The Baby in the Basket Digital and DVD Review

3 star crazy convent shenanigans.

The Baby in the Basket is a 2025 British drama/horror/mystery film, co-written by Tom Jolliffe (Firenado, When Darkness Falls) and Andy Crane (Dead Before They Wake, Death Among the Pines), who also directs alongside Nathan Shepka (Lock & Load), who can also be found starring as number one Nun enthusiast Daniel.

It is available to own on UK DVD and Digital Platforms from 17th February 2025, courtesy of High Fliers Films.

“By the third day, the presence of the wolf had been felt by several of the Nuns.”

It’s 1944, and while the Second World War rages on elsewhere, on a remote Scottish island, the Nuns of St. Augustine’s have their own problems. Annalise (Annabelle Lanyon – Burlesque Fairytales, Legend) has seen and been chased by a white wolf and several of the other Nuns are also on edge about the situation.

Eleanor (Michaela Longden – Cara), who is of questionable faith, is being sent to the mainland by the Mother Superior (Maryam d’Abo – The Living Daylights, Dorian Gray) for her own good. Annalise goes with her, leaving the rest of them in the capable hands of aging handyman Amos (Paul Barber – The Full Monty, The Long Good Friday) and his young and somewhat frisky apprentice Daniel (Nathan Shepka).

He is rather taken with Agnes (Amber Doig-Thorne – Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, The Seven), as well as Valerie (Elle O’Hara – When Darkness Falls, Cara) and the silent Lucy (Lisa Riesner – No Dogs Allowed), but luckily he is too busy preparing for the incoming storm to act on his urges. As the storm sweeps in, making the island inaccessible, a mysterious woman emerges from the rain and leaves a basket containing a baby on the convent door step.

The nuns take him in and care for him, but strange things begin to happen, they start to hear him talking to them and soon come to believe that he may be evil. Who left this child here, and why?

“Don’t mock me sister, I know what I saw. It was a wolf. Tell them Lucy, you saw it too.”

The Baby in the Basket is a very entertaining film, although not without it’s flaws. Despite the title, it is a rather long time before any baskets or babies are forthcoming and I was rather disappointed that they seemed to forget about the initial wolf storyline, I was quite looking forward to seeing where that was going.

It’s very gothic in its presentation and the remote locations certainly lend an air of fear to the whole thing. While it delivers on the chill factor, it never really musters any real scares. It doesn’t help that all of the nuns are clearly barking mad even before anything strange starts to happen.

The final third of the film is where it starts getting weird and amusing at the same time as bizarre practical effects are employed to put funny little horns and glowy eyes on a baby. Hilarious (although I’m not sure it was meant to be). All in all it’s a fun watch, I would definitely watch it again. Worth adding to your collection if you like a bit of wimple action.

I do not wish this to become an unsafe and uncomfortable environment for my younger sisters. Their purity is a virtue and a blessing, not a prize to be taken.”