''Hell Baby'' is a 2013 American

horror-comedy Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

film written and directed by

Robert Ben Garant Robert Ben Garant (born September 14, 1970), credited earlier in his career as Ben Garant, is an American screenwriter, producer, director, actor and comedian. He has a long professional relationship with Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver ...

and

Thomas Lennon Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'' Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...

. The film stars

Rob Corddry Robert William Corddry (born February 4, 1971) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a correspondent on ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' (2002–2006) and for his starring role in the film ''Hot Tub Time Machine''. He ...

Leslie Bibb Leslie Louise Bibb (born November 17, 1974) is an American actress and model. Bibb first appeared on television in 1996 with minor roles in a few series, and on film in 1997 with a small role in '' Private Parts''. Her first recurring TV role wa ...

Keegan-Michael Key Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He co-created and co-starred alongside Jordan Peele in Comedy Central's sketch series ''Key & Peele'' (2012–2015) and co-starred in USA Netw ...

Riki Lindhome Erika "Riki" Lindhome (born March 5, 1979) is an American actress, comedian, and musician. She is best known as a singer and songwriter for the comedy folk duo Garfunkel and Oates. After making her television debut in 2002 with minor roles in t ...

Rob Huebel Robert Anderson Huebel (born June 4, 1969) is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series ''Human Giant'' and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series ''Childrens Hospital''. He ...

, and

Paul Scheer Paul Christian Scheer (born January 31, 1976) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster. Scheer is a SAG award-winning actor known for his roles in Showtime's comedy series ''Black Monday'' and FX/ FXX's ''The L ...

. Writer-directors Garant and Lennon also co-star as a pair of priests. The film premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

on January 20, 2013. The film is available on VOD beginning on July 25, 2013 before its theatrical release on September 6, 2013.

Plot

An expectant couple move into a haunted fixer-upper in New Orleans. There, they encounter a neighbour named F'resnel who tells them about the bloody history of their house. Vanessa and her husband, Jack, exhibiting a certain carelessness in their house hunting, buy a foreboding wreck of a place in New Orleans that the local residents have given demonic nicknames like "House of Blood". Vanessa is already extremely pregnant when they move in, and soon she is talking like Regan from ''

The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...

''. The Vatican sends ghost hunters, Father Padrigo and Father Sebastian.

Cast

Reception

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Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 31% based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 4.43/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Though its brand of immature comedy may appeal to some, ''Hell Baby'' misses the mark with much of its humor, rendering it a largely ineffective -- and often crass -- genre sendup." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 41 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". ''Badass Digest'' called the movie "silly, lowbrow, and funny."

CraveOnline Mandatory (formerly CraveOnline Media) is a lifestyle website based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The site is owned by media company Evolve Media, LLC. Mandatory focuses its contents into the male- ...

called it a "triumph of independence" and a "genuinely hilarious farce." TheDissolve said, "Hell Baby falls unmistakably on the "comedy" side of the horror-comedy divide. It isn't overly concerned with being scary, just with delivering a steady stream of laughs." ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...

'' reported that the movie was acquired by

Millennium Films A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...

for U.S. Distribution and was slated to be released in the Fall of 2013.

References

External links

* {{Robert Ben Garant 2010s English-language films 2013 films 2013 comedy horror films American comedy horror films Demons in film Films about exorcism Films directed by Robert Ben Garant Films set in New Orleans American supernatural horror films American pregnancy films 2013 comedy films American haunted house films 2010s American films