Writer(s): de la Iglesia and Jorge Guerricaechevarría
Starring: Javier Gutiérrez, Leonor Watling, Sancho Gracia, and María Asquerino
With some intense back pain keeping me home from work and vastly limiting my mobility, I decided to kill some time via a movie. My wife, who watches most of the films that I review with me, was more interested in getting some other things accomplished, so I was left to my own devices. After a brief search of the films on my “to watch” list, I finally settled on one that my wife has strictly assured me she would never, ever want to watch.
That film was The Baby's Room, a TV movie directed by Alex de la Iglesia as part of the "6 Films to Keep You Awake" series, who some will remember for helming such films as Day of the Beast and Accion Mutante. His films always have some elements of humor throughout, no matter what genre he is dabbling in, and The Baby's Room is no exception, though thankfully most of the comedy falls on the backburner once the suspense starts ratcheting up.
Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and Sonia (the beautiful Leonor Watling, who I am pretty sure I fell in love with just from watching her here) are an established couple with a new baby boy, who have just moved into a large house. Their relationship is so perfect that Sonia is actually concerned about how smooth everything is going, which makes for some rather obvious foreshadowing that things won't be great for long. One day, Juan's parents make an unannounced visit, and drop off a box full of stuff for the child; at the bottom of the box are two baby monitors (an item that Juan, curiously, has never heard of or even knew existed).
The couple set them up, happy to have peace of mind, without the added inconvenience of having to get up every time they hear the baby cry. At first, the couple hear weird noises, which could be attributed to any number of things: the baby shifting, for example. Then comes the unmistakable sound of a human voice. Terrified, Juan arms himself with a piece of wood and rushes into the baby's room—only to find his baby, crying because Juan has just turned on the light to his room.
Who did that voice belong to? It quickly becomes an obsession for Juan to find out. He upgrades the monitors to infrared video, and in a rare creepy scene, catches a static figure with glowing eyes staring at the camera while sitting next to his son. He is terrified. Sonia would be, too, if this weren't one of those frustrating situations in movies where Sonia never sees what Juan sees, and so she just thinks he is crazy. And since no one else at his job is willing to believe that there are ghosts keeping him awake and making him late to work every day, they think he is crazy, too.
Then he catches a break. He sees an old photo of his house, and notices that a window has been boarded up. He looks at the wall through the baby monitor, which is his ticket to the other world, and sees there is a door knob there. He turns it, and enters into a hidden room, which we later learn to be a portal of sorts to the “real” world. By unsealing it, he has now unwittingly opened up the possibility that the ghosts that have been stuck inside the house may now “break out” and run free into the real world. And this is about the time that it pretty much derails itself, rebounding just in time to deliver a good, though rather expected, ending.
Apparently, the “6 Films To Keep You Awake” series were six (of course) films made by well-respected Spanish directors, specifically for Spanish television, and now I suppose having reviewed one, I am obligated at some point to take a look at the rest. Unfortunately, this one was so disappointing overall that I have little interest in continuing, at least any time soon, especially considering this one is generally regarded as one of the better ones.
The story gets off to a relatively quick start (and the 80 minute run-time is probably mainly to thank for that), but the deja vu also sets in almost immediately. This is a story we have seen a thousand times before; the only difference are the actors, one of whom is drop-dead gorgeous. The wife first thinks the husband is crazy, then thinks he is a threat to their child, and the perfect family quickly starts to unravel. There are a couple of genuinely creepy scenes, and the monitor idea is pretty cool (he can only see the “ghosts” through the infrared screens), but there's otherwise nothing gripping or interesting about it, save for Leonor Watling's plainly gorgeous face. In other words, seasoned horror vets can probably shut it off at the half-hour mark, and already know, within a general outline, what happens the rest of the way, save for just how natural Watling looks while holding a child, and how I would have gladly raised the child with her in her husband's absence, had she asked me.
If the other tales are similar, I don't think this series will keep you awake so much as lull you into a deep sleep.
RATING: 4.5/10
TRAILER
NOTE: I unfortunately can't find individual trailers for each film in the series, so here's a trailer for the entire series as a whole.
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