel Bryant as the trucker father, Kali Majors and Holden Thomas Maynard as Jimmy's younger siblings, and Gene Witham as amiable neighbor Lester. Matthew MacCarthy's cinematography gives the picture an appropriately rough and grainy look. Amardeep Kaleka's shuddery score also does the shivery trick. The conclusion is positively bone-chilling. Unpleasant for sure, but still quite powerful and effective just the same.

A young mother (Colleen Porch), who has just recently given birth to her fourth child, is suffering from post-partem psychosis, meaning she hears voices, and contemplates suicide and homicide. When she suspects her truck driving husband (Joel Bryant) of cheating on her, she goes over the edge and takes it out on her young children.Eldest son Jimmy (Ridge Canipe) tries to protect his siblings while trying to find help, but his mother seems to be an unstoppable killing machine.What makes "Baby Blues" a decent film isn't the acting or effects, but rather the raw emotion emitted by the actors. You feel for the children, and you want the mother to pay for what she did to them. Suffering from a mental illness or not, the things she did to her children is highly unacceptable in any situation, and it angers me personally when people like that get away with committing such heinous crimes under the guise of 'mental illness.'