Review of The Babadook (2014) by Russell G — 26 Oct 2015

Do not fall for the title; The Babadook is an excellent horror movie. Great horror movies like this one scare us, but they go beyond that. The Babadook has a plotline that builds suspense and establishes an important understanding and emotional connection to the characters.

When you get inside of the characters, their fears and pains become yours. That is one of the most important things for any drama or horror to be effective, and this movie does it perfectly. The story involves a troublesome child who acts out and displays violent behaviors and his ragged single mother.

While the child is full of problems, he is still innocent and endearing even so. The boy finds a book and begs his mother to read it to him, but it is full of threatening images and rhymes that foreshadow dark events to come.

It develops into a brilliantly original take on the monster under the bed. This alone generates excellent suspense, as an innocent child and his mother are completely vulnerable in their own house from some kind of dark force.

It layers more complexity by making the viewer questioning whether the things happening are real or psychological. The story is about more than a haunting; it is about grief and loss. In fact, the haunting itself is a superb metaphor for grieving process.

Even with a modest budget, the movie looks great and the acting is excellent. Essentially, there are only two characters in the story, the boy and his mother. It is hard to find good child actors, but this Noah Wiseman is great.

Essie Davis is amazing as the mother. Her physical acting and worn facial expressiveness conveys enormous amounts to the viewer without saying a word. This is a first effort for Jennifer Kent as a director, and she shows immense potential.

She also wrote the story and co-produced it. She understands how to scare people with unseen suspense and character development rather than special effects and cheap jump scares. This is an intellectual horror movie that has details and symbolism that require more than one viewing to appreciate it fully.

It did not get much attention, but it is a true horror movie classic.