The Babadook (2014)

"I've never seen a more terrifying film. It will scare the hell out of you, as it did me." That's a quote from William Friedkin's Twitter page, which they put on the Blu-Ray case and slipcover for The Babadook, along with various other quotes, including one from Stephen King. Friedkin's endorsement alone was enough to goad me into blindly picking up said Blu-Ray at Best Buy one day in the summer of 2015, which was the first time I'd even heard of the movie. This is another testament to how far out of the loop I am when it comes to low-key, underground movies, as I had not heard a single thing about it, despite how critically acclaimed it was when it was released the previous year. But, when I pulled that Blu-Ray off the shelf, looked at its red slipcover, which had a little popup bit of artwork on the front, and then looked on the back and read the synopsis, along with those quotes, I figured, "I have to see what this is about." And when I did watch it, my response, which I'm sure will annoy a lot of people, was, "That was okay." Much like Let The Right One In, I didn't really see what all the fuss was about, another sign of my personal jadedness when it comes to horror. I couldn't fault the film itself, as I thought it was very well made, the acting was really good, the title monster was a truly frightening presence, and there were many aspects of the story and filmmaking that were effectively unnerving; I just didn't think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, as so many others seemed to. I didn't watch it again until October of 2021, when I was planning this year's theme, and my opinion hasn't really changed. Make no mistake, this is a good movie, but there are other modern horror movies I'd much rather watch.

Six years ago, Amelia Vakan lost her husband, Oskar, in a traffic accident as he was driving her to the hospital while she was in labor. Now, she lives with her son, Samuel, in the city of Adelaide, Australia, but her life is coming apart at the seams. Sam is having nightmares about a monster that he believes is lurking in his bedroom, forcing Amelia to stay up late and comfort him night after night. His erratic behavior and acting out, which include bringing a small crossbow he made himself to school, cause her even more stress during the day and she pulls him out of school when the administrators decide they've had enough. When she goes to read him a bedtime story that night, he chooses a strange, red-colored, popup book called Mister Babadook. Flipping through it and reading it, it proves to be very terrifying and disturbing, depicting the titular monster appearing to and frightening those who've become aware of its presence. Thoroughly scared by it, Sam later says the Babadook is in his room and promises to protect his mother from it. Amelia loses more and more sleep and becomes emotionally and mentally exhausted by Sam's behavior, culminating in their attending a birthday party for his cousin, Ruby, whom Sam pushes out of a tree-house, breaking her nose, when she bullies him about not having a father. Desperate for some sleep, she gets some sedatives from a pediatrician and gives them to Sam. The next morning, she finds the storybook, which she ripped up, on her doorstep, the torn pages patched up, along with new ones saying the Babadook will become stronger the more she denies its existence and that her behavior will change for the worst once it enters her life. Sure enough, she's soon plagued by knocking sounds, has a frightening phone call where a voice says, "Ba, ba, dook, dook, dook!", and begins having visions of the Babadook itself that become more real as time goes on. As Amelia and Sam become more and more isolated from the outside world, and as Amelia's mental state deteriorates, it's clear that something has moved into their house, something evil that intends to first terrify and then utterly destroy them.

The film was the feature directorial debut of Jennifer Kent, who started out as an actor in the 1990's but eventually lost interest in it and decided to take up directing, studying under Lars von Trier by working as a production assistant on his film, Dogville. Afterward, she made a short film called Monster, which was something of a prototype for The Babadook (she's referred to it as "Baby Babadook"), and directed an episode of Two Twisted, an Australian television series akin to The Twilight Zone, before setting out on writing the screenplay for The Babadook. She wrote it in 2009 but it took several years to cobble together the money, with her and her producer ultimately having to resort to Kickstarter to get enough of a budget to make it doable. She's said that the actual shooting was pretty stressful, due to the budget (just a little under $3 million) and the fact that one of the two protagonists was only six years old, but it paid off, given the acclaim the movie received and how, despite its limited engagements across the world, it managed to gross $10 million, which is quite good, considering. Kent's second film, 2018's The Nightingale, was similarly acclaimed (though not as commercially successful), and it seems like she has a promising filmmaking career ahead of her.

