- Cry Baby Lane
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Cry Baby Lane Directed by Peter Lauer Produced by Nickelodeon Movies
Centre Street Productions
Constant CommunicationStarring Jase Blankfort
Trey Rogers
Frank LangellaMusic by Andrew Barrett Studio Nickelodeon[1] Distributed by Nickelodeon Release date(s) October 28, 2000 Running time 96 minutes Country 
United StatesLanguage English Budget $800,000[2] Cry Baby Lane (original teaser title: Someone Wants to Meet You) is a low-budget made for TV movie which premiered on Nickelodeon on the night of October 28, 2000. The film was never re-aired or released on VHS or any software media until 2011. It was believed to be because of complaints from parents who found the film to be too scary and inappropriate for children, but a Nickelodeon representative stated that the film had been merely forgotten. In 2011, TeenNick re-aired the film as part of The '90s Are All That on Halloween.
Contents
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 conjoined 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 who was accidentally buried in the cemetery instead of the good son. Gradually, the bad twin possesses nearly everyone in town, and it is up to young Andrew to stop him.[3][4][5]
Cast and crew
Cry Baby Lane was filmed in Tontogany, Ohio.[6] It was produced by Albie Hecht and Jerry Kupfer.[7] The editor was Doug Able, and John Inwood served as the director of photography.[8] The supporting cast included:[9][10]
- Jase Blankfort as Andrew
- Trey Rogers as Carl
- Larc Spies as Kenneth
- Frank Langella as Bennett
- Anne Lange as Ann Weber[11]
- 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 dollar 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 a condemned neighborhood 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.[2]
Availability
Because Nickelodeon had never released it to the public, Cry Baby Lane was thought to be lost for over a decade. In August 2011 a user from the website Reddit recovered a VHS copy recorded from the film's original broadcast and made it available online. Director Peter Lauer was interviewed soon after and said that he was surprised and flattered by the attention his film had gotten 11 years after its release, being unaware of its supposed banning by Nickelodeon: "I just assumed they didn’t show it again because they didn’t like it! I did it, I thought it failed, and I moved on.”[2] A Nickelodeon representative later claimed that that the film was never banned, it was just forgotten. [12]
In October 2011, TeenNick re-aired Cry Baby Lane on Halloween as part of its '90s Are All That block.
References
- ^ Madeline C. Smith, Richard Eaton, ed (2005). Eugene O'Neill production personnel (illustrated ed.). McFarland & Co.. p. 243. ISBN 9780786421800.
- ^ a b c Lost and found: Fans’ track-down of banned Nickelodeon movie flatters director
- ^ Cry Baby Lane Synopsis - Plot Summary - Fandango.com
- ^ Cry Baby Lane - details
- ^ Cry Baby Lane - MSN Entertainment – Movie Details
- ^ Cry Baby Lane (TV 2000) - IMDb
- ^ TCM
- ^ Cry Baby Lane TV Movie - InBaseline
- ^ Cry Baby Lane (2000) :: starring: Marc John Jefferies
- ^ Cry Baby Lane (2000), The New York Times Movies
- ^ Michael Heim (2004). Exploring America's Highways: Minnesota Trip Trivia. Exploring America's Highway. p. 163. ISBN 9780974435817.
- ^ Nickelodeon airing "banned" movie on Halloween
See also
External links
Categories:- American films
- American television films
- 2000 television films
- Nickelodeon films
- Nickelodeon original films
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