Dom's B-Movie Round-Up Issue #4

The Suckling

This film is brutally obscure. Z-grade exploitation to the max. I've only met one person who has seen it, which isn't the case with many other "obscure" b-movies I've covered. It's so bizarre, sleazy, and unpleasant, that I had to own it. "The Suckling" isn't terribly gory. It's not even that shocking. However, it earns my stamp of approval because of its unparalleled sleaze factor. This may be one of the sleaziest films of all time. Everything from the plot to the grimy production values screams scum. The story concerns a girl who is pressured into getting a second-trimester abortion in a back-alley coathanger clinic that doubles as a brothel. The aborted fetus is promptly flushed down the toilet. It is there in the sewer that it is met with toxic waste. The waste mutates the fetus into a...well, see the accompanying image.

How's that for sleaze? "The Suckling" was shot in 1989, but it has the cosmetic trimmings of a grindhouse feature from the 70's. The film stock must have been swabbed with gravy. Hairstyles and outfits are certainly outmoded. The whole package reeks of sweat and diseased genitals. Surprisingly, it's somewhat entertaining. The most notable aspect of "The Suckling" is the above-average creature design. The suckling is an impressive monster that deserves a better screen debut than this. I'm assuming that a hefty percentage of the film's budget was allocated to the icky beast effects. The gore isn't very convincing and as I stated earlier, the photography is rather blotchy. The acting is expectedly awful, so it doesn't make sense to complain about it.

What would an obscure b-movie be without a random scene that has no relation to the rest of the film? Check out the ending credits where we see a man's face slide off. Who is this person and why does his face slide off? I don't know! It looks cool. I guess that's what really matters. Other "killer fetus" flicks worth exhuming are "The Johnsons," "The Unborn," and "Baby Blood."

The House on Skull Mountain