The Devil Within Her

This 1975 flick directed by Peter Sasdy goes by a lot of titles - The Devil Within Her, Sharon's Baby, and I Don't Want To Be Born to name a few -  but they all mean one thing: killer baby movie!

You gotta love the “killer baby” sub-genre. Some movies give you a killer kid deformed by chemicals, and some give you murderous munchkins malformed by mutants from outer space. But I bet if you counted them up, then the vast majority would be about diabolical delinquents deformed by the devil!

Yes, Satan hisself! Ol’ Scratch. Lucifer. Hob. Whatever you want to call him, it’s the fellow with the horns, pitchfork, and red hue that’s to blame for kiddies pushing their nannies out of windows and the mothers tossing themselves down stairwells.

And we sorta, kinda, maybe have the devil to blame for the satanic shenanigans and ghastly goings-on in The Devil Within Her. Or…it could be that we have another “D” word to point the finger at: a dwarf!

Or maybe a devilish dwarf? Or a dwarfish devil?

It’s all very confusing. Let’s take a closer look...

The Devil Within Her opens the only way a movie like this should: with Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) screaming her bloody head off. Ol’ Lucy is nine months prego and on the table at her local hospital, trying to rid herself of the little parasite...er...I mean little angel. The close-ups and cutting from shot to shot are disturbing: lots of sweaty foreheads and terrified eyes above surgical masks. The li’l monster doesn’t want to come out to play, so the doctor makes with the forceps. Out comes the kid with a POP! — and the look on everyone’s faces lets you know that not everything is hunky-dory.

(Side note: the music playing over the opening credits sounds like a poor man’s WINGS. Which is saying quite a bit…none of which is good.)

Things soon reveal themselves to be out of the ordinary: while nursing and cuddling her newborn son, Lucy is scratched across the face…or rather she is clawed. A shot of her son shows blood dripping from his fingers and lips, so it wasn’t just a defensive maneuver on Junior’s part. Mom wasn’t hugging him too closely, he was hungry…for something a little more tangy than mother’s milk. Blood is thicker than water…or milk…after all.

Proud papa, Gino (Ralph Bates), just thinks little Nicholas (Nicholas? Nicky? Nick…another name for the devil? Hmmm.) is just big boned and randy for his age, but Lucy knows better. She tells her friend, Mandy (Caroline Munro), that something strange happened on her last night dancing professionally (wink, wink…nudge, nudge) at a local club may have had more to do with Nicky’s rambunctiousness.

Lucy tells Mandy that her former dance partner, Hercules (George Claydon), a dwarf dressed in Harlequin gear, came on to her on her final night. Rebuffed by Lucy, Hercules spits a curse in anger at her: “You will have a baby, a monster, an evil monster conceived in your womb. As big as I am small and possessed by the devil himself!"

We can assume Hercules didn’t sign the “Good luck in the future” card for Lucy or chip in on the ice cream cake in the break room.

Of course, Lucy is assured that Hercules the dwarf had nothing to do with Nicky’s birth and the subsequent goofy goings-on. And of course, we the audience know that’s a load of rationalist, spoil-sport hoo-ha!

The Devil Within Her proceeds as planned. Gino’s sister is…care to have a guess?…you got it: a nun! She blesses Nicky upon seeing him for the first time, and the baby throws the biggest temper tantrum this side of the seventh circle of Hell. There are scenes at the baby’s christening (hint: it don’t go well), scenes of Lucy’s pediatrician, Dr. Finch (Donald Pleasance) looking worried and guilty as if he knows something (and has Donald Pleasance ever looked otherwise?), and scenes of escalating mayhem as the baby lashes out more and more and more.

I don’t think What To Expect When You’re Expecting covered baby’s murdering their nannies and knocking off their doctors.

Whatever you care to call this movie, do not call it faint-of-heart. There’s lots to love here. The fashions are steeped in the 70s’ love of earthtones and distressing patterns. (Maybe little Nicky just hates paisley and houndstooth?) The movie also knows how to build things up. The violence escalates nicely as the film proceeds. There are also some nice creepy touches — Gino finding himself on the wrong side of his son’s graces in the backyard at night is just one of them. Since this is the 1970s, the soundtrack is psychedelic and sleazy, and it adds to the weirdness of the images.

Joan Collins was only a few years away from taking on the role that would define her in the minds of yuppies and lovers of conspicuous consumption everywhere, that of Alexis Carrington on the American nighttime soap opera Dynasty. She was also only a few years removed from another role that many genre fans hold dear to their hearts: Edith Keeler on the Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever.” It might be hard people to reconcile these roles with the many sleazy, creepy ones she played in the 1970s. In addition to this film, Collins also played a part in the horror film classics Tales From the Crypt (Freddie Francis, 1972), Fear In the Night (Jimmy Sangster, 1972), and Dark Places (Don Sharp, 1973). She also starred in two slightly softcore sex pics based on her sister’s, Jackie Collins, novels: The Stud (Quentin Masters, 1978) and The Bitch (Gerry O’Hara, 1979). Seeing her disheveled (and in a state of dishabille) is slightly strange when one is used to her being perfectly coiffed and dressed. I kinda like the down and dirty Joan, truth be told.

The Devil Within Her is a nasty piece of filmmaking, and I mean that in the best way possible. Not sure if you can chalk up the influx of killer baby movies in the 1970s to the feminist movement and the abortion issue, but I’m sure these movies tapped into a deep-seeded fear that folks had of the younger generation…even the youngest generation possible!