ah october the undisputed best month of the year hoodie weather candy corn and spoopy movies now
while i do have some more horror themed stuff coming up this month on the channel i wanted
to discuss the curious case of crybaby lane a made for tv nickelodeon horror movie that after
being premiered on tv one time was never heard from again until about a decade ago
and that's always fascinated me anytime a piece of media is there and gone and it's only then
after a period of time we find the answers to why that was truly peaks my curiosity so
to kick off some more horror-esque content let's take a look at what crybaby lane was
why it became so infamous and vanished from nickelodeon's catalog
october 28 2000. nickelodeon would premiere a film titled crybaby lane as a part of their
snick halloween themed broadcasting block to fit this season and was hosted by melissa joan hart
of clarissa explains it all and sabrina the teenage witch fame at the time but what would
have been your average original television movie turned into infamy would premiere on this date
and then never be heard from again until 2011 when it did but we're getting ahead of ourselves
so how did crybaby lane become what would be considered lost media for over a decade and be
purposely forgotten by the network and to this day still is barely remembered by the masses
first let's take a look at the film what it's all about and see if we can start to get an
understanding the movie follows the story of andrew and his brother carl being told
the tale of a farmer who was a father to conjoined twins but with one being good and the other being
evil with the shame the farmer felt he hid the twins away within a locked room where they would
eventually fall ill and pass away to hide them away further the farmer sawed the twins apart
burying the good twin in a regular cemetery and separating them burying the evil twin near the
farmer's house in a shallow grave and as kids do andrew carl and their friends decide to head
to the cemetery and perform a seance while they performed this act near the body of the good twin
it's the evil twin that gets awakened who then goes on to wreak havoc in their town and possess
nearly everyone now what makes the film more interesting is that it is loosely based off of
ohio ghost stories that the director peter lauer heard while growing up quoted when speaking to the
daily there was a haunted farmhouse and if you went up there at midnight you could hear a baby
crying it'd make your high school girlfriend scared okay peter anyone would be scared but
in searching further crybaby lane in bowling green ohio taking place in the city limits on euler road
seems to showcase something more sinister with the urban legend about a young mother one night
walking ruler road was cradling her sleeping baby distraught and crying she walked over to
a tree by the side of the road proceeding to then climb the tree baby still in arms stopping at the
first branch tying up a blanket around the neck of the baby and then well you can see where that
was going to this day any traveler making their way through euler road gets filled with a sense
of dread and constant uneasy feelings reports of electrical disturbances affecting cell phones and
car radios have been reported as well as some claim the distant sounds of a baby crying with
an echoing reverberation and some even claimed to have seen the ghost of the baby being held by its
neck from the blanket attached to the branch of the tree but that's just an urban legend right
nickelodeon has sticked a claim for you snick every saturday night on nickelodeon
you're watching snake just a quick warning for the next several seconds here i will be
spoiling the ending of the film so jump to the time on the screen if you wish not to hear it
as far as the rest of the movie itself following the events of the seance we learn about the big
reveal of the twins being swapped when buried meaning that the seance wasn't performed on
the good twin but the evil one andrew must cut the root that is wrapped around the good twin skeleton
all the while the evil twin is trying to refill the grave with dirt and bury andrew alive but
just in the nick of time he cuts the route and the evil twin vanishes now sure the film was a
bit darker than most things on nickelodeon but in hindsight the film doesn't feel that envelope
pushing now kind of the biggest issue the movie faced was instant backlash from parents citing the
film was too dark for a family-friendly kid and teen focused network but why would nickelodeon go
through with premiering this movie and not think a wave of instant backlash would ensue following
certain details of what the film had offered well the start of its production life wasn't as
how nick envisioned it the tone they were going for originally when planning everything was a
mildly scary are you afraid of the dark type of feeling allowing it to fit in with the horror s
content already found on the channel but now with the backlash in full effect what was nickelodeon
to do after pulling it off the air following its first airing well nickelodeon claiming that it was
an accidental airing at the time with no claim of ownership to the film sure helps reduce the
onslaught of parental complaints for one in many other instances nick had never acknowledged it for
a long time after as to not bring any further attention to it which is smart when you're
trying to cover up something like burying your children after slawing them in half now tell me