As Amelia Vanek, Essie Davis, who studied acting with Jennifer Kent, gives one of the most believable and powerful portrayals of a person who's being emotionally and physically put through the wringer. She's already very troubled when the movie begins, having to raise her six-year old son, whose behavior is very erratic, troublesome, and alarming, all by herself. She's exhausted by Samuel's nightmares concerning a monster he claims is in his room, as she's forced to stay up late into the night, reading him stories and comforting him, as well as often allowing him to sleep with her. Not helping matters is his penchant for making homemade weapons to fight off the monster, including a homemade crossbow, which he brings with him to school, leading to the administration to suggest they get a monitor for him. Amelia objects to this and decides to just pull him out of school altogether, which later brings the Department of Community Services knocking on her door. Moreover, her sister, Claire, isn't all that concerned with her problems, makes little secret of the fact that she can't stand Sam (she ultimately flat-out tells Amelia as much), and opts to not have his and her daughter, Ruby's, birthday party on the same day, like they always do. Between all that, Sam's outbursts and reckless stunts, and the demands of her job as an attendant at a senior citizen center, Amelia is teetering on the edge even before the Babadook enters their lives. Speaking of which, one night, out of the blue, Sam pulls out this popup storybook, Mister Babadook, the contents of which horrify the both of them, and Amelia, once again, has to stay up late to try to calm down a hysterical Sam. Immediately afterward, Sam begins to claim the Babadook is haunting his room and is behind a number of strange and sinister happenings around their house, including shards of glass appearing in their food and a picture of her and Oskar, her late husband, being hideously defiled. He even appears to see the Babadook in broad daylight, and when one such episode causes him to have a seizure, Amelia agrees to have him see a psychiatrist, asking for some sedatives in the meantime so she can get some sleep. But, despite her insisting to Sam that the Babadook isn't real, she slowly but surely realizes it is when it begins targeting her.

At the center of Amelia's trauma and emotional issues is the death of Oskar, who died in a traffic accident while driving her to the hospital as she was in labor with Sam. The movie opens with her reliving the accident in a nightmare, something which appears to happen quite frequently, and her pain runs so deep that Oskar has become a taboo subject. Sam is not allowed to touch or even look at his father's possessions, which are kept down in the basement, and others either get the evil eye or

are chewed out when they bring Oskar up. Amelia also becomes depressed at the sight of loving couples, whether in real life or on television, and at one point, she tries to ease her pain, as well as lack of sexual satisfaction, with a vibrator, only for Sam to come bursting in, babbling about the Babadook. Sam's connection to Oskar's death has also left Amelia with an obvious resentment towards him, compounded by his acting out and claims of the Babadook cause her. When he breaks Ruby's nose

at her birthday party and has a total conniption on the way home, a beleaguered and exhausted Amelia yells at him, "Why can't you just be normal?!" After she takes him out of school, she tells others he's sick to avoid embarrassment and, again, is so desperate for some sleep and time away from him that she starts giving him sedatives. Once the Babadook has truly entered their lives, its influence begins to bring Amelia's resentment towards Sam to the surface, sometimes in the form of full-on hatred. At one point, when she's horribly

tired, trying to sleep, and he comes in and starts badgering her, she growls, "Why do you have to keep talk-talk-talking? Don't you ever stop?!... If you're that hungry, why don't you go and eat shit?!" And later, when it's flat-out possessed her, she hisses at him, "You don't know how many times I wished it was you, not him, that died... Sometimes, I just want to smash your head against the brick wall until your fucking brains pop out!"

