Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

From my favorite movies..

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This Gallic horror oddity sees an ancient parasitic embryo burst out of its circus animal host in order to impregnate a big-breasted, gap toothed strumpet named Yanka (Emmanuelle Escourrou), who is then compelled by the creature to kill ugly French men (in order to feed her new 'baby' blood—hence the title).Baby Blood is certainly quite splattery, with a lot of the red stuff splashed around and the occasional moment of graphic dismemberment, but even with the high gore content, I found the movie rather tedious in places, due to some rather drawn out and uneventful scenes between the visceral stuff. The story is way too simple to be stretched over feature length and needed more depth in order to fully hold this viewers attention.Director Alain Robak shows some flair for the visuals (in fact, the opening scenes reminded me a bit of Peter Jackson's directorial style), but his treatment of the story—an uneasy mix of horror and bizarrely comic moments— ends up making the film feel disjointed. Had the film been either totally serious in tone or more outrageously silly, it might have impressed me more. As it stands, it all seems a little awkward in style.On the plus side, the gore effects are well handled (lots of stabbing, a beheading, a head smashed in) and the Lovecraftian creature, seen towards the end of the film, is an impressively original looking critter—all slimy and pink, with moist quivering bits (which, for some strange reason, has reminded me to mention that star Emmanuelle Escourrou spends a lot of her time with her kit off!).

BABY BLOOD (1990) ** Uneven horror film from French filmmaker Alain Robak (who co-scripted with Sege Cukier) about a young woman (the ethereal Emmanuelle Escourrou) becomes impregnated by a primordial monster whose incubation leads to a telekinetic communique between host and parasite ….and buckets of bloodshed to slake its thirst to thrive and grow from within. While body horror enthusiasts may rejoice in the splatter-ific f/x one can only wonder what a real artist like David Cronenberg could've done in this horribly written (the dialogue is laughably awful) slog yet the buxom (frequently nude; thank you!) gap-toothed Escourrou acts up a storm not unlike Isabelle Adjani in POSSESSION which this genre pic is a kissing cousin to but not as gonzo-for-broke nuts as it could've been.

I was expecting absolutely nothing from BABY BLOOD, so I have to admit I was VERY pleasantly surprised upon my initial viewing. I haven't seen too much in the way of horror films come from France, but this film does show that they have some potential, too...This one starts out with a big-jugged, gap-toothed circus worker who is impregnated when a tiger (or leopard, jaguar...whatever...) explodes and some sort of evil evolutionary parasite is released, which decides to crawl into bed with, and up into her. From there our "anti-heroine" runs away from the circus and spends her days in squalor trying to satisfy the evil "fetus's" thirst for blood. The "thing" talks to her and basically guides her on her day to day routine, sometimes going so far as to crack jokes about the losers that he's trying to get his host to murder. Sometimes the "baby" is compassionate, other times mean and spiteful. Basically it's a lose-lose situation for both "mother" and "child"...as mom doesn't want some evil spawn inside of her, and "baby" wants to be reborn to continue it's evolutionary process but has to wait until it's strong enough to be "born"...BABY BLOOD works on a lot of different levels. The gore comes quick and thick but never quite gets too campy. There are a few "dark-comedy" elements, but those that classify this as more comedy than horror must not have been watching the same film that I saw. I found BABY BLOOD to be pretty bleak and may even prove to be a little too much for the "average" horror film-goer. The atmosphere of the film really reminded me of a Henenlotter film, a la BASKET CASE or maybe more closely related, BRAIN DAMAGE - without the funny parts. The performances are all strong, especially from the lead actress, who although may be a little hard on the eyes (the few reviewers who thought she was hot must also have not seen the same film I did...) was superb as the "mother" torn between her repulsion of what is growing inside of her, and her natural motherly instincts. The basic concept of a parasitic or evil fetus may not be an especially original one, but BABY BLOOD does more with the concept than any film I've seen since ROSEMARY'S BABY. The only real gripe I had with the film was that it would sometimes switch from English to French dialog mid-scene for no reason - but this only happened a few times and didn't ruin the overall feel of the film. I HIGHLY recommend picking this one up if you dig more "extreme" horror fare. 8.5/10

French cinema isn't exactly known for its many horror masterpieces (the exceptions that prove this rule are "Les Yeux Sans Visage" and the more recent "Haute Tension") but, as much as in every other country, there are always some gore-loving genre fanatics that sooner or later direct their own independent cult gem. Alain Robak clearly is such an enthusiast filmmaker and his "Baby Blood" is a hugely entertaining and cheerful splatterfest, despite the poor and inept screenplay. The relatively unknown but impressively voluptuous Emmanuelle Escourrou (what's in a name) stars as the unhappy fiancée of a circus artist who gets impregnated by a parasite that burst out a newly imported cheetah. The fetus growing inside Yanka is pure evil and demands her to kill men so that it can feed on their blood. This results in some of the most over-the-top bloody and sadistic massacres ever shot on film, with cut off heads, slit throats and many outrageous knife-attacks. Of course, this exaggerated amount of bloodshed makes it all blackly comical and "Baby Blood" therefore shouldn't be taken too seriously. This isn't the fist horror film handling about ferocious fetuses/infants (there's also "It's Alive", "I don't want to be Born" and even the premise of "Rosemary's Baby" is remotely similar) but "Baby Blood" is much more creative and tongue-in-cheek than anything you've ever seen before. The camera-work is quite nifty and there are several cameos of eminent Frenchmen, like Jacques Audiard (director of "Read My Lips") and Alain Chabat (who played Caesar in "Asterix"). The script is very man-unfriendly, which is quite a new approach for exploitation! Nearly every male is presented as a weak and imbecile creature whereas Yanka gets stronger with every murder she commits. "Baby Blood" is ingenious, somewhat bizarre horror fun.