''Hell Baby'' is a 2013 American

horror-comedy Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary genre, literary, television genre, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, paro ...

film written and directed by

Robert Ben Garant Robert Ben Garant, credited earlier in his career as Ben Garant, is an American screenwriter, producer, director, comedian and actor. He has a long professional relationship with Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver from their time on the ske ...

and

Thomas Lennon Thomas Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'', Andrei Novak on '' Santa Clarita Diet'' and Felix Unger on '' The Odd Couple''. He is the screenw ...

. It 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, 1973) is an American actress and model. Bibb began her career with minor roles in television, including the crime drama series '' The Big Easy'' (1997). For her role as Brooke McQueen on the WB Network teen ...

Keegan-Michael Key Keegan-Michael Key (born March 22, 1971) is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He and Jordan Peele co-created and co-starred in the sketch series '' Key & Peele'' (2012–2015) for which he received one Primetime Emmy Award from ...

Riki Lindhome Erika "Riki" Lindhome (born ) is an American actress, comedian and musician. She is best known as a singer and songwriter for the Comedy rock, comedy folk duo Garfunkel and Oates with Kate Micucci. After making her television debut in 2002 with ...

Rob Huebel Robert Anderson Huebel (born June 4, 1969) is an American comedian and actor. He is 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 comedian, actor, filmmaker, and podcaster. Scheer is best known for his roles in FX/ FXX's ''The League'' and Showtime's comedy series '' Black Monday''. Scheer also co-created and s ...

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

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

on January 20, 2013. It was made available on VOD beginning 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 from a screenplay by William Peter Blatty, based on The Exorcist (novel), his 1971 novel. The film stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Jason Miller (play ...

''. The Vatican sends ghost hunters Father Padrigo and Father Sebastian to deal with the situation. Vanessa's Wiccan Sister Marjorie also joins her and Jack, and tries to break the curse on the house with her spell-craft ritual acts of magic. All three fail when, after a normal baby is born to Vanessa, a demonic horned baby is also born. The baby attacks and in the ensuing gory carnage Marjorie, two policemen, and Father Padrigo die, before Jack kills the demon baby with a floor lamp.

Cast

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, 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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 33% 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, it 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 San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial D ...

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. It is updated several times a day, with en ...

'' reported that the movie was acquired by

Millennium Films A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, 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 p ...

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

References

External links

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