Parents' Guide to Lullaby

Aside from a handful of committed performances and some effective set design, this horror movie is unfortunately all too formulaic, staying right on the surface and hitting many familiar beats. Directed by John R. Leonetti, Lullaby starts out well enough, using the fears and despairs of new parents and the unsettling helplessness that comes from a baby who won't stop crying. When Rachel reads the lullaby and it starts to work, it's understandable that she would surrender any possible caution for a measure of comfort. But things quickly go south as it becomes clear that perhaps a book decorated with drawings of demons, monsters, and mutations isn't one that you want to trust with a child.

So the characters begin to go through the usual motions, making the usual mistakes, reacting in just the way we'd expect. We even get the usual sequences in which the characters seek out "experts" to help. Rachel goes to her sister, who maybe can't be trusted, and John goes to a rabbi who also feels a little sketchy, but Lullaby fails to bring any friction to this issue. The rules for defeating the Big Bad are crisscrossed and broken, and it means nothing. The movie does attempt to incorporate authentic aspects of Judaism into its narrative, but it falls short of something like The Vigil; this one is more like a checklist of terms ("dybbuk," "golem," etc.) dropped willy-nilly throughout the screenplay. In the end, it's just not worth your time.