Baby Blood — Baby Blood(Blu Ray)
From the early 90s, Baby Blood is a French film that sits somewhere bloody ‘n’ sleazy exploitation & glum/offbeat drama, with moments of limb-ripping violence, demented body horror, and dark humour. It regards a female circus worker, who gets something strange slipping into her, which slowly but surely starts growing. Here from Studio Canal- as either a Blu-ray or UHD- is a recent(ish) UK debut release of the film, taking in a 4k scan, and new/ archive extras.
Baby Blood( aka The Evil Within) is from the year 1990. It was directed/co-written by Paris-born Alain Robak. Between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, he had a total of four feature-length. The other three take in a porno theatre set crime drama Irena Et Les Ombres(1987), horror-comedy Parano(1994), and prison set comedy The Slammer(2000).
The just under half and a half film opens with pre-credits, where we get stock footage of a roasting volcano & rushing water meeting lava. Over this, we get a voice-over from something that claims to have been on earth since the beginning- weaving its presence through history.
We then move to a decidedly rundown circus set out on some scrub land on the edge of a French city/ town. Here we meet our lead Yanka (Emmanuelle Escourrou) a very downtrodden & pushed around twentysomething brunette, who works as an assistant to the lion tamer. We then get rapidly cut- footage of something rather evil-sounding being transported from the jungle, onto a ship, then on a truck, landing up at our circus- we finally see it’s another lion.
One night, while checking that everything is ok, Yanka's middle-aged, abusive boyfriend Lohman(Christian Sinniger) notices blood dripping from the cages- it’s the new lion, which seems to have literally exploded. Meanwhile, Yanka is lounging in bed nude, and we see a long black worm drop down into her caravan, before squirming its way inside her.
Shortly after this, Yanka throws her clothes in a case- going on somewhat of a travel log- moving from staying in a squat, working in a two-bit café, and driving a cab. All the while, she has an internal dialogue with whatever is growing inside her; from time to time, it begs her to kill a man, so it can gorge on his blood.
Initially, the killings are shown off-screen, though we do get more than a few nude shots of the well-proportioned Escourrou, who does put her all into the role. Much later on, the killings get decidedly gruelling- taking in a kitchen throat-slashing, a decapitation by car, and a down & dirty phone cord strangling.
I’ll have to admit that when I played through the film the first time. I was expecting more OTT splatter-bound gore fest- but really it remains relatively tame for most of its runtime, going nuts in the last twenty or minutes or so.
I think it's fair to say that what we have here is a mix of Frank Henelotter’s Brain Damage(1988) and a glum drama, with light touches of Cronberg’s early body horror films. Baby Blood is just fine, I guess, though there were a few moments that rubbed me the wrong way- like the very whiny/ annoying voice of the creature, and some unbelievable coincidences that push the plot forward.
This new Blu-Ray is region B, and it takes in a 4k scan- this looks nice, with good clarity and depth throughout.
On the new extra side, we only get one thing: The Concepts behind French Horror: Baby Blood(20.12), which finds genre expert/ author Kim Newman discussing the film. He begins by talking about how the picture to hand was very much a mates getting together affair, with lots of nods towards French Horror Fandom. He discusses how great Escourrou is in the film, though also how bad some of the other acting is. He chats about bit part actors who went on to more impressive things. He talks about the film's setting and how there are moments of profoundness in the picture, regarding humans and other creatures. We find out the film got a US release under the title of The Evil Within, which had none other than Gary Oldman voicing the creature- though this was initially heavily cut. We find out the film got a sequel in 2008 called Blood Lady, which found Escourrou returning to her role. So a decent featurette.
On the archive side of things, we get a big selection of things: Two Commentaries- one with director Alain Robak and actress Emmanuelle Escourrou. One with historian Lee Gambin and film critic Jarret Gahan. Interview with director Alain Robak. Interview with Actress Emmanuelle Escourrou. Interview with the director of Photography Bernard Déchet, Interview with the actor Jean-François Gallotte. Interview with actor Christian Sinniger and a Trailer. The finished release comes with four art cards.
In conclusion, I’d say you’ve got to adjust your expectations with Baby Blood- yes, there is gory, but it’s not an all-out splatter fest- instead it’s more of a glum and sleazy exploitation film, with the gore/ body horror elements playing second fiddle. Of course, it’s great to see the film getting this uncut release- with a nice 4k scan, and a good selection of extras.