Review of The Babadook (2014) by Brandon S — 08 Mar 2017

The biggest compliment I can give this movie is that, at the end of it all, it doesn't actually matter whether the Babadook is real or not. It's ultimately a metaphor for grief and how one comes to terms with their own monsters.

Now that we have my little bit of pretentious movie reviewer stuff out of the way, let's talk about the scares because there's a lot of great ones. It's no secret that the horror genre has been in a pretty bad way lately as far as original material and original scares, and this movie is such a giant leap in the right direction. Jennifer Kent doesn't just throw shocking images and jump scares in front of you. Rather she relies on atmosphere and a constant state of paranoia to keep the viewer engrossed in this hellish nightmare of a movie.

Jennifer Kent has given us the thinking man's horror movie, and given it to us in spades. This is a movie that will NOT be enjoyed by the majority of the viewing audience sadly. It's just too original and too ambitious. The modern horror audience doesn't want original properties. Instead, they want franchises and jump scares and found footage. All of which have their place in cinema.

Overall, this is a movie that chooses not to scare you simply with images of a scary monster or loud noises or creepy imagery, but rather with the psychological decomposition of a grief-stricken woman (played flawlessly by Essie Davis in an Oscar caliber performance). This is an absolute masterpiece of a film, and one of the first truly terrifying movies we've had in some time!