She has a shady fiancé, Mike ( Theo Rossi), who helps her create the image of a nice young couple, so much that when Mike is arrested for beating Anna, she is invited to stay at the Taylors’ beautiful New Orleans house, where an obsession suddenly flares within Anna. During the opening credits, they learn about Anna ( Jaz Sinclair), a smiling young woman who loves the idea of having something that someone else wants. They’ve gone through three miscarriages and are on their last embryo. Steered by a wall-to-wall score that tells you the exact tone of a scene, “When the Bough Breaks” starts innocently enough, with a beautiful couple, John and Laura Taylor ( Morris Chestnut and Regina Hall, respectively) who are trying to find the right surrogate mother.
This would be fine if the story wasn’t so hideous, this time replacing the violent masculinity of characters played previously by Idris Elba (“No Good Deed”) and Michael Ealy (“The Perfect Guy”) with the tale of a villainous pregnant woman seeking to destroy a marriage and their last hope at having a baby, all to see if we have more taste than the film itself.
When it yearns for horror thrills, the "behind you!" beats are by-the-book.
It is directed in large part by stimulating pieces: establishing shots of powerful skyscrapers or the interiors of a fancy home close-ups of select PG-13 flesh. The latest addition to this informal franchise is “When the Bough Breaks,” which boasts no good escapism and a very imperfect sense of humanity.