Charming and brutal

Admirable film.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Like others have stated, in England this went by the far better title of Sewage Baby. That was a better name because it had that certain special ring to it that any lover of eighties creature features would have found simply irresistible, whereas The Suckling, was just kinda dull. A movie about a poor unfairly aborted baby that gets callously flushed and then returns as a hideous slavering mutant slaughtering its way through hookers and lowlifes hellbent on returning to its mother-what the hell could be wrong with that? A lot!!! After a moderately moody opening and what I found to be an impressively gruesome sequence where the Sewage Baby is "born" everything goes downhill fast in a major way. It doesn't work. Nothing does. If you'll forgive my crudeness, watching this is like watching s**t slide down a wall for eighty minutes... It's so boring! Between the ridiculously gaping-jawed monster bursting out of walls and lashing out of toilets, there's a whole lot of nothing going on with only non-likable ugly bickering jerks to look at. I believe that it's the considerable bore factor that kills this movie. You can forgive monstrous acting effects and possibly plot, but to be boring is the very worst thing a film can ever be. Nowadays it's not really known of at all, and that's not a tragedy, trust me-it's a mercy! :::2::: The toilet of doom... I once found a scene in this film so scary, that it actually rendered me afraid to go to the bathroom-yep, I thought the Sewage Baby was gonna leap out of the bog and get me! It was the scene where the black chick gets her head ripped off. When I look at it now it's dumb. You don't see anything, just kind of a tentacle whipping out and you don't even see the head come off, it's just suddenly stuck in there, while the other lady hilariously blurts out her line:"Bertha!" I was only seven at the time by the way, you understand...: The thing being flushed and mutating via handy toxic waste angle is reminiscent of the opening of the 1980 classic Alligator. That was the only part I liked in this whole dang thing. I liked the humorous cliché of a coat hanger being used as an abortion instrument. The outrageous climactic scene where the monster "returns to mummy" is especially laughable. As it stomps up to her and somehow shrinks back into a regular sized baby thing that looks as if it's made out of silly putty, you can actually see the strings! And the final scene of the movie after that is still poor, but also surprisingly grim, with the girl in a rotten loony-bin, being abused by wardens. At least she'll always have her little "Suckling" to protect her! :::3::: It would've turned out awesome if Frank Henenlotter had been at the helm. In his more than capable hands, I'm sure this would have been a "cult classic". I don't like that term, I don't like the word cult-is everyone that loves certain horror movies from various decades-mostly eighties- supposed to wear sinister cloaks and chant and watch them by candlelight or what? Why don't they just call them what they are, POPULAR! But no, because it's horror it's gotta have some stigmatising word attached to it just to smooth everything over for the people who to this day, just don't get it. F*****g stupid label word. I hope nobody ever lumps this effort with Frank's movies. Because although they might be considered of this type of grungy schlocky monster flicks, his films have a grim quality and fruity flair to them, and fairly well-acted colourful characters that compensate well for any perceived poor qualities. Also, not one of his movies could ever be called boring, whereas this film is just a plain and empty joyless waste. Only watch if you wish to see something truly trashy and brainless that may give you one or two cheap laughs purely because it is so bad. It's the celebrated cult horror that never was. As it stank. Just a terrible movie-abort it!

A filthy whorehouse with a backroom abortion clinic which was built directly upon a toxic waste dump is the charming setting for THE SUCKLING, one of the trashiest monster movies I have had the pleasure of viewing in ages. When a girl's crudely aborted baby is properly disposed of by flushing it down the toilet, it becomes exposed to toxic chemicals in the sewage system. The fetus then morphs into a rapidly-growing beast with enormous fangs, which returns to the brothel/clinic crazed with vengeance. Sealing everyone inside with a thick, webby goop, the monster-fetus proceeds to savagely massacre the resident hookers and their Johns. The beast's mother is among those trapped inside, and there's no telling what may result when they are finally reunited.There's a big ol' barrel of belly laughs to be had here...this tasteless little grade-Z wonder features some of the stodgiest special effects and acting ever captured on film. Check it out.5/10

A sick, messed-up piece of cinema. I could barely hand on till the end, which is revealed at the beginning of the movie. Too many horrible effects and too little acting. Don't watch it. It's not even in the "so bad it's funny" category.

Sewage Baby is a sick little puppy of a film. Repulsive and ridiculous in equal measure. -Possible Spoilers- A boy forces his girlfriend to have an abortion in a back alley house that makes the Texas Chainsaw house look positively inviting. The aborted foetus get flushed, and after a bath in toxic waste it returns as a shape shifting mutant, hell bent on revenge. Yep, I know, and I willingly watched this film. Boy did I get what I deserved. Gobsmacked is not the word. We are treated at first to lots of POV shots of the thing scuttling about (if you've ever seen the Polymorph episode of Red Dwarf, you'll know what territory I'm talking about). Before a couple of cheapo killings. It really hots up when the survivors trek in to the creatures cocoon (or what ever the hell it is), I assume it's supposed to look like a kind of giant womb, what it looks like is the result of two kids let loose in a net curtain shop, really you have to see how poor these effect are. Much 'show as little of the monster as we can to save on budget' shenanigans ensue, before we're treated to one of the most ludicrous ending I've ever seen (girls may wince, though more likely laugh). Truly folks, I'm as partial to a cheesy bit of horror as the next fella, but the words 'scraping' and 'barrel' have never been used more fittingly.