'The Cradle'
(Lukas Haas, Emily Hampshire, et al / DVD / NR / 2007 / PeaceArch)
Overview: When Frank (Lukas Haas) and Julie move to a small isolated town with their infant son Sam, both Julie and Sam become ill. Driven by terrifying nightmares of torture that come true, Frank begs a local midwife Helen to care for Sam as he desperately searches for a way to stop this curse on his family. When he discovers they are being tortured by the vengeful spirit of a child that was buried alive years earlier, Frank is pushed to the brink of madness as he tries to stop the ghost and save his dying family.
DVD Verdict: Frank and Julie move to an isolated house in a small town to seemingly get their lives back together again. Seems that Julie has post-partum depression so bad that she even refuses to touch her baby. Frank has come to this isolated house to work on his novel, but he doesn’t get much of that done since he starts hearing a baby crying at night that turns out not to be his son.
He tries to talk to their nearest neighbor (Amanda Smith). However, she turns out to be as crazy as a bedbug. Seems that in her youth, her mother gave birth to what was thought to be a stillborn. Her father took it and buried it in the woods, but she saw it move before he put it in the grave. She’s been haunted by this ever since.
So now Frank is convinced that the vengeful spirit of the dead baby is out to get his baby (this is not exactly discouraged by crazy neighbor since she thinks that the ghost has been haunting her ever since).
The box cover makes it look like a version of The Exorcist or the like since there’s a giant evil hand reaching for the cradle. However, there’s not a lot of excitement in between any of the spooky stuff. We get to see Frank and Julie looking at each other and talking a lot but these scenes have the effect of lulling you into a gentle slumber.
Actually it’s rather boring and when we find out what the haunting is all about its not exactly anything that makes it anymore exciting! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.66:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
“The Cradle: Behind the Scenes”
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer Gallery
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