"I wanted to make a human monster. His name is Coffin Baby. The idea is based on a group of people from Pasadena whose names I can't mention. His mother died and during the funeral, this baby came out of her in the coffin"
About this Quote
The name "Coffin Baby" is pure grindhouse poetry, a tabloid headline that doubles as a joke. Hooper knows you laugh because you have to, because the alternative is sitting with the queasy fact that the body doesn't care about narrative closure. Death isn't a curtain; it's a leak. That gallows humor is part of his larger project as a filmmaker: making the everyday grotesque, then making the grotesque feel uncomfortably plausible.
Then there's the sneaky ethical layer: "a group of people from Pasadena whose names I can't mention". The coy omission frames this as both urban legend and personal score-settling, a swipe at respectable suburban anonymity. Pasadena reads as a stand-in for polite America - trimmed lawns, sealed secrets. Hooper's subtext: the monster isn't the baby. It's the community that wants the story buried, the way it wants everything buried, cleanly, on schedule.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hooper, Tobe. (n.d.). I wanted to make a human monster. His name is Coffin Baby. The idea is based on a group of people from Pasadena whose names I can't mention. His mother died and during the funeral, this baby came out of her in the coffin. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wanted-to-make-a-human-monster-his-name-is-161718/
Chicago Style
Hooper, Tobe. "I wanted to make a human monster. His name is Coffin Baby. The idea is based on a group of people from Pasadena whose names I can't mention. His mother died and during the funeral, this baby came out of her in the coffin." FixQuotes. Accessed February 2, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wanted-to-make-a-human-monster-his-name-is-161718/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I wanted to make a human monster. His name is Coffin Baby. The idea is based on a group of people from Pasadena whose names I can't mention. His mother died and during the funeral, this baby came out of her in the coffin." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-wanted-to-make-a-human-monster-his-name-is-161718/. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.





