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Cry Baby Lane is a made-for-TV movie which premiered on Nickelodeon on of October 28, 2000. It was then disowned by the network after complaints by parents over its scare factor. It was not rerun until Halloween of 2011, when the movie aired as part of Stick or Treat on the TeenNick block The '90s Are All That. TeenNick would run the movie again on March 31 and October 31 of 2015.

Plot[]

Andrew (Jase Blankfort) and his older brother Carl (Trey Rogers) enjoy listening to ghost stories that the local undertaker, Mr. Bennett (Frank Langella), tells them. One night Bennett tells the tale of a local farmer whose wife gave birth to Siamese twins, one being good-natured while the other was clearly evil. The farmer, ashamed of them, kept the twins locked in their room. Eventually the twins got sick and died together, so the farmer sawed them in half and buried the good twin in a cemetery and the bad twin in a shallow grave near the house. Later, Andrew and his friends decide to hold a seance in the cemetery where the good twin is buried, but they unintentionally awaken the bad twin instead. Gradually, the bad twin possesses nearly everyone in town, and it is up to young Andrew to stop him.[1][2][3]

Cast and crew[]

  • Jase Blankfort as Andrew
  • Trey Rogers as Carl
  • Larc Spies as Kenneth
  • Frank Langella as Bennett
  • Anne Lange as Ann Weber
  • Marc John Jefferies as Hall
  • Allison Siko as Louise
  • Jessica Brooks Grant as Megan
  • Sheri Drach as Kathy
  • Gary Perez as Gary
  • Steve Mellor as Dick Weber
  • Bernadette Quigley as Mrs. Hunt
  • Carl Burrows as Evil Sheriff
  • Jim Gaffigan as Bob
  • Rob Newton as Evil Twin
  • Andie K. Taylor as Becky

Production[]

The film was originally envisioned as $10 million theatrical release for Nickelodeon, but it was instead ordered to be a made-for-television movie with a budget of $800,000. The film was shot in the Village of Kingston in New Jersey in a little over twenty days with an extra day of shooting in Ohio for shots of the town. The director originally wanted Tom Waits for the role of the caretaker, but Nickelodeon insisted on Frank Langella in hopes that it would garner extra publicity.

Controversy[]

The film was intended to be only mildly scary and suitable for children, similar to Nickelodeon's own Are You Afraid of the Dark series. However, many parents allegedly found it to be too graphic and disturbing for their children, and complained to Nick the next day. As a result, Nickelodeon banned Cry Baby Lane from reairing and never released it on video (although bootlegs might exist). Supposedly, Nickelodeon has even gone so far as to publicly deny the movie's existence.[4] Despite all of this, the film retains a small, but dedicated fanbase composed of nostalgic teenagers who vaguely remember seeing the movie as children.[5] A fictitious account[6] on the making of the movie has since parodied its status as a banned film and helped bring attention to it.

References[]

External links[]

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