We are living and breathing a slasher renaissance right now. This year alone, we have Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Pierre Tsigaridis’ Frankie, Maniac Woman, Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death, and Radio Silence’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come. Now, you can add Spider One’s gloriously fun and bloody, soon-to-be cult classic, Big Baby, to the stack. Slashers these days fall into one of two camps: post-Scream meta (e.g., Freaky) or grindhouse splatter (e.g., Terrifier). A film needs to twist the screws on the tried-and-true or completely upend conventions with smart, thorny commentary on modern life. It also helps to have a wickedly memorable killer to seal the deal. Big Baby does all that and more, with an incisive, graphic autopsy on podcast culture, savage critic reviews, and how art can literally be death.
The film opens with successful screenwriter Adam Lewis (Brandon Scott) obsessing over a podcast episode trashing his latest film. He poured his blood, sweat, and tears into the script, so it’s hard for him not to take it personally. Kate (Krsy Fox) reminds him of the creative fulfillment of his work, but nothing can distract Adam now. He puts his head back down and barrels ahead with what else the podcast hosts could have to say about his work. In another very early scene, Adam runs into the content creators while getting coffee and confronts them. He’s at first cordial, connecting with them over their shared love of horror, before turning the tables and calling them out as vapid, brainless film bros with a microphone.
Adam channels his anger and frustration over the system into his new script for an indie slasher. He bases the idea of a Big Baby masked maniac on a recent nightmare, in which the killer whacks Kate with an axe in bed. It all felt so real. As he creates characters, plot, and high-voltage kill scenes, Big Baby might not be fiction after all. Spider One uses Adam as a conduit to explore the strenuous creative process and overwhelming feelings of inadequacy. He also toys with the unreliable narrator approach: is Adam going mad, or is Big Baby really leaping off the page? The further the script develops, the more Adam loses a sense of himself.
Big Baby perfectly walks the line between classic slasher camp and meta seriousness. It’s always teetering right on the edge, nearly ready to collapse, but Spider One keeps the tightrope taut. Scott is particularly magnetizingly unhinged, turning in one of his career-best performances. From the grisly practical effects to the sharp visual style, the film is a slasher fan’s wet dream, a welcome reminder that slashers are just damn fun to begin with. At the end of the day, all that matters is you have a good time. The critical cultural analysis is the cherry on top!
Spider One’s Big Baby is a lean and mean slasher that gives rebooted iconic IPs a run for their money. It takes the best parts of Friday the 13th and Scream and molds them to Spider One’s distinct writing and directing style. And like Jason Voorhees and Ghostface, Big Baby has the potential to go on forever. Fingers crossed for that sequel!
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