User blog:TenCents/Cry Baby Lane

Cry Baby Lane was a made-for-TV movie that aired on Nickelodeon once on October 28, 2000. Originally envisioned as a $10 million feature film, Nickelodeon decided to make it a made-for-TV movie for $800,000. The film was shot in a condemned neighborhood in New Jersey (!) and was based on a legend that director Peter Lauer had heard when he was living in Tontogany, Ohio.

Once there was a farmer, who had a wife. The wife had given birth to conjoined twins, one who was good, and one who was clearly evil. The farmer, knowing that his reputation would be ruined if anyone found out about the twins, locked them in their room with only spiders to eat. As the years passed, the twins grew older, with the evil one becoming more evil. Eventually, the twins grew sick and died, and the farmer, knowing he could finally separate the twins, cut them in half, burying the good twin in a graveyard, and the evil twin near a lane past his house. It is said that if you pass by the lane at night, you can still hear the evil twin crying. That is why the lane is called Cry Baby Lane.

In the film, Andrew and Carl hear the story about the farmer from the undertaker Mr. Bennett, and decide to pull a prank on their "lady friends." However, Carl cuts a weed that is connected to the spirit of the evil twin in the graveyard (Mr. Bennett had accidently switched the twins' bodies, meaning the evil twin is the one in the graveyard, while the good twin is on Cry Baby Lane), inadvertently releasing the twin's spirit into town, where it possesses everyone except Andrew.

The film is not actually a bad film. What has chased the film for years is it's exceptionally bad acting for many of the actors, and the fact that it was only shown once. Parents reportedly complained that their children were scared of the film, and this resulted in the film being banned. Director Peter Lauer reportedly wanted to have Tom Waits play Mr. Bennett, but Nickelodeon felt that Frank Langella would give the film more hype, so they cast him (ultimately, it didn't work). Because it was only shown once, very few remembered the film, save for the few who liked it. Then there were the demented people.

A couple years back, a creepypasta was written about Cry Baby Lane. The story alleged that the director, Peter Lauer, was demented and reportedly tried to show scenes of rape and murder in the finished film during the planning stages. The pasta was, of course, bogus, but it showed the film in such a bad light that people began making up stories of stuff like "original ending" or such.

For years, no one could find the film, and it was believed to be lost. In 2011, Reddit started a campaign for someone to find an entire copy of the lost film. Finally, a user found it, and once it was re-uploaded, the film began to get some hype from people who saw it 10 years ago. Finally, Nickelodeon announced it would be showing the film on October 31, 2011 as part of the TeenNick programming block The '90s Are All That.

What really ticks me off is the fact that Cry Baby Lane will forever be known as a film that was banned for being scary, and the fact that it had it's very own creepypasta. It's a good film, and if it ever is shown in your area, watch it. Just don't go out to an old dirt road at night and stick around to hear a baby crying...