When the Bough Breaks is an old school potboiler. It doesn't aim for a full rolling boil, but rather the lightest possible simmer boil, you know when you see just the tiniest bubbles able to form and break. First time feature director Jon Cassar has learned just how to keep the fire stoked for an almost continuous feeling of dread and impending doom. He's ably assisted by the enthralling score by John Frizzell, and a screenplay that lures you into it's gruesome spell as a paralyzed voyeur. The three leads are solid, especially Morris Chestnut and Jaz Sinclair. Way better than this type of B-movie has any right to be. *B+*



Now I'm just waiting for three resourceful producers to adapt the last three lines of the nursery rhyme into movies, so that I can finally launch my lifelong dream of The Rock-A-Bye Film Festival:

Rock-a-Bye Baby
In the Treetops,
When the Wind Blows
the Cradle Will Rock.
When the Bough Breaks,
The cradle will fall,
And down will fall baby
Cradle and all.