‘There wasn’t enough space in toyland to escape the terror that rocked Baby’s cradle’
The Baby is a 1973 American horror thriller film about a social worker, still reeling from the loss of her architect husband, who investigates the eccentric, psychedelic Wadsworth Family, consisting of a mother, two daughters, and an adult son with the apparent mental capacity of an infant.
The movie was directed by Ted Post (Nightkill; Beneath the Planet of the Apes; Magnum Force) from a screenplay by co-producer Abe Polsky.
The Quintet Films production stars Anjanette Comer (Dead of Night 1977; The Night of a Thousand Cats), Ruth Roman (Knife for the Ladies; The Killing Kind), Marianna Hill (Schizoid; Blood Beach; Messiah of Evil; Black Zoo), Suzanne Zenor, Tod Andrews, Michael Pataki (Dead & Buried; The Bat People; Grave of the Vampire; Dream No Evil), Beatrice Manley Blau, Erin O’Reilly, Don Mallon, Joseph Bernard, Virginia Vincent and David Mooney [aka David Manzy] as Baby.
Incredibly, considering its subject matter, The Baby was rated “PG” in the United States, yet over the years its reputation has grown as one of the most deranged films of its era.
Plot:
Ann Gentry is a social worker, whose husband has been involved in a car crash in a car she was driving, and takes up the case of the twisted and mysterious Wadsworth family, and takes a special interest in a member only called “Baby”, a mentally impaired twenty-something who still acts and is treated like an infant by his mother and sisters.
Ann is interested in Baby and wants to see if she can teach him to behave appropriately for his age group. The Wadsworth clan has been neglectful and abusive to Baby, but Mrs Wadsworth has been extremely overprotective of him ever since his father left shortly after his birth and isn’t going to let another caregiver mess with her son.
Eventually, Ann and her mother-in-law take Baby, and his mother and sisters come after them, but Ann and her mother-in-law kill them. We soon find out why she is so interested in Baby: so he can be a playmate for her husband, who was left with the mental capacity of an infant after his accident…
Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk
The Baby was released on Blu-ray by Arrow Video on September 25, 2018. New cover art was designed by Twins of Evil (Scalpel; Blood Feast; Vamp). The release features movie in both 1.85:1 and 1.33:1 aspect ratios, accompanied by original uncompressed PCM mono audio and optional English subtitles.
Audio commentary by Travis Crawford (new)
Down Will Come Baby – Retrospective with film professor Rebekah McKendry (new)
Tales from the Crib – Archival audio interview with director Ted Post
Baby Talk – Archival audio interview with star David Mooney
Theatrical trailer
Collector’s booklet
Release:
Scotia International released the film in the USA in March 1973.
Image Entertainment released the film in 2000 on DVD and VHS.
The Baby was released on Blu-ray and DVD with a new transfer from the original negative by Severin Films in 2011.
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