Man Baby is a short nine minute long comedy horror film that tackles anxieties of new parenthood from the perspective of a first time dad. Directed by Aaron Murtagh who also stars, this surreal short crams a lot into its minimal runtime.
Taking place during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, this follows new father Bert (Murtagh) as he struggles to get to grips with having a baby, something that his wife Danielle (Kate Britton) seems more suited to. The insecurities of the man begin to bizarrely manifest as a physical transformation, with Bert discovering that for some reason he is getting smaller by the day.
The soundtrack for this was made up of simple sounding nursery music which was the perfect accompiment to the baby based horror going on. With a cast of just four actors (including the baby itself), much of the run time is focussed on Bert himself. The horror comes not just from him notably shrinking, but from the baby itself, with the man hallucinating it at points, hearing its cries and seeing it for moments when he isn't with it. It leads to an increasingly surreal feel that culminates in a surprising finish.
I enjoyed Man Baby but did feel that maybe under ten minutes was a little too short to really get the idea across, things rapidly escalate towards the end. I have to admit to being a bit lost as to what was really going on, though that is down to me more than the film not adequately demonstrating what was going on. I did like the ending to this even if it left me a little confused, and there was some neat editing throughout. Man Baby was a selection at the South Dakota Film Festival on September 14th, the Montana International Film Festival on September 21st and is due to be shown at Grimmfest in the UK later this year.
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