BIG BABY
****
Directed by Spider One.
Starring Brandon Scott, Krsy Fox, Torio Van Grol.
USA, 2025. 103 mins
Reviewed as part of Tubi FrightFest 2026
This meta slasher sees Adam Lewis (Brandon Scott) as an LA-based scriptwriter who is concerned he’s running short of inspiration. He’s trying to write his latest horror script while being supported by his girlfriend, the adorable Kate (Krsy Fox), but needs a sure-fire idea. After a nightmare, Adam decides to pen a slasher about a killer in a baby mask called “Big Baby” who comes back from the dead, to – rather predictably – murder the former friends who tormented him as a child. As Adam’s fictional world begins bleeding into reality, the distinction between writer, character and killer becomes increasingly blurred.
There’s a PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO-esque scene where Adam’s script character Amanda appears in broad daylight, confronting him about her role in Big Baby’s torment. There’s also an unexpectedly sweet and surreal cameo as Graham, a devoted cat owner who exists within Adam’s fictional world. The film then shifts from smart, self-aware horror towards a more campy and blood-soaked slasher.
This LA-shot slasher needs to be faster paced, as the first nearly 40 minutes consist mainly of Adam and Kate gazing at each other, while talking about writing and their relationship, rather than cutting to the action. In a neat gender cliché reversal, Kate supports him and spends a fair amount of time reassuring him he’s a talented writer. Like SCREAM, it provides a neat send-up of horror movies as well as their fans, with one of the couple’s friends saying of Adam with disturbing honesty: “That guy would kill for you, Kate…”
The script also gives an accurate description of all writers’ love-hate relationship with their craft as well as the difficulty of being original (although Adam’s previous script idea of writing EASY RIDER meets ZOMBIELAND sounds great).
Like all Final Girls, Adam is likeably flawed and quirky: he’s bright, creative, self-doubting, and given to confiding to friends over coffee about vague concerns. As you’d expect, he also does unintelligent things like opening the door in the middle of the night when someone knocks, and walking to the shop alone late at night to get beer. However, as all his Final Gal siblings do, when push comes to horror shove, Adam is quite capable of straightening his spectacles and throwing off his nerdy image. Like his sister of the screen, Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween, he’s ready to seize a nearby household weapon to take on the killer, and attempt to save the day.
Like his sister of the screen, Jamie Lee Curtis in HALLOWEEN, Brandon Scott makes the transformation from ordinary guy to unlikely horror hero thoroughly convincing, as Adam, is ready to seize a nearby household weapon, take on the killer and attempt to save the day.
Director and writer “Spider One” has created probably the only slasher you’ll ever see with the legendary singer Cher and her son Chaz Bono as exec producers.
There are questions that need answers, even by horror logic: why exactly does Big Baby come to life when none of Adam’s previous horror creations have? And once the boundaries between his fiction and reality begin to blur, why do some characters seem more aware of what is happening than others? This smart slasher delivers the meta goods, and although it needs some serious trimming,deserves a bloodstained sequel.
Nina Romain