Fans of horror-comedy need look no further as today brings us the first trailer for HBO’s upcoming limited series The Baby. Though the title is deceptively simple, this looks to be quite the ride, serving as something of a riff on The Omen but with a darkly comedic spin on the whole “this child might literally be evil incarnate” thing. Let’s see what that looks like.
This is very much just a teaser trailer, offering us but a loose idea of what to expect from the show. Basically, Michelle De Swarte leads the way as a wildly reluctant mother who finds a young child dropped in her lap, quite literally. It just seems especially unfortunate that this reluctant mother figure happened to come into possession of a baby that appears to have a mean streak and apparent blood lust. Not an ideal situation, to be sure. It looks like this will take a painful look at the ugly side of parenthood, using an evil child to tee up that ball. The show’s official synopsis reads as follows:
“Michelle De Swarte (The Duchess) stars as 38-year-old Natasha, who is furious that her closest friends are all having babies. But when she is unexpectedly landed with a baby of her own, her life dramatically implodes. Controlling, manipulative, but incredibly cute, the baby twists Natasha’s life into a surreal horror show. As she discovers the true extent of the baby’s deadly nature, Natasha makes increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of it. She doesn’t want a baby. But the baby definitely wants her.”
Rounding out the cast will be Amira Ghazalla (The Rhythm Section), Patrice Naiambana (Spectre), Sinéad Cusack (Marcella), Shvorne Marks (Endeavour), Isy Suttie (Peep Show), Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education), Seyan Sarvan (It’s a Sin), Karl Davies (The Tower) and Divian Ladwa (Ant-Man and the Wasp).
The series was created by Sian Robins-Grace (Sex Education) and Lucy Gaymer (Gangs of London). HBO partnered with Sky on the eight-episode limited series, which is also produced by Sisters, the company behind the network’s award-winning Chernobyl, which is just about as horrific as real-world horrors get. Jane Featherstone, Carolyn Strauss, Naomi de Pear, Robins-Grace, and Nicole Kassell will executive produce, with Katie Carpenter serving as a co-executive producer and Gaymer on board as a producer. Kassell, Stacey Gregg, Faraz Shariat, and Ella Jones directed the series, with Robins-Grace, Susan Soon He Stanton, Kara Smith, Anchuli Felicia King and Sophie Goodhart handling scripting duties.
The Baby premieres on HBO on Sunday, April 24.