I wasn't surprised when I learned that one of Kent's influences was The Shining, as Amelia undergoes a spiral into madness similar to Jack Torrance, partly motivated by her and Sam becoming more and more isolated and shut in as the film goes on. For one, Amelia becomes more and more intent on not contacting those on the outside, including Claire and Mrs. Roach, the kindly old woman who lives next door to them. She also becomes all the more short-tempered and impatient with Sam, reacting to

his calling Mrs. Roach on the phone behind her back by taking the battery out, slamming it on the counter, cutting the line with a butcher knife, and locking up the doors, all while yelling at him about embarrassing her in front of the neighbors and saying the Babadook is something he made up, "In your stupid, little head." She starts to have horrific hallucinations of having murdered Sam, one of which comes in the form of a news report of the aftermath of the crime, featuring a shot of her looking out the window, smiling crazily. After the

latter, she follows "Sam" down to the basement, where she encounters a vision of Oskar. Initially, she's understandably happy about this, but when he says, "We can be together. You just need to bring me the boy," she realizes it's the Babadook preying on her insecurities and trauma. By this point, she herself has been having visions of the Babadook, including a frightening one where it enters her bedroom, crawls across the ceiling, and comes down at her, but whether or not it's actually real has been left up in the air. However, this vision proves the Babadook to be very real, as it then chases Amelia down and possesses her.

Once she's fully under the Babadook's influence, Amelia truly becomes like Jack Torrance, as she first kills their little dog, Bugsy, and then chases after Sam, spewing pure hatred at him and threatening to kill him. However, Sam is well-prepared and fights off his mother with his homemade weapons and traps, before tying her down in the basement, trying to force the Babadook to release its grip on her. Amelia almost kills Sam here, grabbing him by the throat and

choking him, but she's able to regain control of herself and expel the Babadook. Both she and Sam then confront it up in her bedroom, with Amelia, enraged after it first pulls Sam upstairs and then shows her a vision of Oskar's death, yelling, "You are nothing. You're nothing! This is my house! You're trespassing in my house! If you touch my son again, I'll fucking kill you!" It again tries to take Sam, hoisting him up and pulling him in midair, but she grabs him, clutches him to her, and

yells at it with all her might. Though she doesn't get rid of the Babadook, she does causes it to flee down into the basement, where it remains afterward. As her and Sam's life significantly improves in the following weeks, she manages to keep the Babadook placated down there by bringing it food.

With his constant yelling and screaming, calling for his mom, and mischievous antics, Sam (Noah Wiseman) does sometimes teeter on the edge of being so annoying that you want to choke him but, in retrospect, I think that's the point, as it shows just how much he's unknowingly exhausting Amelia; plus, none of it's done maliciously. Even before they find and read Mister Babadook, he's convinced there's a monster in the house and is determined to protect himself and his mother, going as far as to build weapons and traps down in the basement. Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of bringing one of the weapons to school, adding to a long list of erratic behavior that's driven the staff to the breaking point and made them decide he needs to be separated from the other kids. Another problem is that he's a very needy child, constantly requiring comfort from his mother when he becomes afraid late at night and just often wanting her attention in general. And like most six-year olds, he's impulsive and rash, often saying what's on his mind (early on, he flat-out tells a woman in a grocery store, "My dad's in the cemetery... He got killed driving Mom to the hospital to have me,"), climbing to the top of a swing-set and getting hurt as a result, and attempting to impress his mother with magic tricks he's learned from a tutorial DVD, only to annoy her further. Like his mother, Sam is a rather troubled person, feeling different and ostracized from the other kids, and it does stem from his father. Although he never knew Oskar, he's angered and frustrated by Amelia's attempts to completely remove any mention of him from their lives, essentially not allowing him to even have a father. Moreover, because he was born on the very day Oskar died, she makes him have his birthday party on the same day as Ruby, refusing to let him celebrate his true birthday and be the prime focus of the celebration, as it should be. When she gets mad at him for fiddling around with Oskar's things down in the basement, he yells, "He's my father! You don't own him!", and when she cancels his party because of his acting out, he angrily tells someone, "She won't let me have a birthday party, and she won't let me have a dad!"

