The Cradle Will Fall

Directed By:

Lars Jacobson, Amardeep Kaleka

Starring:

Colleen Porch, Ridge Canipe, Joel Bryant, Kali Majors

Synopsis:

For a group of four young children, danger lurks in the one place they would naturally expect to be safe: their home. Even worse, it comes in the form of the one person they would instinctively look to for protection… their mother.

With her trucker husband away on the road for much of the time, a young mother struggles alone to raise her three young children and newborn baby on their secluded farmhouse. Already suffering from a deep depression, the pressure of attending to the needs of her family finally causes her mind to snap and initiates a filicidal rampage from which there is no return. Faced with the unimaginable horror of the one person he loves most in the world threatening to kill him and his siblings, 10-year-old Jimmy is forced into protecting his little brother and sister while fending off the increasingly vicious attacks from their deranged mother. As the tranquillity of his once safe home rapidly turns into a blood-drenched night of terror, Jimmy must rely on both his wits and his courage as he prepares to take on the most unexpected enemy of all in an epic and harrowing battle between mother and son.

Review:

The trend of changing horror movie titles on the box but not on the movie continues here with the title “Baby Blues” coming up at the beginning of the film. Not confusing to hardened watchers of horror movies (the last notable change being Wicked Little Things to Zombies) but might confuse the odd person renting the DVD from Blockbuster. The other convention that has been notably bandied around since the 1974 version of Texas Chainsaw is the description "Based Upon True Events". As usual, read this as being based incredibly loosely on an event...somewhere.

The movie begins promisingly enough, setting the scene at a farm where the family live. Dad’s a trucker who spends most of his time away, while a zoned out Mother looks after their 4 kids that includes a new baby. We’re given the impression that it’s the norm for the mother to be a bit weird after the birth of a child. However the eldest is finding it a bit too much this time around. Colleen Porch does a good job of staring wide eyed and acting moody. It appears early on that there is a supernatural element to the “Mom”’s behaviour (she’s not given a name!) but this idea is quickly dispatched along with logic, and a plot.

“Dad” played by Joel Bryant makes a surly visit in between jobs. I don’t know if Joel Bryant was playing this character as laid back as the Directors wanted but I caught him waiting for Colleen Porch to deliver her lines at one point. Jimmy, played by Ridge Canipe (strange name, but you might recognise him as the young Dean Winchester in Supernatural) seems to be the only family member that has cottoned on to just how strange and erratic “Mom”’s behaviour is.

“Dad” goes off on another trucking job leaving Jimmy “in charge” to look after “Mom” and the other kids. Soon, it’s Jimmy that is trying to stay alive and keep the rest of his family alive.

Once it’s clear that Mom is a couple of cans short of a six-pack, Collen Porch descends into cliché territory whilst attempting a female version of Jack Torrance from The Shining. Her wide eyed snarling detracts from any psychological impact that her condition might have illuminated. There had been no background so therefore no sympathy is generated.

Here’s where I have trouble with this movie; If done well (The Children, for example) I can tolerate violence against children. The story has to be good and the screenplay for this movie is severely lacking. There’s precious little background to the characters and little build up before the events take a nasty turn. By calling the mother “Mom” suggests that this character is just there to be a Jason style killer, with her humanity stripped away. Porch’s performance isn’t as bad as I might imply, but she clearly has little to go on. I found the casual way in which children are dispatched distasteful in this production and handled with little sensitivity. I wasn’t shocked, upset or enraged. I think the fact that it didn’t move me in any way was the problem. No attempt at leading the audience to invest emotionally in these characters had been carried out.

Ridge Canipe is superb and acts his father out of the picture. He carries the movie’s second half and because of his youth, his survival isn’t guaranteed. So, there is a modest amount of tension. But having Mom chase the children across a corn field, in a combine harvester is not a highlight, especially as Jimmy stalls her with a stone issued from a catapult.

Stuntman Gene Whitham puts in a good turn as, presumably (it's not clear what he is, neighbour, worker?) neighbour Lester. He reminds me of O'Halloran in The Shining and is despatched in similar style. The directors appear to have seen The Shining as Baby Blues is peppered with references.

The cinematography is handled extremely well. The beginning, in particularly, has a glow and a warmth to it. It's a shame that the rest of the movie doesn't match that quality.

The film ends, mercifully short, with a mundane "twist" ending that beggars belief. If the previous events stretched credibility then this is laughable. It certainly caused me to let out a "WTF?".

Summary

Difficult to recommend. Ridge Canipe is an actor to look out for. He has a strong onscreen presence and reminds me a little of Lucas (American Gothic, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) Black. I don't think his career will hurt because of this. If you can switch your brain off and disregard the fact that the usual teenage victims in stalk n slash movies have been replaced by children then you might find this movie interesting. Like I said, there is tension but it's overweighed by other small factors like a lack of any sort of originality. Not my kind of movie.

2/10