Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Spider One
Starring: Brandon Scott, Krsy Fox, Sierra McCormick, Jordan Elsass, Catherine Corcoran
Since making the move from music to filmmaking, Spider One has become quite the prolific writer/director, with four movies now under his belt since his 2021 debut Allegoria. Like his older brother Rob Zombie, Spider One likes to cast his romantic partner in his lead roles, and luckily for him Krsy Fox is a highly talented actress. Big Baby is the lightest in tone of the couple's collaborations to date, though it brushes up against the domestic abuse theme of their previous films Bury the Bride and Little Bites.
Big Baby is the latest horror movie centred on a troubled writer. In such films the writer is usually at a low point in their career and dogged by writer's block. That's not the case with horror screenwriter Adam (Brandon Scott). His career is on the rise, with his latest movie performing well commercially, and he has a fully supportive girlfriend in Kate (Fox). But Adam insists on torturing himself by reading reviews and listening to podcast discussions of his work, desperate for critical acclaim to go along with his commercial success. After having his latest movie brutally torn apart by a pair of a-hole podcasters who go so far as to recommend he kill himself, Adam goes to bed in a huff.
That night Adam has a vivid dream in which he sees a hulking man in a horrific baby mask butcher Kate in their bed with a large axe. Discussing the dream with Kate the next morning, Adam decides to take Kate's advice and begin writing a screenplay centred around the villainous "Big Baby." While changing the bedclothes, Adam is horrified to find the sheets are torn at just the point where the axe landed in his dream. When Adam later witnesses a young woman being murdered by Big Baby behind a convenience store, he realises his nightmare has made its way into his reality.
In the title baddy, Spider One has created a potential franchise-carrying villain, one with a distinctive look. But unlike say, Freddy Kreuger or Candyman, the rules around Big Baby aren't made clear enough. There's too much confusion regarding whether Adam is controlling Big Baby through his writing or Big Baby is controlling Adam's writing. Adam is visited by his fictional characters who beg him not to write their deaths, and when he pens a bloody scene it's visualised as though part of a cheesy slasher movie. These vignettes are entertaining and feature some fun kills, but it's never established whether we're simply watching these scenes play out in Adam's mind or in a reality where Adam's words have real life consequences. When the question of whether Big Baby actually exists outside of Adam's imagination is finally answered it only raises more frustrating questions.
It's a shame a little more thought wasn't put into tightening up the logistics of Big Baby's eponymous villain, as the movie has plenty going for it. Spider One skilfully shifts his film from light horror-comedy into something darker and more psychological without any tonal whiplash. It's a transition his leading man Scott also pulls off with aplomb, with Adam beginning the movie as a bit of a sad sack and ending it as a genuinely disturbing figure. Spider One wisely takes the time to establish the relationship between Adam and Kate, and the two actors' chemistry creates the feeling that we're watching a couple that have been together for a long time. Kate's girl next door persona is a refreshing change from the usual trophy wife characters with whom such movies like to saddle their writer protagonists. That we quickly grow to like Adam and Kate early on means we're invested in caring about them when things get really dark in the final act.
