The Baby Snatcher (aka Maternal Hell) is a slow burn psychological thriller with more of a soap opera/drama edge to it than your typical horror movie.
The film follows two best mates in a synchronous pregnancy. Whilst initially things are apple pie, sunshine and rainbows, things begin to take a dark turn when one of the couples miss carry. From here the mental state of the grieving mother declines, and whilst the film doesn’t quite infer it until the end, its quite obvious her deteriorating behaviours is going to culminate in her wanting to steal – or snatch if you will – her mate’s baby, hence the title.
As the film progresses, we do learn a little bit about her back story, but ill be honest and say it’s a little ham-fisted in its approach, but equally I got the sentiment. That said, considering the harrowing nature of dealing with a miscarriage I’m not sure it needed the additional sub-plot; but either way the film is a little bit mixed in its tone with regards to dealing with complex issues such as alcoholism, spousal abuse and of course the deeply traumatic psychological impact of a miscarriage.
The fact that these themes are sandwiched between a psycho killer pastiche doesn’t help matters either.
The film opens rather bizarrely as a young girl eats ice-cream whilst watching her house burn – the fake CGI flames perhaps not making the best first impression, from here we jump around a bit in time, first to a ‘present’ time, then to 8 months prior. Its not too disorientating, just that you sort of forget the snippets you get before the film settles into its main narrative. Only to be reminded later in the movie as its exposition begins to neatly close the loops.
The characters are ok, reasonably relatable, and as things stand in the first half of the movie you’ve basically just got two pregnant couples; and they want you to know how happy they are. Dependent on your tolerance for cliched soap drama dialogue and loved up sentiment, you’ll likely find it workable, with some decent performances carrying the movie forwards.
This in spite of a rather lacking script. Phrases like “don’t fuck with a pregnant woman” including something resembling a wince – that’s one up from cringey groan, really stick in the mind; none of the characters escape this curse either, and despite the actors’ best efforts they all have their moment to spout cliched and vapid lines undermining some of the films more poignant moments.
The film doesn’t have much violence, but I will accept that the change of pace and tone towards the end of the movie was welcome. Once the slasher component begins to be more prominent there are some little twists and revelations which kept my interest to the end.
Overall, however, the films low quality CGI opening really doesn’t do this movie any favours, however, battling a consistently cringy and clunky script decent performances by the cast elevates this movie to a point where I’d say it has its moments. The star of the show, the titular baby snatcher (played by Jen Taylor) who actually manages to carry off an at times un-nerving performance, however inconceivable, all in spite of the film less commendable technical aspects.
