PopHorror Let's Get Scared
“Baby Blue, Baby Blue, Don’t Look Back, Mommy’s Behind You…”
Possessions, demonic curses, and ghosts make for some great movies, but do I believe in them? Nope. The thought of something so terrible happening in a particular place that it leaves energy behind seems arbitrary to me. I mean, bad stuff has happened everywhere, and where are all the animal or bug ghosts? Wouldn’t every SPCA be haunted then if that were the case?
That being said, I don’t allow Ouija boards in my home, I’m not making reservations at The Cecil, and ‘it’s a no for me dog’ on visiting the Warrens’ Occult Museum. I’m in no rush to be demonstrated wrong, and I’m settled with covering my bases here.
However, I do love the stories about the world of paranormal horror, so when I found Baby Blue (2023) trending with glowing positive reviews, I threw it on and was thoroughly surprised.
Let’s see that indie horror poster!
Baby Blue (2023) Synopsis
A group of teens stumble across the story of now-dead serial killer Baby Blue and decide he’d be the perfect subject of a true crime vodcast. But when they start digging, they quickly discover that his murder spree never stopped. Now they are being targeted from beyond the grave.
Baby Blue is a supernatural horror thriller. Co-written with Simon Boyes and directed by Adam Mason (The Devil’s Chair 2007) The film stars Aramis Knight (Enders Game 2013), Ally Loannides (Synchronic 2019), Cyrus Arnold (Mr. Harrigan’s Phone 2022), Lia Mchugh (The Lodge 2019), Dylan Sprayberry (Teen Wolf 2017), Khylin Rhambo (47 Meters Down: Uncaged 2019), and Anthony Turpel (Play Dead 2022). It was distributed by XYZ Films.
The Setup
Jay Jay and his siblings Alice and August, aka Beans, want to be real filmmakers. After failing to go viral creating prank videos, they make a last-ditch effort in the true crime vodcast department.
Alice recalls the trending story of the suicide at the Redmont, where cc tv catches Kelvin Jones running from something or someone. He’s attacked by something supernatural in an elevator, then Kelvin ends up walking off the roof, seemingly possessed. Jay, Alice, and Beans agree to cover the story respectively for Kelvin – and for the views.
While doing research for their vodcast, they track down Kelvin’s girlfriend Joy who advises them if they want to stay alive, they shouldn’t look into what Kelvin was messing around with, otherwise Baby Blue will come for you.
Turns out, Bradley – or Baby Blue, as Mama coined him, had the ominous distinction of being one of the youngest serial killers. Rather than being caught, Baby Blue films his suicide on a cell phone which went missing immediately after the incident. Urban legend has it, if you view the video you become the victim of a demonic curse and kill yourself.
“It can’t be cursed, it’s an iPhone video” ~Jay Jay
While retracing Kelvin’s final moments at the Redmont building, Jay and Alice uncover a hidden section in the rundown building under the floorboards. There they discover a cell phone that contains Baby Blue’s suicide. Naturally, after Beans watches the video, he rapidly begins experiencing Baby Blue threatening to possess and kill him, Jay, and Alice.
The crew is forced to find a way to end the curse while digging up more of the story, confronting Baby Blue and his past.
The Payoff
Kudos to the director and co-writer Adam Mason for making a pretty clean movie with what had to be a small budget. Baby Blue looked and sounded legit.
Baby Blue accomplishes comedic breaks without stalling the suspense and without coming off tacky. The young actors really held the movie which was pretty much a recycled plot. Their acting and dialogue flowed perfectly.
The film even pokes fun at itself by being self-aware of the plot being similar to “that Naomi Watts film,” The Ring. In a tight 90-minute runtime there are plenty of bloody deaths, twisted characters, dark sequences, and a pretty nice twist in the third act.
Director Adam Mason said that this film is “a love letter to the kind of books and movies I grew up loving, particularly the Stephen King novels that I loved so much as a teenager. It felt like no one was making those kinds of films for the YA market, and the teenage me would be really missing out today. That’s why I wanted to make Baby Blue.”
Baby Blue (2023) Final Thoughts
Baby Blue was a thrilling, gratifying watch. Great pacing, unbearing comedic timing with a firm understanding of using gore on a tight budget. Imagine If Superbad met Nightmare on Elm St, you’d rent that, wouldn’t you? Well good news, you can watch for free on Tubi today and hopefully have as much fun as we did watching and talking about Baby Blue.
Check out the trailer below!
