‘It’ll suck your brains out!’
The Suckling aka Sewage Baby is a 1990 American horror film written and directed by Francis Teri.
The movie stars Frank Rivera (Sasquatch Mountain), Marie Michaels, Gerald Preger, Lisa Petruno, Janet Sovey, Tim Martin Crouse, Susan Brodsky, Allen Lieb, Bobby Shapiro, Caesar Monroy, Antoinette Greene, Brian Muirhill, Jeff Burchfield, Hector Collazo, Michael Gingold, Ella Aralovich.
The Suckling was released by Vinegar Syndrome as a Blu-ray + DVD combo on March 26, 2019. The film was restored in 2K from the 16mm original camera negative and features reversible sleeve artwork.
Special features:
Interview with writer/director Francis Teri
Interview with actor Michael Gingold
Archival image gallery
Plot:
A teenage couple, Rebecca and Phil, seek an abortion at a Brooklyn brothel. Following the operation, toxic waste transforms the discarded foetus into a mutant beast, complete with prehensile umbilical cord and hooked talons for hands.
Hunting the customers and employees of the house of ill repute, the mutant envelops the house in an enormous placenta and slaughters the inhabitants one by one…
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Reviews:
“The first half of the film is a pure blast, complete with over-the-top performances and hilariously bad attempts at action. Once the shock value wears off […] it becomes a more procedural, Night of the Living Dead-esque struggle for power. But it comes back around for the ridiculous finale.” Broke Horror Fan
“Turning up the gore would have made The Suckling that much more succulent, ripe for the kind of rabid fandom the scatological storyline deserves. Had a really nasty death occurred every few minutes, instead of all the infighting, bickering, and gunplay (non-serial killer psychos with weapons are never welcome in a fiend film), we’d be able to tolerate many of this film’s faults.” DVD Talk
“The Suckling is cheap and cheesy, ugly and sleazy. It is trashy, ridiculous and badly acted but bloody hell; it is a film about a giant killer toxic-waste-mutated aborted fetus … It definitely made me laugh […] I kind of appreciated their enthusiasm…” Goregirl’s Dungeon
“The film starts off looking like it will be reasonably promising; the abortion scene is suitably distasteful and the ‘birth’ of the creature is accomplished using nicely effective foam latex and animatronics special effects. After that though, it goes downhill fast.” DVD Talk
” … there are some genuinely amusing moments in here from time to time (just not enough of them) and the filmmakers clearly tried to put on a good show within their limited budget (though they’re ultimately not quite successful). The best thing this has to offer is its creature design, which is truly excellent.” The Bloody Pit of Horror
“This poorly acted horror film has a few inspired, loony moments here and there but it’s mostly a trying, fairly stupid attempt … A guy in a suit plays the fully-grown creature, but the baby creature is an inspired, moving model.” Combustible Celluloid
“The acting is cringeworthy, and the sound hardly ever lines up with the video. However, the gore is plentiful, the characters are funny, and special FX artist Dean Mercil’s (Critters franchise, Face/Off 1997) creature is a masterpiece. From his untimely birth to his full-grown, irradiated, Pumpkinhead-esque self, this prenatal monster is magnificent at every step.” Pop Horror
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“The movie doesn’t perfectly exploit its premise but there’s enough goofy, gory, dumb entertainment to be had from the picture that it’s worth a watch. For a picture made on a pretty low budget, the scenes of inspired creativity (which, again, almost always feature the creature) are impressive enough that we can forgive some of the picture’s misfires.” Rock! Shock! Pop!
“There’s a few scenes here and there that almost pull it off […] but it’s almost like the makers of The Suckling were too afraid to take it to the next level of disgusting. And that’s really too bad because the only way this movie would’ve worked was as an absurd and chaotic sleaze-a-thon.” The Video Graveyard
