BABY BLOOD

A jarring and brutal yet poetic treatment of violence and the terrors of motherhood, Baby Blood is a celebration of perversion and an opera of pain. Tackling the unspeakable (and the culturally taboo) with bravado and energy, the movie dares everything and fears nothing, successful in its quest to shove taboos down your throat . . . and make you ask for seconds! Not to everyone's taste by any means, this is terrorist-type horror, breaking down boundaries of the acceptable. Admittedly -- no, make that happily gruesome, many of the ideas expressed in this tragedy of motherly love, hatred, and blood-sucking are as bothersome as the wet and rowdy surface splatter. This makes for a movie as downbeat and philosophically provoking as it is graphic. Anchor Bay's uncut release delivers both the red and the ethereal in its original dirty magnificence, making the previous VHS and DVD incarnates (particularly the cut travesty The Evil Within) unnecessary.

In a plot where increasingly outrageous, shocking events and twisted moments inviting empathy assault viewers, making them fear -- and fear for -- a mother carrying a vicious alien parasite within her womb, Baby Blood is a horror movie of both the mind and body, tackling provoking cultural and personal problems beneath its exploitative rigor. The picture feels rather like a hybrid born of Roger Corman's infectious showmanship and David Cronenberg's obsession with the human body. In a surprisingly simple yet effective plot, a sadistic travelling circus owner abuses Yanka (Emmanuelle Escourrou), the young woman whom he also regularly beds. Yanka's fate takes alarming turns when a captured leopard arrives at the circus, along with an amorous young man whom she soon seeks 'comfort' from. When the later abandons her (fearful of her hulking man), and the former dies, she is attacked by a repulsive life form, made to play host to a parasitic creature that was dwelling inside of the panther. She discovers that this organism has somehow merged with/taken over her own unborn baby. Fleeing from her abusive mate, she is unable to free herself from this unwholesome yet strangely sympathetic creature, a being who both uses (and is used by) its human host. What ensues is a blood-and-cum journey through destruction and the destructive force of birth. Her 'baby' craves fresh blood, and Yanka kills to keep it alive, at first hesitantly, forced to do so, but coming to enjoy it (and the liberation it provides) as her personality changes. As host and child battle and hate, fight with, befriend, and finally, develop a twisted love for one another, an impressive body count builds up, and this dance of death leaps to a startling conclusion. The end, when it comes, is deeply disturbing. It seems as though it could never have ended any other way.

With some scenes rearranged and much sex/gore missing, the original cut of the film lacked resonance and primal shock potential. The first video incarnation, The Evil Within, suffers from an uneven story and faulty narrative structure. This restored version creates a greater context and sense of perspective for the violence and sex. In addition, it is successful as an introspective character study. Of course it achieves most on a primal level, taking seriously its extremes. While the end result fails to reach truly visionary status, its basic premise owing too much to such films as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Rabid, and other pseudo medical/horror hybrids to stand as a completely unique venture, its director's handling of such complex material is nothing less than inspiring, and the violence attained nothing less than shocking. Despite its failings, a level of thematic resonance is evoked by tracing the reluctant mother's storm of changing emotions towards the thing inside her belly, herself, and the world around her. This is a sick 'coming of age' story interwoven with the themes of a sadistic 'buddy' movie. The world of truck stops, crack house alleys, fumbling sexuality and hunger displayed in this comedy of horrors belongs to each and every one of us -- and this is the movie's principle, most jarring revelation. Samuels creates spiritual, emotional, and psychological frameworks for which to see ourselves. And for fans interested in nothing more than a vivid, well made horror film, Baby Blood delivers on that level as well.

Visually Baby Blood is stunning, especially if viewed in light of the film's previous release. Anchor Bay's uncut widescreen version, coming in at 1.85:1, easily outshines earlier versions. Clean and crisp, colors are wonderfully displayed, typifying the film's emotional turbulence. Bright and erotic blues, dark as sin blacks, and beautiful sprays of crimson coat the set and actress's supple flesh in gouts of dark beauty and gore. Audio is featured in both English and French with optional English sub-titles. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track provides a clean, enjoyable listening experience, equally distributing the sound effects and score. While extras are on the short side, including only trailers for this and other Bay titles, the effort that went into restoring Baby Blood makes the disc more than worth its asking price.

Review by William P. Simmons