There was a film that, in my youth, seemingly was played for every organized youth gathering I was forced to attend, be it Church lock-in, whatever. It was so bad, I’d like to remember what it was so I can now relish in it’s guaranteed absymal reviews… but I can’t think of it’s name.
It would have probably been from the late 60s to early 70s. The plot (and that’s being generous) was a young woman goes to the big city where she’s promptly woo’d and seduced by some young guy. I think that starts with his suave self pelting her with a snowball. When they have sex, it’s seen in the reflection of her cat’s eye, really steamy stuff to an adolescents!
The middle’s kinda hazy but in short the guy goes bad and in the finale, they’re restling for a grip on their love child’s stroller or bassinet or something and it falls off the top of a building. In slow motion it crashes to the ground but the shot pans back and them mom has the baby on the roof.
There’s a haunting rendition of “Bye baby bunting, poppa goes a hunting” that creepily played during times of tension.
Well done. Yes, that looks like it. I kept using “poppa” and “papa” in googles, thanks for trying “Daddy”. Interesting comments; how others have remembered it after all these years as well. Scared the beejesus out of us ten year olds.
I actually saw this movie in a theater during its brief run. There are some very suspenseful scenes, and a couple of jump-out-of-your-seat moments. I was surprised that it didn’t attract much of an audience.
Daddy was written by Larry Cohen, who later became famous for 70s horror films like It’s Alive, Q and the fantastic God Told Me To.
Daddy’s also interesting since it reflects a growing awareness of the issue (and uncertainty) around increasingly liberal attitudes toward reproductive rights. Essentially, the plot is that a man and woman date for a while, but they break up and the woman aborts the baby of theirs she was carrying. Years later, after she’s settled down with a husband and child, the ex-beau comes back and resolves to perform a “retro-abortion” of sorts, threatening to kill her current baby (hence, the bassinet in periil) as payback for her killing his unborn child years earlier. Definitely a nail-biter with some good development and tension.