Angel Baby

Angel Baby (2023), directed by Douglas Tait, is a chilling, slow-burn psychological horror that hits hard and lingers long after the credits roll. It's not just a film-it's an experience, one that grips you emotionally from the very first frame.

What makes this story stand out is its ability to balance emotional realism with an eerie, slow-burning atmosphere. The performances are stunning-so deeply human and vulnerable that you forget you're watching actors. Every moment feels lived-in, every silence meaningful.

Tait's direction is sharp and intimate, letting the tension simmer without ever relying on clichés. The pacing is deliberate and rewarding, allowing the dread to grow organically. Visually, the film is absolutely gorgeous. The remote setting is both haunting and breathtaking, amplifying the characters' isolation and emotional unraveling.

This isn't a jump-scare horror movie-it's something much deeper. It creeps under your skin and stays there, exploring grief, fear, and love in a way that feels uniquely personal and unsettling.

If you're a fan of emotionally driven thrillers with haunting visuals and character depth, Angel Baby is a must-watch.

This is neither a great movie, nor a real stinker. In a house where an abuser father is about to seriously harm one of his children, the daughter steps up and puts a bloody stop it to. We then are introduced to Val, who just lost her twins in pregnancy, and her husband Justin. She has a friend Chloe who gives her support, has some medical training, and wants to make sure she takes her medicine to help her healing, and also get plenty of rest. After all, Val is crestfallen over the loss, and she is also sensitive to noise, which isn't helped by living just off a freeway. Justin, who does handy work, finds a cabin in the mountains that had been empty for 25 years, fixes it up some and they move there. Things start to go bump in the night, there are creaks, doors suddenly open and there seems to be a ghost of a man present. A book titled Angel Baby seems to be prominent, and also movies around a lot, but where it came from is an unknown. While Rebecca DeMornay gets prominent space on the cover art, she has little more than a cameo. Things get worse when Chloe makes a visit, and seems too involved with Justin. By then, many may already have worked out a scenario, but the twist is something many would not see coming, and helps elevate what could be a routine and boring film.

Film opens with two preteen children retaliating against their father's abuse by doing him in with a hammer. Years later a woman , Val, receives the sad news the twins she gave birth to didn't survive. This motivates her and her husband, a contractor, to move to the country where she can tolerate the noise level after acquiring some odd affliction that makes her sensitive to sound. From there on, sound plays no part in the plot.

Val spends many hours walking around house, occasionally disturbed by mysterious sounds and the specter of some middle-aged guy.

Her friend, Chloe, the doctor who unsuccessfully delivered her twins pops by to stay with the couple for the weekend and help nurse Val back to health. The locals introduce themselves over the next few days. Rebecca De Mornay plays the town's local bartender, dishing out unsolicited pearls of wisdom about marriage. Val continues to roam the house, uncovering a music box containing a spinning ballerina figure. It has nothing really to do with plot but I guess the director of this trite was paying homage to the time honored tradition of "heroine finding a music box; what does it mean?". Val also finds a novel with the same title as the movie's. It's significance? Not much but extends movie by 5 minutes of dialogue and low key action involving the disposal of the book.

The end of the movie just kind of ends; it's almost like everyone involved was paid by the hour but not for overtime, so plot came to a rushed conclusion, with some questions unanswered, including why the film was called "Angel Baby" since there wasn't one.

It was so listless and silly you may actually want to watch it to the end to see if it gets any worse. BTW. From the credit roll, it appears many involved in making it worked at least two jobs producing it. I am beginning to think that included 'Positive Reviewer'.

Angel Baby pretends to be a grief-soaked cabin chiller, but it mostly feels like watching paint dry in the dark. Dialogue is wooden, performances flatter than the freeway Val flees, and the script borrows every haunted-house beat without adding pulse. This movie pretends to cradle grief and dread, yet spends an hour trudging through colourless corridors where nothing, and no one, is alive. Every haunted-cabin beat-creaks, music-box, shadow figure-plays like bargain-bin déjà vu, shot in flat TV gloss. A last-minute twist finally flickers, but it's too skinny to nourish the 105 empty minutes before it. Save it for laundry day when you crave lightweight horror wallpaper and can't reach the remote.

I knew this was going to be an awesome story before I ever watched it. The lead performances were off the charts! I had a feeling the actors and actress would enhance the experience with their talents, and I was right. Effects are very amazing, as is the cinematography. Groundbreaking camera work, breathtaking use of angles, picture-perfect shots in every scene. Everyone who worked on this production brought their A-game, that is clear. Their efforts pop off the screen. The people hired as key grips did top-notch work, and it pays off in every frame. The director certainly was able to induce everyone on the film to reach new heights of achievement because of his willingness to make each one of them feel valued. It is so refreshing to see such a well-made movie where everyone worked in harmony to produce something that will stand the test of time.