does art imitate life or does life imitate art another horrifying story tying into the name
crybaby lane takes place in raleigh north carolina where in which a roman catholic
orphanage burned down in the later 1950s sadly taking the lives of the children trapped inside
months after this residents close by reported still smelling smoke as if the fire was still
raging even the feeling of their lungs filling up with smoke when walking in the empty field where
the orphanage once stood but this would only be the beginning of what some would come to claim
voices are said to be heard that grow louder the longer you are hearing them the sounds of
crying and even screaming children would cut through the silence of the empty field today
most of the houses that were in close proximity to the once orphanage are now abandoned as most
wanted nothing to do with living near where the horrible and tragic event took place
an eerie feeling of pure dread and sadness are all that remain if you are brave enough to stroll by
for years and years after the memories of a horror movie that no one can recall every exact detail
about picked up more and more traction through different forums online most leads always ended
at some sort of roadblock with only slight clues and minimal answers but nothing concrete enough to
fully prove its existence the real sparks of hope came in the form of a tv guide listing on the film
and a synopsis of the movie on fandango as one of the clips surfaced around the internet but still
no full versions of the film came to light in january of 2011 the full investigation into
crybaby lane ramped up to a large group effort the website huntforcbl.blogspot.com with the header
the hunt for crybaby lane would now be at the forefront of compiling every bit of information
regarding the film starting with everything they had uncovered so far ran by a user going
by the name malik with details such as knowing the name of the film when it had aired in the
several unfinished leads that they had had some of those included knowing someone who had a copy of
the film minus the first 15 minutes and wanted 30 dollars for the tape which in honesty even though
it may be a bit sketchy what's 30 at this point to a decade-long mystery even just to find out if
that lead wasn't real at least to me would be well worth the 30 dollars change is good sneak with us
after finding a user on youtube who uploaded a trailer of the film contacting him for
information didn't lead anywhere as the user never replied another effort tried was a petition
for nickelodeon to acknowledge and in some way show in its entirety the film unfortunately that
didn't work either after more people were becoming aware of this hunt for crybaby lane more stories
about recalling the movie in detail started to come forward as well as photographic evidence of
at least one of the rumored tapings of the film out there but there still just wasn't enough of
a force out there pushing this pursuit to gain larger attention that is until a creepypasta
took the internet by storm painting this more than thought of disturbing picture of why this
film is hidden and things that didn't make the final cut that when described in this post become
immediately clear that this was all fake while an interesting creepypasta this post would be easily
disproved especially once we actually got to see the film once it was released but there is a good
thing that this post did and that was bringing said attention to crybaby lane and the hunt for
it it wasn't until august of the same year that the film would be handed over from a user by the
name of fire peach salad to malik and thus this decade-long mystery has come to an end the full
movie had been dispersed around garnering so much attention that it is speculated to be the
reason why team nick decided to re-air the film that year on tv for halloween on october 31st
2011. after that it would air several more times over the years and now a decade after
it was found we get to sit here and look back at the original decade-long search for crybaby
lane the film's director pete lauer even commented on the film coming back to tv
and seeing such a dedicated group of people who worked for years to rediscover it saying he just
assumed they didn't show it again because they didn't like it i thought it failed and i moved on
nickelodeon would later claim that it was just forgotten about nothing more than that it wasn't
banned or loss or anything along those lines which with all the evidence pointing to them doing so
as well as how hard people had to work to find it this claim seems like another quick outing of
responsibility on their end i for one do think that nickelodeon never intended for this film
to be found and in an effort to look good played along and released the film again on tv to wipe
away any possible stains it left during its original premiere and backlash but all of this
is surely up for debate so what do you think let me know as well as if you've seen the movie do you
think it deserved the backlash it received from parents for the nature of its content
or was it a lot more tame than it was rumored to be i hope you all had some fun with today's video
i have some more nostalgic horror content coming later this month so make sure to hit that like
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all the updates regarding my content and i'll be back soon with a new video but until then later
you