The Cradle (2007) is a made for television movie, directed by Tim Brown
Genre: Suspense, horror
Main Cast
Lucas Haas - Frank
Emily Hampshire - Julie
Amanda Smith - Helen
The plot
The basic premise of the story is that of a young couple with a small baby who live out in the middle of nowhere with one creepy old lady who is their neighbor. The wife has postpartum depression and is incapable of taking care of her own child most of the time. Besides the postpartum depression, she seems more ill than that. The baby, Sam, is an adorable baby who is also sick. Yet, every time Frank wants to take the baby to the doctor Julie pleads with him not to. Frank is more or less left alone to take care of the baby and care for his strange behaving wife.
Frank begins to lose it and starts having strange nightmares all revolving around horrible things happening to the baby. Later he finds that there is a terrible spirit of a little girl who was buried alive on the premises and she is haunting his wife and child and he alone must save them.
My thoughts
I have to say that I found this movie chilling. I read up on the reviews and found that some people said the movie was too slow. It was a slow paced movie, but I feel if the plot doesn’t build slowly in a horror movie, you really do not get the full impact and the spine chilling feeling that comes with the story as it unfolds. I think it was well done, as it captured my emotions the way a horror film should.
The scene that got me the most was when Frank decided to do the washing with an old fashion ringer washer and leaves the baby by the washer to ask if the wife had any more laundry to do. We see the blanket that the baby is covered in get tangled in the ringers and by the time Frank gets back the baby is gone. Frank frantically checked the washer thinking the baby had fallen in. My heart was in my throat. The suspense was wonderful. Then I was relieved to find out that Frank was having a nightmare.
At this point I thought maybe Frank was feeling as incompetent a parent as his wife, but the he began having more and more nightmares all involving the baby getting hurt and he was not the source of the hurting the baby, it was his wife.
What I find strange about the movie is that Frank did not go to the doctor with his baby and latter with his wife who seemed to be getting sicker all the time. Instead he goes to the neighbor, Helen, to ask if she would baby sit.
This woman is really weird, when Frank comes by with the baby she screams to get the baby out of her sight. We then learn that she was a midwife and every baby died from her hands. She is convinced she has a curse.
From there we get into the evil that is haunting this poor family as it unravels until the very end. Do not expect me to spoil the end for you; you must see it for yourself.
Suffice to say that I did enjoy the movie and I do recommend it.
