Being a parent is one of the hardest things you can do in life. The early stages are possibly more terrifying than any horror film as families make adjustments to their already existing life for this new addition. Any frailties at home can cause mounting pressure to raise a newborn. In Ryan Barton-Grimley's film "Listen Carefully," we see a father living the worst nightmare for any new parent. Someone has taken his baby girl, Abby, and only a mysterious voice on a baby monitor offers hope to find her. "Listen Carefully" creates a smart and relevant nightmare for new parents but misses on the crux of what makes a riveting horror film.
Director and star of the film, Ryan Barton-Grimley, plays Andy, a typical overworked, underslept, and undersexed father with a recent promotion and a wife looking to find some free time from their newborn. Andy is tasked with watching their daughter for the night and promises to keep the new baby monitor with him and not focus on work too much. Sounds like a simple night in with the baby, but as expected, Andy can't pry himself away from his job due to the complexities of his new position. Soon, the night takes a turn for the worse as Abby seems fussier than ever on the monitor, only for Andy to discover she is missing. Before Andy can call the authorities, a voice challenges him to do otherwise. From the trailer, you can tell that "Listen Carefully" is a cat-and-mouse game between Andy and the kidnappers, and the tempo and pacing pick up substantially when the voice comes on the monitor.
The tension between Andy and Allie (Simone Barton-Grimley) doesn't give viewers enough depth to invest much into their characters. While showing a frail marriage isn't too hard to accomplish, there were moments that could have been moved on from to heighten the sense of anticipation for the inevitable.
Adding strange and whimsical parts to a film can add length and volume to the overall narrative, but sometimes it detracts from it. In recent years, horror films have embraced the idea that screaming in madness while covered in either blood or some form of alien ooze is "horror," but I tend to differ from that opinion. Usually, chaotic misdirection causes the viewer to lose interest in the original intent of the film. "Listen Carefully" tries to get away with this through various states, but it starts to deviate too much from why we are invested in the kidnapping in the first place. "Listen Carefully" could have worked as a short film, but the longer narrative is missing some key ingredients. While the overall aspect of being a new parent is worth the frights, "Listen Carefully" misses the mark.
2.0/5
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