Review: The Babadook

The Babadook

Director: Jennifer Kent

Starring: Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall, Noah Wiseman

Running Time: 95 mins

If The Babadook could be reviewed in one word then you’d simply think the likes of terrifying, creepy or chilling would be more than appropriate, and you would be right. However, surprisingly, the most suitable word for describing The Babadook would be refreshing, not a word often used to label contemporary horror films.

The Babadook tells the story of widow, Amelia (Essie Davis), whose husband was tragically killed in a car crash whilst taking her to the hospital to give birth to her troubled son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). As Samuel grows up he becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea of monsters living under his bed or in his closet, even going so far as to designing monster fighting weapons which he brings to school, leading to his expulsion. One night he is read ‘Mister Babadook,’ a mysterious book that is found in his bedroom, with no explanation of where it came from. From that point, Samuel’s behaviour becomes much more erratic and violent, blaming the effect of the illusive Babadook, leading Amelia to the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Horror film, nowadays, is possibly the easier genre to turn a quick profit and that is often shown through the final product, and in a way you can’t really blame producers for doing this. If we look at Annabelle and Deliver us from Evil, two contemporary examples of horror films, neither had a remarkable budget ($6.5 million and $35 million, respectively) and neither had a star studded cast. Yet the films managed modest to outstanding commercial success, with Annabelle, in particular going on to rake in $250 million! However the films were too reliant on big jumps, loud bangs and gore in order to bring home the dough and were dismissive of critical reception, but with the potential profit margins available, you can really understand why.

Here, however is how The Babadook is different. Kent has managed to create a film that brings a completely fresh approach to horror cinema, dismissing the ‘easy’ scare tactics of big jumps and loud noises in favour of a more patient, slow build up approach which makes the film all the more terrifying.  However it’s the subtleties that make for some of the most unnerving scenes in the film. At one point, Amelia rips up the book only for it to turn up on her doorstep, repaired with new pages added to it portraying Amelia being controlled by the Babadook. The production design on the book itself is stunning (kudos to the designer) and truly is one of the most terrifying scenes in the entire film.

What makes The Babadook stand out even more from the usual horror films is the characters. Essie Davis is terrific as a mother slowly becoming unhinged suffering from the guilt of losing her husband and her struggle taking care of her troubled son. What happens usually in most horror films is that we care very little about the characters and have anything but sympathy when they eventually meet their demise. However the fact that the characters are incredibly relatable and there is genuine sympathy for the struggles of Amelia which makes the film all the more tremendous.

It has more than a subtle hint of a Polanski film, owing a great to Rosemary’s Baby with the idea of an unseen evil force effecting characters only too close to home and in the character of Mister Babadook we have a character who is genuinely scary without having ever really being fully seen in the entire film.

It certainly is one of the most refreshing horror films in recent years and will surely becoming a cult classic over time. It shows that yes you can make a low budget horror film that manages to both genuinely scare us without resorting to easy, generic tactics, and have us care and relate to its characters.

In addition to this, in an even more energizing approach, hardly any blood! The horror film to beat this year.