THE BABY SNATCHER (2023)

2 stars

Scatena & Rosner Films. Digital. Available Now

The film opens with an intriguing scene (which will make sense later) of a little girl eating ice cream, as her house burns down and the sirens of the fire service can be heard in the background.

Cut to Penelope (Adrienne Thomas) and her friend, and realtor (estate agent to us Brits) Eve, celebrating the former buying her new home. They are both pregnant.

Penelope and her husband Richie (Matthew Lawrence) are living the dream, with their new abode and successful careers. Eve and her other half Tom (Paul London) however are not so well off, as he is trying to get his catering business up and running. Then tragedy strikes as Eve has a miscarriage.

Flashbacks start to establish the back story and the plot ambles along – we get montages of pill taking, injections, dates crossed off a calendar. Everything is just peachy… until the miscarriage. We are nearly halfway through the film before Eve starts to go off the rails and it takes ages to get anywhere. Eventually things do kick into gear and the fertility doctor is murdered. Who is the killer…

This is being sold as a chiller, but it’s a painful and slow watch, as the plot starts to reveal Eve’s history and the link to the opener. Less a horror, this just about qualifies as a psychological thriller, with passable acting and cheesy dialogue, so it will come as no surprise to learn this is a Lifetime TV movie – part of their ‘Don’t Mess with Mommy’ collection apparently. You get lots of ‘life affirming’ and sad plonky music which morphs later into more scary notes (but not too scary). In and of itself, it is not badly made, just a bit bland, with direction from Andrew Lawrence (Matthew’s brother), who played Eric Russo in Hawaii Five-O

Also known as Maternal Sin/Baby Dust/My Bestfriend The Baby Snatcher.

Steve Kirkham