before you ask, No, this isn't the movie that famous clip of a massive Baby telling his parents to get the fuck out of my room.
There was barely any info on this movie, so i started digging into this movies director. Theodore I. Post was a highly prolific director, and directed numerous episodes of well-known television series including Rawhide, Gunsmoke, and The Twilight Zone as well as blockbuster films such as Hang 'Em High, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Magnum Force. He had a small part in almost all of the iconic TV Shows of the 50s and 60s, so he must be doing something right.
hopefully this movie is part of that something right
The Baby is a 1973 American psychological thriller film directed by Ted Post and written by Abe Polsky. A social worker who recently lost her husband investigates the strange Wadsworth family. The Wadsworths might not seem too unusual to hear about them at first - consisting of the mother, two grown daughters and the diaper-clad, bottle-sucking baby. The problem is, the baby is twenty-one years old.
I think if this was a movie that was simply about a grown man into age play, it would have a lot less shock value. in this day and age its far more common place than ever before, but that isn't even close to depths of this movies nasty as strangeness. Right of the bat this movie has a CARRIE Pino Donaggio style soundtrack that feels oddly haunting, and that's not a bad way to describe this movie. Even when nothing terribly interesting is happening, this movie is in a deep fog of discomfort and strangeness. Like there is something a lot darker underneath that we only get small glimpses of, and exploring that darkness as the movie goes on is as amazing as it is horrible.
Also quick note before we move on: The re-mastered edition of the audio track is not the original track from the film. The original track contained the actual sounds made by David Mooney during the filming, but the original track was lost and baby sounds were added later. i cant tell which of the two versions would be more disturbing, but i imagine both are equally scarring. It reminds of of the Seven Angulo children were raised almost entirely inside a four-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, and these women have really turned there normal looking home into a kind of compound to hide there dirty little secret. The secret isn't having a 21 year old baby, its the group of women that constantly abuse him and punish him anytime he does anything wrong.
oh and also rape him. So that's...
fucked up huh?
In a story like this you expect the gender roles to be reversed, and i am beyond curious to hear a feministic take on this movie. It reminds me of another cult favorite DOGTOOTH, but this movie is nowhere near as disturbing. its packed full of uniquely bizarre characters, its uncomfortable, fascinating, and above all else this movie is classic 1970s weird as shit cult movie.
Unless you got some serious mommy issues, i cant recommend this movie enough
9/10
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