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Review: “The Babadook”


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The Babadook wants to get inside, and not just your house. This is no children’s fairy tale.


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When we meet Amelia at the start of The Babadook, she is dreaming.  The film doesn’t come out and say it, but you know that it is a dream she has had many times before, stemming from a memory of the worst thing to ever happen to her.  Amelia’s husband died in a car crash driving her to the hospital as she was in labor with her only son, Samuel. She now lives alone with Samuel, age 6, who is quite a handful. We immediately sympathize with Amelia as we see the daily struggles she endures. I won’t go so far as to call Samuel troubled (there are multiple ways to read the portrayal) but he certainly doesn’t fit in with others his age, and he, and his mom, have to continually wrestle with his belief in monsters. Amelia isn’t getting a lot of sleep, Samuel isn’t getting a lot of sleep, and things are about to get a lot worse once the boy discovers a bedtime story called “Mister Babadook” on his bookshelf. As you can probably guess, the titular creature does not stay contained within the confines of the book’s pages.

The Babadook’s appearance at first seems linked to Samuel and his fear of monsters. It is, after all, the subject of a children’s book about a monster that he finds in his room. It soon becomes clear that the link has more to do with Amelia, and what that means gives the film its power and complexity. An argument could even be made that the Babadook isn’t real, but all horror villains are a metaphor for something, so arguing whether they are actually real in the universe of the movie is kind of a moot point. That train of thought does have some horrifying implications, though. Why, for instance, was Samuel so prepared for the monster, including his fashioning of a number of homemade weapons? I would love nothing more than to continue down this path, especially as it relates to the final outcome of the story, but there is no way to do so without spoiling the film. The fact that it begs such analysis after the fact is what sets it head-and-shoulders above so many of its peers.

Much like It Follows, The Babadook doesn’t waste a lot of time on explaining its horrors. The filmmakers trust that we can fill in the blanks and don’t really need to know the mechanics behind how the book came to be in the house, or what specific manner of eldritch horror Mister Babadook is. By withholding that information, and leaving things open to interpretation, you could argue that there is more enjoyment to be had contemplating the movie after it is over than while you are watching it. I’m not so sure that’s true for It Follows, a stylish and gorgeously shot film that I enjoyed from start to finish, but it does ring true for The Babadook, which I found somewhat off-putting as I watched. “Creepy kids” is a horror genre that doesn’t bother me, but “kids in peril” is a trope that has always struck a nerve (and no, I didn’t turn into a wuss once I had my own kids; Cujo wrecked me for the same reason way back in my youth.) The set up where we meet this broken family made me uncomfortable because it was both so bleak and realistic. Later in the film, in some scenes where a panic-stricken and sleep-deprived Amelia turns on her son with some terribly abusive language, I nearly physically recoiled. There were times when I questioned whether this is what I signed up for in a scary movie.

Having made it to the end, however, I can’t not recommend this film. The acting is very good, particularly on the part of Essie Davis who is asked to do so much in the lead role that the entire thing would have completely unraveled if not for her incredible performance. It is definitely scary, as well. The scene where the Babadook enters the house is probably the most visceral scare I’ve had all season. The most chilling scenes, however, the ones that have the highest potential of invading my nightmares, involve Amelia in her chair late at night, watching old silent-era films and news reports. I won’t give too much away, but those scenes helped propel the hallucinatory and psychological terror of the film into overdrive. So, despite the fact that it is often discomfiting in a way that I don’t necessarily enjoy, I’m all for people checking this one out.  If for no other reason than I can’t wait to talk with you about it.

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