Here is another terrifically obscure Lamberto Bava flick. Horror runs deep in the Bava family. I picked up this film precisely due to a small part of the description on the back side of the DVD that caught my attention. I quote: "...and his behavior (the baby‘s) in the presence of her (the mother‘s) naked body is bizarrely inappropriate.” But when I looked closer and discovered that Bava had written and directed this I was confident that I was strapping in for a strange trip! (There is even a scene where a black girl has her period while walking down the stairs. First for me!)

Mark and Stacey are two young lovers thrust deep into a remote farm in South Africa. The first things that stuck out was the excellent cinematography and the high quality acting by everyone in the cast. Their relationship is cut short when Mark has a car accident. Now, twenty minutes into the movie, the characterization build up pays off when Mark haunts his love in creepy, genuinely scary manifestations. We are close to the drama in the film and I was excited when we become aware that Stacey is pregnant.

Now I seriously do not understand the title of this movie. If the child was conceived while Mark was alive then he is not a ghost son. And if Mark’s ghost impregnated Stacey, which appears to be the case, for we see him rape her in ghost form; then the child is still not a ghost because he is physically present, visible, tangible, and as we see later, grows into a boy. Now I don’t have a masters in ghost stuff but I don’ t believe ghosts age. The only explanation (which still defies the title) is that Mark’s ghost haunts Stacey and possesses the baby to do his evil bidding.

Now comes the cool freakish baby scenes. One time Stacey is breast-feeding the baby and he bites down on her nipple and causes her to bleed. Cool(!), but baby’s don’t have teeth(???) My personal favorite is when baby is taking a shower with mom and he reaches down to grab and squeeze her boob! The baby creeps her out all the time. I also enjoyed a scene where the baby is playing hide and go seek in sinister fashion. Once it starts to sink in you realize that the evil baby subgenre still delights us all.

I was expecting a good climax but that did not happen. I don’t really want to ruin it for you but the evil is dispelled in a cheap cop-out way. They should have made the ending a blast, or at least worthy of the rest of the film. Who knows what they were thinking? I recommend this movie for the creepy horny baby, if that happens to be your cup of tea. Like I said I loved the ride until the ending ruined a lot of the thrill. This could have been an above average film. Now it’s average . That’s how severely a bad ending can harm a movie.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez