There’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a trashy thriller every now and again, with the over-the-top subgenre always worth a punt under the right circumstances. That being said, it’s exponentially better if the movie in question was made that way on purpose, something that doesn’t apply to 2016’s unanimously-panned When the Bough Breaks.
On the plus side, the concept of an increasingly-crazed surrogate mother developing a dangerous obsession with the husband of the couple who hired her to carry their child clearly struck a chord with audiences, who put their money where their mouths were to see the film recoup its $11 million budget almost three times over at the box office.
On the other side of the coin, a 12 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating tells the other side of the story, because When the Bough Breaks is hardly top-tier cinema. Then again, if you take it a lot less seriously than the writer, director, and cast members did, then there’s some fun to be had watching an unintentionally hilarious series of event unfold as the insanity begins to ramp up in ever more preposterous fashion.
Hulu subscribers appear to be in on the joke – or at least you’d hope so – with FlixPatrol naming the accidental comedy as one of the 10 biggest hits on Hulu this weekend. Nobody involved allowed their tongue to come within touching distance of their cheek, but that’s about the only way to wring any sort of entertainment value from an otherwise superficial and silly descent into madness.