Baby Blues (2008)

Like everyone else in America and Europe, I know about the tragic Andrea Yates case and how horrible post traumatic psychosis can be from reading about this loving mother who suddenly turned on the people she loved more than anything else in the world: her children. Mrs. Williams aka Mom in "Baby Blues" is the mother of 3 sons, James, Jr. "Jimmy" who is 10, 7-year-old Sammy, and infant Nathan. Cathy, the lone girl is 4 or 5 years old. The Williams family of James, Sr. "Dad", Mom and the 4 children have a normal, everyday life on the farm. Dad is a long haul trucker who leaves his namesake Jimmy in charge of the family when he goes out on business. The children seem to have happy lives, but one day all that changes. Mom starts to hear voices from the family's scarecrow and then everything literally goes to hell on this family as Mom sees her children as bad seeds who must be destroyed. Jimmy is just a little 10-year-old boy who loves his mother, but when she turns on him and kills his siblings, he has to protect himself from her rampage. In the end, Jimmy survives and so does his mother. Dad tells him that the mother was sick and she had post par tum depression that turned her against her children. This is a very good movie about something very few people want to talk about but exists: Post par tum psychosis. The actors are very good, especially Ridge Calipe as the confused, protective Jimmy and Angelina Jolie-lookalike Colleen Porch as the loving mother turned psycho. None of the actors hit a false note in this scary movie!

I'm talking bout the movie Baby Blues, (2008) Written and Directed by Lars Jacobson and co directed by Amar Kaleka, I'm going to be talking about the movie so this is my Spoiler Alert. This is an extremely disturbing movie, all the more so because it is based on true events. It was filmed in Savannah Georgia, and makes the most of it's location shooting. The scene is a rural farm house. Mom, played by Colleen Porch has five children, the youngest being three months old, the sister is four years old, the two brothers are Seven, and the oldest Jimmy, played by Ridge Canipe is ten. Dad played by Joel Bryant, is loving, but works on the road, and is prone to be gone.One fine day, While out hanging clothes, the scarecrow tells Mom something, and she looses her mind, and turns homicidal.They diagnose this as Postpartum Depression, and say, "It happens, but there is a cure", with medication and the like. Jimmy could see that Mom was acting odd, but nobody listened when he tried to tell them. By the end of the film, he survives to witness his brothers and sisters, killed brutally by a monster that was his Mother, and who is determined that Jimmy will be caught and killed. The conclusion of the film is however almost more shocking then the events that preceded them. Simply put, I wanted to strangle the Father. Disturbing, Yes, but also well done. Effective acting by the children facing a horrendous situation. Strong production values all around, well shot, by Matthew MacCarthy, Edited by Amardeep Kaleka and effectively scored by Micahael Filmowicz. A powerful film but not a pleasant one. Eight out of Ten, "Can they film that?" Stars

Lars E. Jacobson wrote this movie and the box claims it is based on a true story. Which true story its based on or inspired by is not relevant. What is relevant is that Lars E. Jacobson understands what makes a movie horrifying. The plot to this movie is pretty straightforward. A woman, known only as Mom, convincingly portrayed by Colleen Porch, gives birth to her baby boy and begins a descent into madness and psychosis created by the all too common condition, post-partum depression. She begins to see things in drawings made by the children. She believes her husband, an over-the-road trucker who is gone frequently, is cheating on her. And of course, she begins to kill her children, one by one. OK.. enough said about the plot because too much more would spoil this movie if you haven't seen it. And from what I can tell this film isn't trying to make any sort of social statement about post-partum depression. But, many of us know the story of Andrea Yates and mothers like her that simply snapped and killed all of their children in a post-partum depression induced psychosis. Thus this story is all too real and thus all too disturbing.My wife and I cringed and turned out heads throughout this movie. But not because it is terribly gory or bloody, we love gore and blood. We turned our heads, much as a young child covers his eyes when the monster comes up, to avoid the truly scary parts of this film -- the mother in her madness killing her children. My wife actually pulled our 3 year old son up on to her lap and held him as this woman brutally murdered these children. The film was simply brutal and horrifying. Rarely does a film kill young children, but this one does it, does it in a horrifying and realistic manner, and does it in front of other young children.The boy who plays the 10 year old son, Jimmy, who does everything he can to protect his siblings from the mother's rage is the actor Ridge Canipe. He is phenomenal. I can't imagine this film won't have a lasting effect on his psyche. The Mom is so believably portrayed by Colleen Porch that I'm quite sure when I see her in other movies I'll immediately have flashbacks to the terror of this film. The cinematography is phenomenal. The directors (Lars Jacobson and Amadreep Kaleka) create many very scary scenes and shots throughout the film. For example, there is one scene where Jimmy is hiding in the chicken coop and his mother, on her knees, looks into the chicken coop through the small entrance used by the chickens, and the look on her face and its framing in the doorway was most reminiscent of the classic Jack shot from Kubrick's THE SHINING.Although I strongly recommend everyone watch this movie, we will likely never watch this movie again. The movie was simply too psychologically disturbing for the loving parents of three children to endure once more. This horror is real. There is no slasher, there is no zombie, there is no vampire nor werewolf, that is as real as Mom is in BABY BLUES.As I don't really have a regular rating system that I use to give a film 5 out of 5 stars or whatever, I'll just say whatever rating system you want to use I give it all of them .. 5/5 stars, 10/10 skulls, 5/5 Holy Craps, whatever the case may be. The movie has it all, a great story, great acting, great cinematography, a perfect balance of blood and gore in its kill scenes, and great directing.

This film may remind The Night of the Hunter, not only because of the same theme of a kid fighting an adult and trying to protect siblings, but also for the quality of suspense, directing and acting.There are differences. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is a dangerous fanatic, who is after money. He is full of hate, but not completely insane. So, Colleen Porch, excellent as the mother affected by baby blues, is more to compare to Jack Torrance in The Shining, or the woman in À L'Intérieur (Inside). You can feel the same progression of their tormented mind until the irreversible point where schizophrenia takes over and they plunge into madness.The frightening atmosphere and violence of Haute Tension (High Tension) is also there. Corn fields at night have been used in many films, and here again in a scary chase. There are in fact, many individual elements that have been seen elsewhere, such as Mom breaking the door with a chopper, similar to Jack using an axe in The Shining, and more that I will let you identify easily. But it would be a mistake to think that the director/writer has just stolen ideas from other films of this category. He has made a terrific job, because more than in many of these films, the story is actually believable. It says during the opening that it is based on actual events. It is possible, even if it cannot be the exact story as shown in the film.For all those who enjoyed the masterpieces of terror that I mentioned, and to which it can be compared, I strongly suggest to watch it.