Sam knows the Babadook is real when he sees it in his room and tries to warn others, particularly his mother, of it. Naturally, they don't believe him, thinking it's more of his antics, and despite his warning his mother not to let it into their lives, her denial of it only gives it more power. When she tries to give him sedatives to help him sleep after a particularly bad episode that led to him having a seizure, he's terrified that something will happen to her and, knowing she's patronizing him when she

says the pills will make the Babadook go away, as long as he doesn't mention it, he then makes her promise to protect him, saying he'll do the same. The pills make him groggy and nauseous, and Amelia sometimes forces him to stay up so he'll fall asleep when they'll be most effective. He also becomes frightened by her increasingly ill-tempered and cruel attitude towards him, as well as her disturbing behavior, like when she's sitting in the bathtub while fully dressed, then picks him up

and makes him sit down in it with her, and her determination to cut off the outside world and everyone they know. Knowing he's in danger, he stops taking the pills and runs for cover in the bedroom when Amelia chases after him. There, he's confronted by her and realizes from the cruel stuff she says to him that it's really the Babadook. Forced to run and defend himself, he stabs Amelia in the leg when she tries to trick him by suddenly acting all kind, saying she's going to let him meet his dad, and then trips her with a bunch of wires he

set up along the stairs leading down to the basement, knocking her unconscious. He then ties her to the floor and, as she flails around and yells maniacally, he tells her, "I know you don't love me. The Babadook won't let you. But I love you, Mom. And I always will." He tries to encourage her to expel the Babadook out of her, saying he doesn't want to lose her, and while she does almost strangle him, when he lovingly touches her face, she is able to free herself from the monster's hold. The Babadook then tries to take Sam directly,

leading to the final confrontation where it flees down to the basement. After that, Amelia and Sam's life improves greatly, with Amelia fully devoted to her son and allowing the memory of his father to be a part of their lives, as well as letting him celebrate his actual birthday.

Amelia's sister, Claire (Hayley McElhinney), is a character who I think you're supposed to not like, given how she flat-out tells Amelia that the reason she doesn't come by the house anymore is because she can't stand Sam and also abandons Amelia altogether when she tries to tell her that she thinks she and Sam are being stalked but, as awful as those moments are, especially the latter, I can't really blame her for how she feels overall. While she does appear to sympathize with Amelia, at the same time, she's been having to deal with her depression and attempts to completely remove the memory of Oskar from her life, which include combining Ruby and Sam's birthdays together, for nearly seven years and I'm sure she's tired of it. Although it is shitty that she seems more interested in going on about her upper-class lifestyle and job than really listening to Amelia's woes, I do get why she would reach a point where she doesn't want to hear it anymore, or why she would stop going to her house, as it does get exhausting to be around someone who can't move on from a tragedy and won't do anything to help themselves. And as harsh as it is for her to tell Amelia, "I can't stand being around your son," I don't think I'd want to be around Sam either, as from the outside looking in, he does little more than cause chaos and havoc with his erratic behavior. However, her telling Amelia, "You can't stand being around him yourself," and her response to Amelia telling her about the popup book reappearing after she tore it up being an indifferent, "I just can't help you right now," is where I draw the line. She's just being a selfish bitch in those instances and, after that phone call, we never see her again, not even during the ending, making me wonder if Amelia cut ties with her.

I know one thing: Claire has definitely failed as a mother, as her daughter, Ruby (Chloe Hurn), is a spoiled and mean-spirited little brat. She's not at all grateful for the doll she gets for her birthday, saying she already has it, and when she finds Sam in her tree-house, she tells him he's not allowed in it and starts hurling abuse at him. She not only tells him that Claire told her husband she didn't want to go to his home because it's too depressing, but also gets really mean and says, "You're not even good enough to have a dad. Everyone else has one. You don't... Your dad died so he didn't have to be with you... And your mom doesn't want you. No one wants you." Because of that, Sam pushes Ruby out of the tree-house and she falls flat on her face, breaking her nose, and as far as I'm concerned, the little brat had it coming big time.

