We all have our inner demons. But what if this demon turns out to be a real monster who speaks to you and asks you to do crimes? ‘Baby Blood,’ which follows a young girl’s road to motherhood, delves into otherworldly elements as the fetus transforms into a bloodthirsty monster. In order to nourish herself, our protagonist commits murders and consumes the blood of her victims.
This film, directed by Alain Robak, is an underappreciated French ‘fantastique’ film that combines horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres. ‘Baby Blood’ is fascinating viewing, with plenty of gore, bloody scenes, and horrible killings that leave one speechless.
It’s Time To Feed The Baby – Baby Blood (1990)
The movie opens with shots of volcanic eruptions and sequences of waves crashing as the narrator comments on the nature of the universe and existence. While the opening credits roll, the screen pans to a human settlement in the middle of plantations. We learn that this group is a traveling circus, and they travel with an entourage of wild animals.
Due to budget constraints, the movie used a real traveling circus based in Nanterre, France, to shoot the circus rehearsal scenes. The crew includes a young girl Bianca, or Yanka, one of the performers. She seems to be dating the circus ringmaster, Lohman, who ill-treats her at times and is an intimidating personality in their crew. As the day progresses, the crew practices their tricks when a special delivery arrives. The crew checks the rare African leopard in a cage.
Yanka goes about her daily schedule when Lohman forces her to practice with the animals. Though nervous, she does not object and does as she is told. When one of the tigers goes rogue, the scared girl runs away. She stumbles upon the delivery man, who tries to make sexual advances toward her. However, Lohman shows up at the scene and puts an end to it. Yanka flees back to her cabin and falls asleep while Lohman lingers around. After a while, he leaves to check up on the animals before turning in for the night. As he makes his way to the leopard’s cage, he finds blood all over it. It appears that something attacked the animal and left the scene bloody.
The crew looks around for the cause of this unusual death while a slimy parasite slithers its way out of the cage. The parasite makes its way inside Yanka’s body in a disturbing turn of events. She wakes up with a start due to the pain and feels sick. She obsessively checks her weight and goes about her daily chores when she feels her condition worsening. It appears that she was already pregnant, and the creature has taken over her fetus. Around 80 women auditioned to play the role of the meek yet strong-willed Yanka before Emmanuelle Escourrou was finally cast.
Planning her escape, Yanka packs a suitcase of clothes and catches a train to the city. Lohman soon follows and tries to locate her in the town. Figuring out her residence, he makes his way to an abandoned building. Yanka appears, and he approaches her as the shot pans to Yanka’s hands, and she is seen holding a knife.
He asks her to come back when she stabs him, and he falls to his knees. The creature seems to control her and instructs her from within. It asks for the man’s blood and asks her to kill him off. It also demands the man’s blood and asks Yanka to drink it so the fetus can keep growing inside her. Since the movie is in French, the English dub for the monster’s voice was done by none other than Gary Oldman.
When she refuses, the creature causes her to fall sick, and she begins to throw up blood. Left without any choice, Yanka follows its instructions and stabs him everywhere. The scene is fascinating, as blood splashes on Yanka and covers her entire body as she keeps stabbing the body. The movie does not shy away from graphic visuals of killing, and the killings are petrifying to watch.
The monster keeps talking to her from within, asking Yanka to keep killing people to feed him. He manipulates her, telling her that he wants to be born. Yanka retaliates and says that she does not want to birth a monster.
A truck driver stops her and asks Yanka to join him as she tries to leave. She gets in the truck, and the young man tries to hit her. As they stop for gas, he tricks Yanka into getting off to change her clothes. Meanwhile, the driver leaves with two different women and leaves her stranded with just her suitcase. The monster speaks to her and sneers over the situation. It seems to rile Bianca up, and the monster manages to talk her into more killing. Some other instances of fetuses turning into monsters can be seen in famous movies such as Rosemary’s baby [1968], Possession [1981], and Demon Seed [1977]
As we move through the second sequence in the movie, we learn that Yanka has settled in Paris and works as a waitress to make ends meet. Due to budget constraints, the entire film was actually shot in and around Paris on a 5-week schedule.
One day, a man visits the cafe, and he seems to have eyes on Yanka and follows her around. However, he appears to be dating the hotel manager simultaneously. Yanka leaves work and walks around, laughing with an evil glint in her eyes. She meets the man for dinner, and they chat for a while over wine before he drops her home. At the gate, the man forces himself on Yanka as the voice from within tells her to attack the man.
The next day, the monster points out a new man on the street. Yanka follows him, attempts to seduce him, and then finally stabs him in the neck as he tries to kiss her. As he falls to the ground, Yanka drinks his blood and then runs away. On closer look, one of the apartment buildings has a poster for ‘Baby Blood 2’, which foreshadows a second part. The sequel was later released under the name ‘Lady Blood’ [2008]
As Yanka returns home, the man from the cafe shows up at her apartment, and Yanka sleeps with him. The following day, the monster tells her to kill the man. It keeps instructing her to do things and drives her to insanity. She asks the voice to stop talking to her, even threatening it with a knife to her stomach.
