Vinegar Syndrome snakes out the "sewage baby" that is THE SUCKLING on Blu-ray/DVD combo.

Big Mama (Janet Sovey) runs a brothel and abortion clinic out of a rundown old house on the wrong side of the tracks. Although she wants to keep the baby and promises not to divulge the identity of its father, Mary (Ella Aralovich) allows herself to be talked into visiting Big Mama by college-bound boyfriend Billy (Tim Martin Crouse). Mary does not realize until she has awakened from a drugged sleep that Billy has paid Big Mama to do the procedure and her baby has been flushed down the toilet. An upset Mary wants to leave but they find their exit blocked, and not because prostitute Tammy shot her kinky client and bouncer Sherman (Gerald Preger) must hid the body, but because the doors are stuck and the windows have been enveloped in a strange organic material (the phone's dead too, of course). The fetus, it turns out, has not traveled far, winding up in a skid row sewer that has served as a dumping ground for toxic waste. The fetus grows at a staggering rate, also growing claws, fangs, a spurred umbilical cord, and an appetite for revenge and human flesh. Traveling back up the pipes, he stocks the denizens of the brothel whose attempts at escape are hampered by in-fighting, what with Big Mama's psychotic son Axel (Frank Rivera) vying for control with Sherman while being needled by his punching bag Sheryl (Susan Brodsky). No one thinks to grab the Draino as the creature moves through the pipes and pops out through drains, toilets, and walls devouring anyone who stands between him and a reunion with his mommy.

A New York regional oddity, THE SUCKLING was the sole feature credit of most of the cast as well as director Francis Teri, which is odd because it's not all that bad. There's not a lot of depth to the story – despite the aborted fetus coming back to kill, it does not really feel like an anti-abortion film – but it does have a vaguely feminist through line with its male characters vying for control of the situation and venting their frustrations by heaping abuse on the female characters. However uneven the performances, the photography of is generally of a bare minimum professional standard, the make-up effects are okay, and the creature effects are fantastic. The comedic aspects of the film and the sometimes cartoonish violence make one wonder why Troma did not pick it up (they probably would not have given it more theatrical exposure, but you could be sure it would have been constantly in print even in the form of a putrid video master). The wraparound story concludes in bad taste in spite of the final frame stinger.

Given scant release on the East Coast before coming to VHS through York Entertainment in the late nineties, THE SUCKLING was one of the unlikely recipients of a remastered DVD in the waning days of Elite Entertainment in 2005. The barebones DVD, or an Amazon.com exclusive DVD-R, was the go to option until 2016 when 88 Films put out a Blu-ray in the UK (region-locked viewers had the option of a BD-R from Films Around the World that came out the same year). Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray is derived from a new 2K scan of the original 16mm camera negative. The film looks the part of a nineties low budget film, and that's a good thing. The alternately flat and harshly lit photography is always well-exposed and the colors really pop while the monster suit and animatronic creature head hold up extremely well in high definition. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track gives spread to the music and some directionality to the offscreen sounds of the monster moving around through the pipes around and above the characters but the mix is generally front-oriented and centered. Optional English SDH subtitles are included.