The Babadook

Jennifer Kent – 2014 – Australia

This excellent Australian film is probably the best of its genre that I’ve seen since Ti West’s The House of the Devil (2009).  I don’t claim to be a horror connoisseur, but of the few I’ve seen in the past few years, this is the most impressive.  It is the first feature by its director, Jennifer Kent, and she wisely sidesteps virtually every worn-out trend in recent popular fright films; especially the cheap scares and found-footage affectations of American ghost movies.  Instead, as in older classics like The Exorcist or The Shining, she remains focused on primal fears that are common and yet difficult to address; particularly with regards to parenting.  Amelia (Essie Davis) is a young mother still coping with the loss of her husband who was killed in an accident while driving her to the hospital to give birth.  Years later, their son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) is eccentric and seems to be showing worsening emotional problems and eventually has to be taken out of school.  Samuel is obsessed with the idea that a monster is in the house and he crafts some homemade weapons with which to fight it.  It’s evident early on that the father’s absence and death are still looming large over the household.  There is much talk about protecting each other from outsiders as well as intruders.  The film shifts gears from the son to the mother very gradually, not as a twist, and I found this the most fascinating aspect of the film; that the son’s issues are really rooted in the mother’s issues.  The titular Mr. Babadook is a boogeyman character in a children’s book that appears out of nowhere.  Samuel immediately associates him with the monster he senses in the house, and Amelia is equally disturbed.  Special mention has to be made of the special effects in the film; they are almost all practical versus digital and the difference is still remarkable despite the rapid advances of CGI.  The performance of Noah Wiseman is one of the greatest by a child I’ve ever seen; it’s hard to believe he won’t go on to a substantial career.  At its core, though, the film is effective because of the simple and direct way it deals with some basic human fears; not only a darkened bedroom at night, but making the right decisions for a child, and especially losing one’s grip on sanity.  The Babadook notably made a huge impression on William Friedkin, who has been raving about it on Twitter; placing it in a line with Diabolique, Psycho and Alien as a game-changing horror film.