Through tactful scares and sickening doubt, The Babadook has proven itself to be the most frightening film of the year. Carefully balancing familiar horror tropes with gut-wrenching family drama, The Babadook lures viewers into an odd sense of stasis, then scares the shit out of them.
Through tactful scares and sickening doubt, The Babadook has proven itself to be the most frightening film of the year. Carefully balancing familiar horror tropes with gut-wrenching family drama, The Babadook lures viewers into an odd sense of stasis, then scares the shit out of them.
In an era where horror movies have relied on blood and gore to get their jumps, The Babadook dares to take the opposite approach. In the vein of Rosemary’s Baby, there’s not so much violence in this film as there is the threat of violence, a threat which becomes more and more pronounced as the film progresses.
Again, hearkening back to early Polanski films, the film drips paranoia. Some of the tensest moments come not from what you see or don’t see, but how the movie’s lead handles the crumbling world around her.
Viewer beware; there is little in the way of levity here. This film begins mournfully and doesn’t let up. The babadook may or may not be real, but the emotions are, and the obscured violence which follows only serves to prove this point.
Based on the short film Monster, also by Babadook writer/director Jennifer Kent, The Babadook follows single mother Amelia. Our heroine, played by an exhausted Essie Davis, struggles to come to terms with the tragic death of her husband years before, while raising their son Samuel–played impressively by Noah Wiseman.
Wiseman’s performance is easily one of the most convincing from any child actor to date. This kid’s face adds so many dimensions to the film. He really manages to sell the elusive feeling of terror so many directors struggle to achieve.
Amelia, a woman truly on the brink, barely manages to hang on to a job and raise her problematic son. Completely alone, the two live an existence of self-sufficiency, trudging through life with the ghost of her husband haunting their every action.
It’s at this point that the book “Mister Babadook” arrives in their life, seemingly from nowhere.
The pop-up children’s book initially appears benign, but quickly turns sinister. As Amelia reads the story, Samuel squirms in terror. Before long, Amelia reads a phrase which will come to haunt the rest of the film:
“If it’s in a word or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook.”
From here, the story only gets darker. An incident at a children’s birthday party, visual hallucinations, and Samuel’s face continues to reinforce the abstract horror throughout the film.
The Babadook comes to Criterion Cinemas at Movieland Boulevard Square Friday, December 12th. Check it out.
