This nasty and offensive little horror film centres around a woman with postnatal depression. The depression gets worse, she has a psychotic breakdown, then tries to murder all her children.
At one point we see her stab to death one of her little boys with the handle of a mirror, blood splashing onto her face. Child death in horror movies is always a difficult issue, but it can be done well and avoid the exploitative edge this film delivers.
Leading actor Colleen Porch really goes for it with the craziness (plenty of bulging eyes), but she can’t escape the distasteful approach writer and co-director Lars Jacobson brings to the film.
There are some rather crude Stephen King references – the most obvious nods are to Children of the Corn and, in the film’s final act, The Shining – but these just make sure the audience is fully aware how devoid of quality this picture is.
For some reason the film’s original US title Baby Blues was dropped for UK release, and changed to Cradle Will Fall. I have no idea why. Perhaps the distributors felt such a direct reference to postnatal depression in the title of a gory horror flick was a stop too far. To be honest, the film is so sickeningly horrid anyway I don’t think it makes much difference. Thank god it’s only 74 minutes long.
Cradle Will Fall (2008), directed by Lars Jacobson and Amardeep Kaleka, is released on DVD by G2 Pictures, Certificate 18.