At her job at a senior citizen center, Amelia has one real friend in Robbie (Daniel Henshall), a co-worker who's really kind to her, making little jokes and small-talk, and also senses that she's going through a lot. Early on, when she's downtrodden after her cranky boss makes it clear she isn't too impressed with her bingo-calling skills, Robbie allows her to go home early, saying he'll cover her shift after lunch. He's even good enough to turn down her offering to give him her pay and, when she says Sam is sick, Robbie stops by with some flowers for her and a present for Sam. But when he does, he gets a glimpse of how dysfunctional their dynamic is, as he learns Amelia took Sam out of school due to his behavior and then, Sam yells about her not allowing him to have a birthday party or a father. Robbie's never seen again after that scene and I have a feeling that, even though he clearly had an interest in Amelia, he saw what he might be getting into and decided he wanted no part of it.

Amelia and Sam's next door neighbor is Mrs. Gracie Roach (Barbara West), an old woman who suffers from Parkinson's disease and who is the sweetest thing imaginable. She absolutely adores both of them, sometimes looks after Sam, and worries about Amelia's well-being, especially when the movie goes on and she looks more and more ragged. After Sam calls her behind Amelia's back, Gracie becomes all the more worried and shows up on their doorstep in the middle of the night, concerned for their well-being. As she stands outside, she tells the possessed Amelia that she knows how difficult this time of the year is for her (she seems to have known Oskar and was quite fond of him as well) and that she'd do anything for both of them, adding, "I love you both." Going back to parallel between this film and The Shining, I was terrified that Gracie was going to be like Dick Hallorann and get slaughtered but, amazingly, this is a horror film where no one is dead by the end (save for poor Bugsy). At the end of the movie, once everything is okay and Amelia and Sam's life has vastly improved, Gracie is invited to Sam's birthday party.

Originally, Jennifer Kent intended to shoot the film in black-and-white and, while she ultimately opted not to, its look is very reflective of it, with a desaturated color scheme composed of grays, whites, blacks, and dark blues. The exteriors tend to be where the whites are the strongest, with hints of pink also thrown in, while the interiors are more black and slightly blue, and in the film's latter half, as things become more and more sinister, there are many instances of dark areas that are virtually pitch black, making the inside of the house feel very

claustrophobic. It's very obvious that German Expressionism was an influence, given the deep, well-defined shadows and major contrasts in the whites and blacks. Plus, the Babadook itself definitely has elements of Count Orlock from Nosferatu and Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in its look and feel. Kent also very effectively creates a sense of how the characters are feeling by combining camerawork, editing, and subtle effects with the actors' performances. In the case of Amelia, not only does she have a haggard,

exhausted look throughout but, when Robbie covers for her, allowing her to take off work early, there's a moment where she's seen walking about a mall and is reflected in a store window. The beams and refraction of light on the glass surround her image, making it look as though she's in a blurry haze, likely evocative of her mindset at the moment. Before that, there's a scene where she's lying under the covers with Sam, dozes off, and the film speeds up, as you watch her having a fitful

sleep, until it's the next morning and Sam wakes her up. You really get the sense that she got no rest and now, has to into work. Similarly, in the scene where she first gives Sam the sedatives and she goes to bed, you see her literally drift down onto the bed, as the scene shifts from the middle of the night to late the next morning, with her looking at the clock and seeing that it's past 11:00. And then, of course, you have the classic POV shots that turn blurry, indicating that she's nodding off, and instances of muffled audio to also show how she's half-asleep.

Cinematography and editing are also used to make things feel unnatural, off-kilter, and terrifying as the movie goes on. There are sped up shots of the sky, showing it go from dusk to night as clouds roll in, alluding to the dread both Amelia and Sam feel about the sun going down. Amelia's nightmare about the accident that killed Oskar is a frenzy of her getting flung around in the car's passenger seat, shattered glass flying around, bright lights, and distorted sounds of yelling and metal creaking, before she's thrown back into reality with a shot of

