HBO’s new horror-comedy series makes something menacing out of what is usually depicted as a bundle of joy.
“He’ll bulldoze your life, destroy your relationships, and when he’s got you completely to himself: he’ll destroy you. It’s what he does,” says a wizened older lady to Natasha, a thirty-eight-year-old woman who, in a strange series of events, has a baby literally drop into her arms. Despite his chubby face and cute yellow boots, the baby in question is destructive on an extreme scale; he is a murderous demon slaying anyone who crosses him, gleefully giggling after each kill.
“The Baby” also stars Amira Ghazala as a 73-year-old woman who’s following the baby, and Amber Grappy as Natasha’s sister Bobbi, who desperately wants a child of her own. The story originates from a small army of British women. Together they delve into the horrors of a subject few would dare touch: being a mother can be horrifying.
When the show begins, Natasha enjoys poker nights with her two best friends, but one announces she is pregnant and the other is called into motherhood by a crying infant. Thinking she needs some time to herself, Natasha rents a seaside cabin; however, her respite is short-lived. As she watches the sudden death of a woman falling from the cliff overhead, her outstretched arms catch a falling baby, who takes a liking to Natasha.
Soon, Natasha cannot rid herself of the infant. She finds him, or his murderous trail, everywhere she goes. A mysterious elderly lady wants to help Natasha but is secretive about what her connection to the baby is.
As is so often the case in horror, the series takes the deeply personal reality of motherhood and throws it off a cliff; the commendable experience of becoming a mother turns into a story about a baby who will not grant its caretaker a moment of sleep and kills anyone who gets in the way. Even the dog.
The Baby is part of a current trend of film, TV, and literature laying bare the difficult, shocking reality of motherhood. What we are witnessing now on the cinema screen is the broader, more realistic spectrum of motherhood from pregnancy, labor, birth and then the all-encompassing, life-long experience of raising a child.
“He’ll bulldoze your life, destroy your relationships, and when he’s got you completely to himself: he’ll destroy you. It’s what he does,” says a wizened older lady to Natasha, a thirty-eight-year-old woman who, in a strange series of events, has a baby literally drop into her arms. Despite his chubby face and cute yellow boots, the baby in question is destructive on an extreme scale; he is a murderous demon slaying anyone who crosses him, gleefully giggling after each kill.
“The Baby” also stars Amira Ghazala as a 73-year-old woman who’s following the baby, and Amber Grappy as Natasha’s sister Bobbi, who desperately wants a child of her own. The story originates from a small army of British women. Together they delve into the horrors of a subject few would dare touch: being a mother can be horrifying.
When the show begins, Natasha enjoys poker nights with her two best friends, but one announces she is pregnant and the other is called into motherhood by a crying infant. Thinking she needs some time to herself, Natasha rents a seaside cabin; however, her respite is short-lived. As she watches the sudden death of a woman falling from the cliff overhead, her outstretched arms catch a falling baby, who takes a liking to Natasha.
Soon, Natasha cannot rid herself of the infant. She finds him, or his murderous trail, everywhere she goes. A mysterious elderly lady wants to help Natasha but is secretive about what her connection to the baby is.
As is so often the case in horror, the series takes the deeply personal reality of motherhood and throws it off a cliff; the commendable experience of becoming a mother turns into a story about a baby who will not grant its caretaker a moment of sleep and kills anyone who gets in the way. Even the dog.
The Baby is part of a current trend of film, TV, and literature laying bare the difficult, shocking reality of motherhood. What we are witnessing now on the cinema screen is the broader, more realistic spectrum of motherhood from pregnancy, labor, birth and then the all-encompassing, life-long experience of raising a child.
