The Baby in the Basket – Movie Review (1/5)

THE BABY IN THE BASKET is a new Gothic Horror movie that feels strangely off OR like an homage to B-movies of the 1970s. However, if the latter is the intention, it isn’t very successful either. Read our full The Baby in the Basket movie review here!

THE BABY IN THE BASKET is a Gothic Horror movie that plays out in an isolated convent on a Scottish island. In other words, a perfect setup for a horror movie in many ways. However, the actual story and its characters are all over the place.

This could’ve been a really good horror movie, but it just felt off from the beginning. The character portrayals – and even their costumes – seem confused about what it’s going for. From where and who they are to when they are. The runtime is 100 minutes and they are not well spent.

Continue reading our The Baby in the Basket movie review below. You can find the movie on VOD and DVD (UK only) from February 17, 2025.

Evil isn’t raised – it’s born!

Supposedly, this gothic horror movie is about a baby left on the steps of an isolated monastery. We’re on a very remote Scottish island during WWII, so communication is very tricky. To put it mildly. However, of course, the nuns take the baby in and want to care for it until a storm passes.

So far, so good, though you will have to wait a little while before this actually happens in the movie.

The tagline of The Baby in the Basket is “Evil isn’t raised, it’s born” and soon after the baby arrives, strange and unexplained events are happening at the convent. Of course, saying an innocent baby is evil is a bit of a stretch for most religious people.

Well, depending on how they view good and evil, obviously. In quite a few religious communities, the word “demon” is quickly thrown around, which makes it easier to call a newborn evil; It’s a demonic force.

Nunsploitation gone wrong?!

As someone who loves genre-hybrids and has no problem with quirky and weird approaches to storytelling, I was intrigued by The Baby in the Basket. To me, this movie didn’t deliver on any of the elements I was ready for.

If this had been an obvious homage to B-movies and the “Nunsploitation” niche, then I could’ve appreciated this movie a lot more. I mean, you see a nun wearing bright red lipstick, and the notion of “nunsploitation” feels impossible to get around.

However, this also feels like a strangely serious attempt at a gothic horror movie. The result, for me anyway, is that it misses being either. Terribly!

We’re in 1944 with World War II raging on, but most of the characters look like they’re dressing up like someone from the 1940s. Also, most of the sisters of St. Augustine’s convent are quite strange nuns. Admittedly, they may not have chosen to be nuns as much as having simply been sent there, but still.

Find The Baby in the Basket on Digital now

The Baby in the Basket was directed by Nathan Shepka and Andy Crane – the former also co-stars in the movie as Daniel. The screenplay comes from Tom Jolliffe (Cinderella’s Revenge, Renegades). What all three have in common is that their movies rarely rate over 5 on IMDb once in wide release.

The cast should be familiar to some horror fans, but didn’t help this movie. You’ll see Amber Doig-Thorne (Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey), Michaela Longden (How to Kill Monsters), Elle O’Hara (Cara), Lisa Riesner (No Dogs Allowed), and co-director Nathan Shepka (Dead Before They Wake).

Personally, I would much rather have rewatched the Black Narcissus miniseries or St. Agatha if I wanted something entertaining and Nunsploitation-adjacent. The latter isn’t brilliant, but Carolyn Hennesy plays Mother Superior in it and that’s enough reason to watch it.

And as a gothic horror movie, I’m afraid I feel it fails on every level. It feels more like a setup for a drinking game than anything remotely scary. The terrible lighting of most scenes was what struck me the most. I never felt any sense of dread or horror.

The Baby in the Basket will be out on Digital in the UK and US starting February 17, 2025. 

Details

Directors: Andy Crane & Nathan Shepka
Script: Tom Jolliffe
Stars: Amber Doig-Thorne, Michaela Longden, Elle O’Hara, Lisa Riesner, Nathan Shepka, Annabelle Lanyon, Maryam d’Abo, Paul Barber