70’s cult horror film terrifies, intrigues and raises questions

Weekly ‘Flix Fix takes the legwork out of wading through thousands of film choices on Netflix, bringing you the most truly bizarre, quirky and outright amazing gems instant streaming has to offer.

“The Baby,” released in 1973, is a self-described “rarely seen ‘70s cult shocker” tucked away in the dark recesses of the Netflix horror section. 

Viewers are completely unprepared for what they are going to find. 

This movie has everything you would expect of a cult classic and much more: bad hair, suspense, cattle prods, murder, and a full-grown man in diapers. 

“The Baby” moves at a different pace than the gory horror films that you may be accustomed to, but what it lacks in gore it makes up for in suspense by being both highly disturbing and rather revolting storytelling. 

The story follows a social worker, Anne, as she investigates a case involving the Wadsworth family. The family does not seem too unusual at a first glance. There is a single mother, her two grown daughters Germaine and Alba, and their baby brother. Only the baby is actually a full-grown man. 

The first time you watch this movie, you might think, “What am I watching and why am I watching it?” but stick with it, this movie is really very entertaining. 

While the storyline is wacky and disturbing, the characters are the real gems. 

The Wadsworthes are the most malevolently tacky mixtures of bad hair, deep-seated psychological issues, and unsettling sexual tension. 

Germaine is the near-spitting image of a soulless, cracked-out Lana Del Rey and Ms. Wadsworth looks like Jack Nicholson in drag. 

And, of course, you have to give props to the man who played Baby because it takes real dedication to crawl around in a diaper for the entire filming of a movie. 

“The Baby” may not make you high pitch scream, but it will leave you with an unsettled feeling in the pit of your stomach that will stick with you for a long time.