Customer Reviews

The Cradle

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Don't let the cover art fool you...this is NOT a horror movie, it borders on being a HORRIBLE movie instead. A psychological drama is more like it, with a dark look at post partem depression, guilt, and denial. Lukas Haas plays a young father who moves his wife and infant son to a rural house to help her get over her PPD. His only neighbor is a ditzy woman who isnt the least bit interested in being neighborly, but has a dark secret of her own.
While the ingredients could have made for a compelling movie, Tim Browns direction is so lethargic nothing ever really gels or creates true terror. Most of the movie is spent in checking to see if the baby is alive or not crying. Haas is weak in a difficult role while Emily Hampshire's performance as the wife is monotonous; Amanda Smith as the strange neighbor gives an adequate performance. Not really suspenseful and mostly just dull and tedious.

...If you have to think through a movie. This is actually a pretty good ghost story. True, this couple keeps checking the baby, but that's not all there is to it. There is a reason for this. This is one of those movies that gradually comes together and forms an interesting story. The ending has impact even though presented in a subtle way, and makes you think back to things throughout the movie and you just say something like, "Oh wow, I see". It does take a bit for the story to get going, so you have to be patient and just pay attention. All that said, the acting and directing is way above average. If you are just looking for blood and gore, maniacs wielding knives or chainsaws, people abducted and tied up, nudity, or any of that heavy action horror stuff, you won't find it here.

The title of my review comes from what seems about the only dialogue in this movie which is the husband constantly, irritatingly calling his wife's name, which is, of course, Julie. I should have heeded the opinions of the other 2 reviewers, but had already rented the movie so decided to give it a chance. I wasted almost 2 hours of my life here. Except for a few, (VERY FEW), creepy moments, this was one of the slowest, dullest movies I've seen. Don't waste your time.

I just don't understand why they continue over and over again taking a really good storyline and turning it into total trash.

Alright, let's sum up this movie in a few short simple words:

All three of the characters in this movie had problems. The mother had post-partum depression making it extremely difficult for her to take care of her baby, the father kept having nightmares and hallucinations and was WAY too concerned for his baby like *constantly* and it got annoying real quick, and the old lady that was the neighbor kept living in the past believing an evil spirit (her dead sister) was making her pay for her sins.

I feel sorry for the baby the most. That poor baby had to put up with parents that were either too young to handle the responsibility of having a baby, or were too screwed up mentally to handle taking care of a child.

So basically everyone had severe problems, and the poor baby is the one who suffers the most from all this.

Another major MAJOR problem with the movie is that the first hour was absolutely BORING. That's more than half of the movie right there. Unless you actually think a guy constantly walking back and forth between his house and his neighbors farm as he shares some short and simple words with his unusual neighbor with no unsettling atmosphere in sight is supposed to be scary.

The movie had a few moments that were good, such as when the father had a nightmare his baby was in the oven, and the part when he sees a ghostly image on his baby monitor was pretty freaky. If you think I'm giving this crappy movie more than one star because of two above average scenes, guess again- I'm not.

I am so grateful that I didn't buy this movie!!! I kept on re-winding the stupid thing, thinking I had missed something. The parts that sort of make sense, have nothing to do with the movie. It's like two different movies were thrown together and made into one. I LOVE horror movies, but the only thing about it that is horrifing is WATCHING it!!! No electricity so the movie is all dark, and hard to tell whats going on. All the time checking to make sure the baby is okay... A mother who has PPD and can't touch her baby, a husband who is so tired he can't even tell what is going on, a crazy lady who has to tell him that his baby is dead, some other baby crying too, It's just too nuts to make heads or tails of it. And when the end FINALLY comes, I was just WTF????? Worst movie I have EVER watched, and that's saying A LOT!!! Don't waste your money!

Bad acting, bad scenario ... really a stupid movie.
Save your time and money, as another reviewer said, I have wasted two hours of my life here.

We didn't get through the first half an hour. It just sucked and was hard to follow.