The commotion wakes the man up, and he tries to comfort her. However, a blood-thirsty Yanka loses control and stabs him with a pair of scissors. As his blood splashes all over Yanka, she continues stabbing him when the doorbell rings. It appears that the hotel manager got suspicious, and she barges inside the house demanding to see her lover. Yanka locks her inside the room and frantically packs her stuff. While the lady comes across the dead body of her lover, Yanka flees the scene as the screen fades to black. When one looks closely, the dog from the famous French movie ‘Baxter’[1989] shows up as a cameo in one of the scenes.
Moving to the next segment, we find that Yanka is now working as a cab driver. She finds a passenger and drives when the monster tells her to attack a civilian. Yanka redirects the route to follow the man and runs the car over him. She finishes the killing by bashing his skulls off with a hammer and drinking his blood to satiate the monster.
By now, it is evident that the monster has managed to put Yanka under its control, as she does not even fight the urge to kill. Yanka turns into a serial killer and goes around committing murders as and when the monster wishes so. The gruesome murders include stabbing, bashing people’s skulls, blowing them up, or even decapitating them, as the blood keeps flowing through the entire course of the film.
Meanwhile, the passenger tries to escape but ends up dying after getting hit by a truck.
Yanka appears to be at ease with the monster, and she seems to have become friends with it. They converse with ease and have bonded over time. As they discuss the creature’s birth, Yanka gets a terrible nightmare about a bloody set of hands erupting out of her body. Her nightmare reflects her worry about the fetus, as she has no clue what form it might take after birth.
Waking up, she struggles to start the car and a man approaches her to offer help. She agrees and ends up throwing up blood all over him. Realizing that she might be in labor, the man calls for a taxi to take her to the hospital. However, Yanka hits the driver and causes an accident. She escapes from the scene, and her vision starts to fade as she collapses. Waking up, she finds herself in an old lady’s house. The lady seems eager to help Yanka give birth and talks her through the birthing process. Yanka patiently listens, before wringing telephone wire through her neck and escaping yet again.
She finds a park and sits on a bench when a child shoots a play gun. The noise wakes the monster and, relieved that the monster is still inside Yanka, she gets some energy. The monster wishes to get to the sea and be set free in the ocean.
The baby creature wants blood one last time and points out toward a blood transfusion truck. Yanka somehow makes her way to it and threatens the staff with a toy gun. She spots a patient getting a transfusion, and snatches away his blood IV. Gulping down the entirety of the blood, she satiates the monster one last time. After scaring off the crew, she drives away in the same truck. The monster keeps talking to her, as she dozes off while driving. It tells Yanka that it is a creature of the sea, and must be released into the ocean from where he will rise one day to take over humanity. She laughs at this and sneers over this story as she drives away.
Meanwhile, the patient in the bus regains consciousness and tries to attack Yanka. The vehicle loses balance and ends up in a crash. Some people call for help, and Yanka is taken away in an ambulance. She does not breathe and seems to be struggling to regain consciousness.
As the shot pans inside Yanka’s body, the monster complains that the body is getting cold and asks her if she is dying. Her heart starts beating again and Yanka quickly attacks the man, blowing his body up with the use of the oxygen mask. As the blood bursts around, the driver stops and checks the cause of the noise, only getting attacked himself. Yanka is determined to not let anything, or anyone witness the birth, as she seems to have concerns regarding the form of the fetus inhabiting her womb.
She makes herself comfortable inside the bloody ambulance, as the monster says “it’s time”. She gives birth to a seemingly normal child that clings to her and seems to have no monster-like tendencies. She flees the scene with her child and steals a wagon. She escapes with the child, asking it to speak to her and talk to her. As the car stops at a gas station, Yanka gets down to look for a mechanic as the child starts crying. The child is seemingly ordinary, and all signs of monstrosity seem to have disappeared.
She finds a mechanic and waits for him to accompany her. Meanwhile, the vehicle starts shaking violently. It appears that the child was waiting for Yanka to leave, and is now transforming into its real self. Hearing the cries from the vehicle, a young man checks upon the child. However, the monster sucks him in and attacks the man. Eating his body, the creature devours its first human killing, as the monster escapes the child’s body and leaves behind its human shell.
Yanka witnesses the scene from afar and tries to find an escape. She comes across a bus full of football players and requests the driver to let her ride with them. The players harass her when a strange creature attacks the driver. It appears that the monster has returned, and it kills the driver in a gruesome sequence while Yanka takes control of the bus. As the shot pans out, the bus explodes and Yanka’s fate is left ambiguous.
The movie ends with the monster’s point of view as it reaches the beach and finally fulfills t’s wish of being set free in the ocean.
Why should you watch Baby Blood?
Including monstrous creatures, strange phenomena and plenty of killings, ‘Baby Blood’ has everything to offer in a supernatural horror movie. The film is packed with graphic scenes full of blood and gore as every new killing overdoes the last, and is not for the faint-hearted. Along with the gruesome murders, the movie has a solid plot line and terrific acting performances, making it a thrilling package. With a runtime of 84 minutes, the movie’s disturbing visuals and gripping screenplay keeps one hooked until the very end. If you enjoy gore and tales of supernatural monsters,‘Baby Blood’ is a must-watch!