Is this the first black British horror film ever? Maybe. Maybe not. But it is certainly the first black British horror film featuring such an ugly and mischievous blue baby. The search goes on for wacky, off the wall concepts to scare the whits out of people in the hope of coming up with something weird enough to grab worldwide attention. The Wishbaby tack is to ground the story in an eminently ordinary, urban landscape - bleak, gritty, impoverished - and then unleash maximum mayhem. Forget mutant viruses, blood dripping vampires and other such fantastical inventions. First time director Steve Parson begins with a simple, all too familiar big city incident: slightly eccentric old lady, Fenella Fielding, is being 'happy slapped' by a nasty gang of mixed race teens, then is rescued by a young black girl, Tiana Benjamin, who is carrying lots of her own troubles but still feels inspired to help others. Her reward? The old lady helps her to make a magic doll – a less than cuddly blue Wishbaby – which is meant to help solve the girl's woes but instead inadvertently raises hell by, among other misdemeanors, releasing the old lady's dead Governess, Claire Cox, from some form of astral prison. Not a good idea. Needless to say, this ugly fairytale is designed from younger audiences and Parson has loaded it with a sharp soundtrack from the UK's edgiest music makers to help the supernatural goings on seem even more terrifying.

One thing that UK film makers have always been good at is horror that hits the mark at the right time, and this is just what Stephen W. Parsons has done with Wishbaby.Starring Tiana Benjamin (Eastenders/Harry Potter), Fenella Fielding (Carry on Screamng) and featuring Doc Brown, this has a plot and flow that could survive without these 'names'.Watching at first, you wonder if it is going to be good, but very soon, you sense the raw storytelling, and that builds up to create a film that will have you thinking about various things long after the final credits (and on that subject, watch the final part of the film after the credits).All I can say, is that this is a well thought out film, without the gloss that HAS to be placed into Hollywood productions, and that makes it worthy to be on the shelf of all horror fans.I saw a version that was 95% complete, and I await with anticipation for the final cut.Joe Jenkins Moonworks Media

I saw a rough cut of this movie at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland. To be honest, when I heard the premise (a doll that grants wishes) I thought it was going to be dreadful. The surprise was on me. There was nothing cheesy about this movie--it was creepy and fascinating from start to finish.Drawing from Lovecraft, modern London, and the darkest of fairy tales, this movie has both heart and scare. The young lead actress is fantastic, and the "Governess" character will give you nightmares. The direction is terrific, as is the writing.See it in the theater if you can. Rent it if you can't.I'm thinking I need to make a "Wishbaby" prop for Halloween...

What an achievement! Parsons tries an experiment as radical as that in "The Inmost Light" or "The Great God Pan"--he tries to summon up into our own day the elder, eldritch enchantment of Machen's "The White People." What if the evil and magic that lay dormant since that tale were to surface again in our day, in such different circumstances? Parsons seems to realize that if the Machen magic was ever genuine, then it has to be capable of transplant into our profane and grubby age, too. Was it all merely a Golden Dawn affectation? No indeed. Machen allows characters to contact a timeless world of (anti-)Sacred time and to unleash it in their own. Thus it must be accessible from any point in history. And that experiment succeeds: Machen's magic survives in a world he never made.But "Wish Baby" is far from being some windy essay like this one. It is a powerful cautionary tale and a traditionally spooky, absolutely intimidating and frightening tale told with prime senstivity towards the truly weird! This film has got to be accorded wider distribution! Robert M. Price