Dir: Harmony Korine
Cast: Juan Bofill, Shawn Thomas, Steven Rodriguez, Antonio Jackson, Tej Limlas Ly
The latest project by Harmony Korine is more of an attack on the senses than a narrative feature, as the experimental filmmaker comments on the blurred lines between video games and real life.
Almost two years ago I began writing up movie reviews on my very own blog at DanLovesFilm. During this period, I have watched a handful of films that have proven to be more of a challenge when it comes to writing up my thoughts, but none have come close to the predicament I find myself in as I struggle to write this very review you are reading. “Baby Invasion”, the latest project by experimental, American filmmaker Harmony Korine, is not your conventional narrative feature, but instead a visceral experience that will put your video and audio senses through a ringer.
This is the second project Korine has produced through his creative and technology company EDGLRD, following the release of the equally acid-trip inducing, action-thriller “Aggro Dr1ft” in 2023, which was shot entirely in infrared. Much like its spiritual predecessor, “Baby Invasion” has a very moot plot and structure, with the creative focus largely shifting towards “vibes”, in this case a neon-drenched, fever dream with a relentless electronic score by British artist Burial, continuously beating you over the head until you bow into submission. The excessiveness of the thumping score and wild sound mixing compensate for the lack of dialogue, of which there is none for the vast majority of the 80-minute runtime. Instead, the narrative is either shown distinctly through the increasingly disturbing and real acts of violence and domestic terrorism, or in the majority of cases it is spelt out by the live twitch chat that occupies the left side of the screen throughout.
To help you make some sense of all of the apparent nonsense of the above paragraphs, I will attempt to give a brief rundown as to what “Baby Invasion” is about. Korine’s latest deep-dive into the virtual realm introduces us to a fictional video game entitled “Baby Invaders”, which while in early development is leaked onto the dark web, allowing online players to have early access to the game’s taboo features. “Baby Invaders” is a real-life, first-person shooter that its players to take part in simulated home invasions of wealthy mansions, often resulting in the bloody demise of the inhabitants. To disguise the “characters” within the game, their faces have been replaced with that of babies with the use of A.I, hence the game’s title.
As we essentially watch a couple of these invasions play out in first person as a livestream, the very real imagery – which is then overlayed with old-school, 8-bit graphics including dialogue boxes and collectable gold coins – has you question if this really is a video game, or are the masked twitch streamers “playing” it indirectly responsible for the potentially real events taking place within the game. This is essentially it for 80 minutes, and even Korine himself has described “Baby Invasion” as a visual experience, rather than a film.
While there is very little to clutch onto in terms of investment, I could help but find myself somewhat gripped by Korine’s exploration of the modern online gaming community, and how video games desensitise the youth of genuine violence in the real world, so much so as video game graphics start to become more photo-real, gamers still manage to detach themselves from ultra violent content. Then there is the topic of twitch streaming itself, which brings up the topic of witnessing heinous acts of violence without intervention, and if this is just as problematic as committing the acts themselves.
Whilst watching “Baby Invasion” I felt myself fall into a deep trance as the visuals and techno soundtrack almost hypnotised me to the point where I myself could not do more than just sit there like a zombie and stare at this video game livestream, proving Korine’s point of how susceptible gamers can be to such extreme content. At the same time, is there really much to this outside of that? Not really. Once it finished, and my eyesight had fully recovered, I did not dwell too much on what I had witnessed, it was all very in the moment. It may be a commentary on counterculture, but Korine’s experimental approach only allows his messaging to get through in the short time you are entranced by the trippy visual content.
“Baby Invasion” is more of an experience than a film, and for that reason I find it extremely difficult to recommend to anyone unless they are well aware as to what they will be subjecting themselves to. I consider it to be more of an art exhibition than a film, a piece of media that would not be out of place in MoMA or the Tate Modern, where it may have been more positively recieved perhaps.
I am curious as to what Korine does next, as he has long since left behind the world of narrative structure, last seen in 2019’s “The Beach Bum”, and with EDGLRD looking to branch out into technology, toys, music and even video games themselves, we may see his experimental filmmaking approach through other media in the future.
Baby Invasion is now available on Video on Demand
Dan Loves Film 
Is that an actual image from the movie? lol
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