It's hard to write about comedy and be interesting. So much of comedy is tone and context, and just retelling the jokes always falls flat. And Hell Baby is first and foremost a comedy. It certainly has horror elements, but there is no doubt that comedy comes first - and it succeeds on that front. It was definitely funny - although like all spoofs, it kind of loses steam as it goes. For some reason, the set-up in these things is almost always better than the payoff. But ultimately, it's the best horror spoof since - Club Dread? It doesn't have much serious competition for that title... but it's pretty solid nonetheless. (To be fair, some of the lists I checked out called Shaun of the Dead, Scream, Cabin in the Woods, etc. spoofs - in my eyes, those are more horror/comedy or meta-horror.)
Although comedy is always subjective - more so than horror I'd say. Horror is more primal/reactionary - you don't have as much say in what disturbs you. The cover art for Hell Baby says "From the Creators of Reno 911," so if you are into that dry, semi-improv, post-modern type of sketch comedy (as I am), I think you'll find a lot to like. But if that's not your bag, there certainly isn't much that would please the average horror fan, as it's not really scary, there is very little tension, and any gore is pretty much played up for laughs.
Hell Baby centers around the ultra-pregnant couple Vanessa (Leslie Bibb) and Jack (Rob Corddry) as they move into a run down home that they got on the cheap, which happens to be the most haunted place in New Orleans. Welcoming them (and living in their crawlspace) is F'resnel (Keegan-Micheal Key), who plays the harbinger role and essentially tells them the history of the house. (No murders in the last "calendar year," so that's nice.) Things start going wrong for the couple right away - sketchy characters lurking around, boxes getting mysteriously stacked, a creepy dog that shows up and vanishes... eventually the house possesses Vanessa, and presumably (we can infer from the title) the child in utero. After a violent act by Vanessa, the Vatican gets wind of it and sends two exorcists to take on the demon. Father Sebastian and Father Padrigo are played by directors Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon as priests by way of mob hitmen, talking in ridiculous Italian accents, smoking constantly, and easily prone to acts of violence.
It doesn't sound all that funny, but it's all in the delivery - and it's obvious that the cast here has the experience to make it work. Nearly every actor in this film is recognizable from some sketch comedy show. And really, everyone hits their marks and succeeds in the limited amount of time they have on screen. By necessity, some need to play it straighter than others, but even then it works on a comedic level. Kumail Nanjiani probably got the biggest laughs from me of anyone, and he is in a small supporting role. I don't think he ever even says one thing that could be a proper joke one it's own, but thanks to the set-up and clever writing he had me cracking up.
Some of the comedy does definitely skew towards the raunchy/lowbrow side of things. I ended up with the "unrated" version, so I can't say for certain what was in the R-rated version, but I'd still imagine it wouldn't be anything you'd want to watch with your mom. Or my mom, at least. You've got some gross-out sex jokes and some bodily-fluid humor (beware if you have trouble with vomiting in movies) - although I'm glad they exercised some restraint on the pregnancy/birth stuff. But it's mixed in with some pretty not-stupid stuff too. I can't explain any examples without losing you - so I won't. Trust me.
On the horror-front though, it pretty much falls flat. And to be fair, it never really tries to succeed there. Other than the central idea, there is very little that one would even call scary. There is some over the top gore that is almost always played for laughs, some jump scares that eventually just turn to jokes (I think nearly every scene F'resnel is in he is introduced with a loud music-sting), and even some camera shots where you know something is will be popping up to frighten the audience. But Hell Baby is more interested in using those genre trappings as fodder for humor rather than making anything scary. And really, they are interested in spoofing *all* movie standards - you get some good montage jokes, some good action send-ups, some good movie-cop-related humor - as a spoof, it definitely succeeds.
Ultimately, it's a solid comedy that does exactly what it needs to. It brings the laughs for the full runtime and never overstays it's welcome. There isn't an awful lot by way of drama or character building, but I don't think you would expect that out of a movie called Hell Baby.
I would recommend this film.
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