Little Otik2001

Name: Little Otik
Genre: Folk Horror, Comedy Horror, Gothic, Monster & Creature
Released: 2001-01-25
Rating: 7.3

“From the creator of "Alice" and "Faust" comes a most unusual baby…”

Directed by Jan Švankmajer

7.3

Crypt Score

Blended from 4 sources

IMDb 7.3Rotten Tomatoes 84%Metacritic 74TMDB 7.0

✍ Review

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Year

2001

Runtime

132 min

Box Office

Revenue (worldwide)

$116,710

🏆 6 wins & 9 nominations total

The premise

When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real.

Horror Vault's take

Rooted in Czech folklore, Jan Švankmajer's darkly comic fable follows a desperate couple whose longing for a child takes a deeply disturbing turn when an ordinary tree root becomes something far more than a wooden surrogate. What begins as a tender — if delusional — act of love slowly grows into something ravenous and unstoppable. Švankmajer blends stop-motion animation with live action to conjure a world where fairy-tale logic bleeds horrifyingly into suburban domesticity. A neighbourly young girl who knows the old stories may be the only one who understands what is truly being nurtured.

Content: Dark Themes Around Infant Mortality And Infertility, Disturbing Imagery Involving Consumption And Body Horror, Violence Against Animals Suggested, Unsettling Creature Effects