Baby Blue is what happens when you mix a true crime podcast, a cursed urban legend, and a group of teenagers whose sense of self-preservation has been permanently damaged by the internet—and then give the whole thing to Adam Mason and tell him, “Make it fun, but also a little messed up.”
Spoiler: he does.
This 2023 supernatural slasher leans hard into our collective obsession with murder content and asks, very politely, “What if the case you’re exploiting… exploited you back?” It’s slick, surprisingly sharp, and just self-aware enough to feel like a satire without ever forgetting to actually, you know, be a horror movie.
True Crime, But Make It Personal
The setup is simple and effective:
A friend group of teens—armed with cameras, ring lights, and the kind of confidence that only comes from never having lived in a time before Wi-Fi—decide they’re going to make the next big true crime video podcast. Their subject: Baby Blue, a deceased serial killer whose name sounds like a vaporwave album but whose body count is very real.
JJ (Aramis Knight) leads the charge, with Alice (Ally Ioannides), August (Cyrus Arnold), Hutch (Dylan Sprayberry), Laura (Lia McHugh), Joy (Paris Berelc), Kelvin (Khylin Rhambo), and Mo (Oliver Cooper) all rounding out the “we’re definitely going viral or dying trying” ensemble.
They think they’ve hit gold: a killer with a creepy moniker, a tragic backstory, and a legacy ripe for clickbait thumbnails. But as they dig deeper—old crime scenes, forgotten footage, lingering whispers—they discover something seriously wrong:
Baby Blue (Anthony Turpel) never really stopped.
Dead? Yes.
Done? Absolutely not.
Soon their podcast goes from “let’s discuss the murders” to “let’s try not to become Season 2.”
Gen Z vs. Ghost Serial Killer
One of the big joys of Baby Blue is how it leans into modern teen culture without doing that cringe-y “how do you do, fellow kids?” thing.
This isn’t some out-of-touch script where the characters say “hashtag” out loud. These are recognizably online teenagers:
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They stage shots.
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Obsess over lighting and thumbnails.
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Worry about views and engagement—even when things are already getting weird.
They treat horror like content… until it starts treating them like content.
There’s a perverse little thrill in watching them blunder past all the red flags. Strange noises at night? Film it. Creepy coincidences that line up with the killer’s pattern? Great for the narrative arc. Anonymous messages? Must be a fan.
It’s darkly funny—and then, increasingly, not.
When the haunting escalates, it’s not just “boo, ghost.” Baby Blue is very specifically focused on them: their secrets, their guilt, their relationships. The murders don’t feel random; they feel curated. Like an algorithm that hates you personally.
Anthony Turpel’s Baby Blue: Pretty, Petty, and Very Dead
Anthony Turpel as Baby Blue is the film’s secret weapon. Instead of a hulking, faceless monster, we get something more unnerving: a boyish, almost gentle-looking killer whose nickname sounds like it should be on a mixtape, not a police report.
In flashbacks and visions, he plays Baby Blue as equal parts vulnerable and utterly broken—a kid shaped into a monster, but fully embracing the brand. When he starts targeting the teens from beyond the grave, you get the sense that he’s not just killing them; he’s editing them out of his story.
He’s like if your favorite problematic indie singer-songwriter was also a vengeful specter with unresolved issues and excellent timing.
The Friend Group: Likable Enough to Hurt
A surprising plus: the teens are actually… likable.
JJ (Knight) has that slightly reckless, “I want to make something that matters” energy that makes his bad decisions feel sadder than stupid. Alice (Ioannides) is the moral compass who slowly realizes she’s badly calibrated. August, Hutch, Laura, Joy, Kelvin, and Mo all get enough distinguishing traits and beats that they feel like a real group, not just archetypal slaughter fodder.
Sure, some of them are idiots—this is a horror movie—but they’re not cartoon idiots. Their desire to chase this story to dangerous places feels rooted in ambition, curiosity, and a denial that anything truly bad could happen to them. Which, frankly, is very on brand for teenagers raised on YouTube, TikTok, and “one more risk for content.”
So when things start going sideways—visions, unexplained injuries, re-enacted crime scenes that weren’t supposed to be re-enacted—you actually care who gets it next, which makes the kills hurt more and land better.
Adam Mason Brings the Chaos
Director Adam Mason has always had a talent for mixing nasty little ideas with energy and style, and Baby Blue sits comfortably in that lane.
He doesn’t reinvent the genre, but he plays with it smartly. The film is:
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Fast-paced without feeling rushed.
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Bloody without devolving into pure splatter.
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Stylishly shot, especially in scenes where the podcast aesthetics bleed into the haunting.
Some of the best moments blur the line between staged footage and supernatural interference: a camera flickers, an angle changes, and suddenly what should’ve been a controlled shot becomes evidence. It’s as if Baby Blue is not just haunting them, but hijacking their production.
Mason also has a nice feel for group dynamics. The party scenes, sleepovers, planning sessions—all feel authentic enough that when fear wedges itself between them, it feels like a real fracture, not just a plot necessity.
Horror with a Side of “This Is Your Fault”
One of the more quietly brilliant things about Baby Blue is how it skewers true crime culture without turning into a lecture.
These kids:
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Exploit tragedy for entertainment.
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Treat a serial killer like a mascot.
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Obsess over narrative beats more than ethics.
Sound familiar?
The film doesn’t wag its finger so much as smirk and say, “Cool hobby. Hope it doesn’t kill you.” As Baby Blue inserts himself into their lives, it feels less like random supernatural revenge and more like a natural consequence of their voyeurism.
You wanted to resurrect the story? Congrats. The story heard you.
The Scares: Effective, If Familiar
Does Baby Blue completely reinvent supernatural slasher logic? Not really. You’ll recognize some patterns:
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The “something behind you in the frame you don’t see yet” tactic.
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The “recreating famous crime scene imagery with new victims” flourish.
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The escalating hallucinations and blurring of dream/waking life.
But familiar doesn’t mean bad, especially when executed with energy and care. The film knows when to go quiet, when to fake you out, and when to just commit to a nasty, well-timed shock.
Some kills are memorably staged, playing off the true crime visuals the teens were previously romanticizing. There’s a specific mean satisfaction in watching them become part of the aesthetic they were commodifying.
Not Perfect, But Pretty Killer
It’s not flawless. A few character beats feel rushed, and some lore around how exactly Baby Blue operates from beyond the grave is hand-wavy at best. If you’re the kind of viewer who needs hard rules for your supernatural killers, you might feel a little cheated.
But this is a movie more interested in mood, theme, and momentum than airtight metaphysics. Baby Blue is basically the weaponized ghost of glorified violence—and in that sense, he doesn’t need a user manual so much as a target list.
The third act goes pleasantly unhinged, with enough emotional weight and payoffs (and some well-earned karma) to justify the ride.
Final Verdict: Subscribe… at Your Own Risk
Baby Blue is a slick, grisly, and surprisingly thoughtful horror flick about:
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Teenagers.
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True crime obsession.
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The consequences of turning killers into content.
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And why you should maybe not build your brand around a guy named after a color in a nursery rhyme.
It’s fun. It’s nasty in the right ways. And it has just enough dark humor and self-awareness to feel like it was made withmodern horror audiences in mind, not just for them.
If you like:
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Scream (for meta horror and teen dynamics),
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The Ring (for cursed media),
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or podcasts where the host says, “We probably shouldn’t be doing this,” and then does it anyway…
…Baby Blue is well worth queuing up.
Just don’t start a video series about it afterward. We’ve seen how that ends.
