This sublimely sleazy and wonderfully warped jaw-dropper rates highly as the greatest cheeseball low-budget indie fright flick ever made about a grotesquely misshapen murderous mutant fetus. In fact, I'm pretty sure this deliciously dreadful and disgusting doozy might very well be the only horror movie thus far ever made about a grotesquely misshapen murderous mutant fetus. The extremely tasteless plot centers on a young couple who go to a scuzzy bordello on the outskirts of town so they can get an illegal abortion (the film takes place in the early 70's prior to the famous Roe Vs. Wade verdict). The aborted fetus gets rudely disposed of by being flushed down the toilet (yes, you read that correctly). The poor little bugger winds up in the filthy sewer and mutates into a huge, lethal, clawed, fanged, goofy-looking humanoid beast after being exposed to toxic waste. The foul ferocious subhuman fiend proceeds to go back to the squalid brothel and terrorize the occupants inside, which include the fat Southern madame, various skeevy prostitutes and their scummy customers, and even its own scared parents.

Man, does this gloriously ghastly marvel possess all the so-thoroughly-wrong-they're-paradoxically-right schlocky stuff to qualify as a real four-star stinkeroonie. For starters, there's the hilariously horrendous acting from a rank amateur no-name cast. The ratty'n'ragged cinematography and annoyingly redundant droning synthesizer score are likewise suitably sub-par. The wonderfully wretched dialogue is absolutely priceless. The fact that the uproariously inane story is treated with utmost seriousness by the filmmakers only makes matters that much more enjoyably absurd and abominable (the filmmakers have the gall to claim said story is based on an actual real-life event!). The murderous mutant monster itself rates as one of the single most laughably ludicrous man-in-a-rubber-suit creatures to ever scamper its way across the screen (the creature strangles and decapitates its victims with its lethal prehensile umbilical cord!). Moreover, this fabulously fetid flick delivers a handy helping of grotty gore and a nice smattering of gratuitous nudity. The Elite Entertainment DVD for this terrifically tacky, trashy and twisted cinematic treasure offers a grainy, but acceptable widescreen (!) presentation with the trailer as the sole extra.

The Suckling is one of my favourite trashy films for many reasons. For a trashy movie it more than delivers the goods. Scenes such as the topless axe-wielding nurse, the aborted foetus sliding into the sewers and then mutating into a monster - these images will be burnt into my brain forever! Never will you see such images again in a film. The dialogue and acting is terrible but hilarious too. A few quotes: "You wouldn't know bullshit if you were standing under a bull!", "A man comes in to get his penis sucked, and gets shot off instead". The most hilarious scene is when the monster shrinks back down to foetus size - making a "ga-ga" sound - and crawls back into his mothers womb. Priceless! The Suckling is pure trashy entertainment at its best and I would recommend it to all horror b-movie fans. Ignore what everyone else has said - it's not THAT bad. Also - people continually knock the musical score, what's with that?! The opening piano music sounds so dark and haunting and fits a horror theme perfectly. I would even say that it belongs in a better film than this (by that I mean a serious horror film) because it's perfect!

Check out the outrageously tasteless premise for The Suckling (AKA Sewage Baby): an aborted fetus, removed by coat hanger in a back street clinic, is flushed down a toilet and winds up in the sewer where toxic sludge mutates it into a huge monster that attacks the occupants of a brothel.

What sounds like a hugely enjoyable trash classic in the making is seriously hampered by terrible performances, a frequently dull script that spends too much time on the characters chatting about escape when it should be delivering scares and piling on the gore, and an incredibly goofy creature that looks like something H.R. Geiger designed for a laugh. In short, it all feels like a wasted opportunity.

Made on a tight budget, the film is clearly a labour of love by writer/director Francis Teri, making me feel a bit bad for ragging on it, so here's a few positives to ease my conscience a little: the electronic score is rather effective, there are some fun attempts at stop-motion animation, and Teri achieves one or two genuinely inspired moments of absurdity (the shonky puppet creature returning to the womb being a hilarious highlight).