‘The Baby’, one of HBO Max’s latest bets, starts off strong. A desperate woman, with a baby in her arms, flees through the night, pursued by the police. Two law enforcement officers almost catch up with her fugitive, shining their flashlight on her, gun in her hand. The fugitive looks out over a cliff and seems obsessed with throwing the little boy into the void. Moments of extreme tension. What happens next is unexpected. Thus begins one of the most curious series of the moment, whose premise has sown confusion among some Internet users. The “twitter” critical mass has generated a tremendous discussion around a clear satire on motherhood that uses black humor as a throwing weapon. Apparently there is a conspiracy to destabilize the concept of traditional family and streaming entertainment platforms are to blame. In the 21st century, the premiere of ‘The Devil’s Seed’, ‘The Other’ or ‘The Prophecy’ could give rise to heated diatribes about being a bad mother, not to mention cult productions like ‘He’s Alive!’ or ‘Baby Blood’. The story at hand has quite a few points in common with this latest highly hemoglobinic French film, although the protagonist creature arrives on loan and is passed from hand to hand as in a chain of favors that turns into a true nightmare.
The baby in question is as adorable as it is sinister, because people die around him in strange circumstances, like in the ‘Fatal Fate’ saga. Accidents worthy of the program ‘1,000 ways to die’ occur. The panic of a ridiculous death is present in a story as funny as it is perverse that appeals to the common places of the horror genre, turning them around with absurd situations. 25-minute chapters, the perfect length, that have little to do with the psychological horror of ‘Servant’, the chilling series sponsored by Shyamalan, equally recommended (great double feature). Each installment begins with a misfortune, introducing endearing characters, some of them cartoonish, who you don’t know how long they will last on stage. The enigmatic little being from hell is a potential Damien, but his good face, having never broken a plate, saves him time and again from being eliminated by someone who adopts him without knowing why. Pouts hypnotize anyone, but the snowball is getting bigger and bigger and absolute catastrophe is just around the corner. The diabolical child, that naïve creature, may be simply an ash, but doubt remains in the atmosphere inviting suspense. ‘The Baby’ is an invention of Siân Robins-Grace (‘Sex Education’) and Lucy Gaymer, with Michelle de Swarte (‘The Marchioness’) and Amira Ghazalla (‘The Rhythm of Vengeance’) leading the cast.
Portrayed using the camera with ingenious frames, ‘The Baby’, a solvent black comedy, laughs at some topics about motherhood, plays with them, as ‘Prevenge’ did with more viscerality, a film that was shown at numerous festivals specialized in 2016, drawing attention for not making value judgments about the cruel behavior of its protagonist, a pregnant woman who does not hesitate to cut the throats of her victims, whether they deserve it or not, to say goodbye with a kiss on the forehead. Her depraved acts are due to the commands of the voice of the baby she carries inside her. Between horror and comedy, Alice Lowe, seen in the funny and very dark ‘Tourists’ by Ben Wheatley, was placed in front of and behind the camera while being pregnant in real life, a fact that adds concern to a proposal that can be maddening for the unaccustomed viewer. The trauma, physical and psychological, that pregnancy can entail, takes on physicality before our eyes. Once again the genre audiovisual becomes perfect for using metaphors, this time providing some reflections on femininity, in addition to seeking the complicit laughter of the deprejudiced audience.
‘The Baby’ is available on HBO Max.
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