The Hell Baby has arrived and its parents could not be more petrified! Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb play first-time ‘rents that move into a rundown New Orleans home with hopes of fixing it up for their darling new arrival. When mom becomes possessed by something that is haunting the home, their joy turns to jolts of… hilarity?
Well, when one learns that the film Hell Baby is from the comedic minds that brought us Reno 911 and the Night at the Museum movies (Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant), it’s easy to see how.
Hell Baby is not for everyone. Its humor is razor sharp and geared directly at those who enjoy Lennon and Garant’s brand of comedy, as seen in the movie Reno 911: Miami. For those who cherish their brand of silliness, it is a non-stop laugh fest from beginning to end.
The filmmakers also star as a pair of chain-smoking priests who are sent to New Orleans to investigate the house. They're a quite serious pair, who garner a slew of laughs from their wickedly dead-on Italian and Spanish accents.
But, the humor largely arrives from the man who plays Corddry and Bibb’s next door neighbor. Keegan Michael Key steals every scene he is in, and has a blast popping in on his neighbors at the most inappropriate times. Often, it is the jump out of your seat moment one would expect from a horror movie. But in Hell Baby, it is played for humor and it works. Key is killing it on Comedy Central with the Key and Peele show and we predict a huge future for this improv-savvy comic.
As seen in the Hell Baby trailer, the film could be a one-note joke. But instead, and again for those who appreciate their humor -- which this writer does -- it is a Godsend… or is it a gift from hell? It is clear that the actors and actresses had a script to work from, but with a cast of improv experts, including Rob Huebel as a local cop who could not be more clueless, they continually riff and the beneficiary is the audience.
The whole film, as can be told from its title, culminates in the birth of the couple’s child. And boy is that little baby vicious. It arrives with nothing but canine teeth and an arrow-shaped tail and immediately wreaks havoc. The same thing could be said about Hell Baby as a whole. Our Hell Baby review finds it is viciously funny, as sharp as nails and will slay you with its haunted horror-skewing humor.