Movie Review: Hell Baby

The manically absurd comedy that Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon made the most of on Reno 911! is once again on display in the duo’s co-directorial feature film debut, the horror-comedy Hell Baby. While Hell Baby may suffer from a meandering and muddied plot, it occasionally manages to entertain on a sophomoric level that assures it a place in the pantheon of cult comedies that are impossible to defend, but easily watchable when they pop up on late night television.

Hell Baby tells the story of Jack (Rob Corddry) and Vanessa (Leslie Bibb), an expectant couple who have just moved into the most haunted house in New Orleans. Things go from bad to worse when it becomes apparent that a demon has designs on Jack and Vanessa’s unborn child. With the situation so dire, only the elite exorcism team sent by the Vatican (Garant and Lennon) has any chance of saving the day.

The biggest problem the film has is how incredibly uneven it feels. For instance, a brilliant scene involving the methodical stylized eating of Po-boys goes on far too long (only to be repeated later on) and is followed by a far less funny sequence, a pattern that is repeated numerous times throughout. Add to this the overall meandering plot and you’ve got a recipe for an unwatchable mess. Yet, as awful as some of the film may be, that very horridness turns out to be Hell Baby’s ace in the hole.

Garant and Lennon (who also wrote the film) have said that Hell Baby is the film that is one-hundred percent their sensibility, more so than any of the other films they’ve written (either separately or as a team). It’s obvious that they’re committed to the film and that kind of earnest love of a product (regardless of its quality) is infectious and you may find yourself unwittingly laughing at some of the more absurd and unfunny jokes. This cult film magic is best shown in the energetic performances of every single member of the cast. You would be hard pressed to find an actor who doesn’t seem to be having fun here; apparently oblivious to the bad movie they’re in. Best of the lot is Keegan Michael Key who plays Jack and Vanessa’s noisy neighbor F’resnel. There isn’t a scene that Key is in that he doesn’t dominate. Corddry also manages to provide some great moments as the bewildered straight man who is just trying to figure out why his pregnant wife is suddenly drinking paint thinner cocktails.

Keegan Michael Key in “Hell Baby.” © 2013 – Gravitas Ventures.

By no stretch of the imagination is Hell Baby a good movie. Many scenes go on far too long and the third act feels shoehorned into the rest of the film. Yet, while there are numerous moments of disjointed unevenness with the jokes and pacing in Hell Baby, there are enough instances of sublime zaniness that those shortcomings can occasionally be overlooked. Consequently, and this can’t be stressed enough, as long as you don’t think too much about it, Hell Baby can be a surprisingly entertaining comedy of the cult variety; which may be exactly the point.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com

An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

@miketyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

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