her floating down and hitting the bed, very similar to the one scene that comes later. And after the Babadook first possesses her, she's shown sitting in a chair, breathing heavily as she watches the TV (she's watching Mario Bava's Black Sabbath), and twitching, with the film itself sometimes giving off a flutter effect. There are also great instances of camerawork representing the Babadook's POV, most effectively when someone is looking up at it, giving a clear sense of how big it is, and when it

rushes downstairs and into the basement at the end, which is also unnaturally sped up. I particularly like the shots where they're hiding under the covers, with the camera under there with them, as it nicely creates that feeling of when you were a kid and did the same because you thought something scary was in the room. And speaking of the Babadook itself, it's always shot in a manner that makes it come off as truly frightening; in fact, for the most part, you really don't see much of it, save for a black silhouette, a quick, far-off shot where the details are hard to make out, or, as in the final confrontation, a shot of its arms stretched across the room, while its body is a virtual black void in-between them.

As the Babadook's presence and influence become stronger, Amelia experiences two utterly nightmarish visions. Following a scene where the Babadook enters her room, she takes Sam downstairs to the living room and stays up, watching TV. As she changes channels, she suddenly goes from watching a couple of old, black-and-white movies to a montage of creepy silent era images and scenes, which are also an amazing tribute to German Expressionism. There's one that has to be meant as an homage to The

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, as a character similar to Caligari opens up a large book to reveal an image of the Babadook, very much like Cesare standing in the coffin. We're treated to more surreal images like a dancing clown who's moving like a marionette, when his body parts all separate, a weird creature behind a waterfall-like torrent of water, a magician removing his own head and tossing it away (none of this is gory, by the way), people in devil costumes running about with torches, some women dancing around a pedestal

that the Babadook suddenly appears on, a bed and some people rolling about a room that's tilting, said image twirling around itself, and the image of a freakish man appearing on the wall behind the bed. All throughout this sequence, a music box-like piece plays and, as it ends on a shot of Amelia's thoroughly exhausted face, as the scene transitions to daytime, it slowly winds down to a crawl before stopping. Later, as they're staying up late again, Amelia channel surfs, seeing stuff like an old kung-fu movie, an infomercial, and even the unmasking

scene from The Phantom of the Opera, but then, the clips become more violent: a crocodile is shown gulping down something, ants devour another insect, a truck crashes, and then, she comes to a news report of a woman who stabbed her son to death with a kitchen knife and hid the body in the basement. As she watches, she sees an image of herself looking out a window, smiling crazily, while the newscaster mentions that the boy was celebrating his seventh birthday (Amelia had given Sam some birthday cake right before this as a way of making him feel at ease).

Although it's set and was shot in South Australia, the film is never explicit about it, as Kent wanted it to have a sense of universality, that it could be taking place anywhere. Sure enough, if it weren't for all the actors being Australian, you'd never know it was set or made there, as you see virtually nothing of the actual city of Adelaide, aside from the inside of the mall Amelia visits, as she and Sam live in a nondescript suburb. Moreover, 90% of it takes place in their house, which is of a Victorian style that you don't typically see in that area (its

exteriors were built specifically for the movie). Inside, it's initially nonchalant-looking, with a small living room and dining room/kitchen connected by a narrow corridor on the first floor, a door under the stairs leading to the basement, where Amelia keeps all of Oskar's possessions, and the upstairs area where Amelia and Sam's bedrooms are. While Amelia's bedroom is fairly typical, Sam's is decorated with items pertaining to his interests, including bugs in glass and a poster advertising a magician, as well as stuff like a

rocking horse, a set of shelves containing his storybooks, and a large cabinet housing his coats, which is also where he first senses the Babadook. Even before the Babadook appears, Sam, having been dreaming about a monster, creates some handmade weapons to defend himself and his mother, including a wooden backpack containing a mini-catapult (which he ends up having to use on his possessed mother), a small crossbow, and tripwires he rigs on the stairs leading down into the

basement, as well as fireworks Amelia ordered off the internet. Going back to the house, it has a drab-looking gray and dark blue color scheme on the inside, which is punctuated by the film's low-key color palette and adds to the feeling of misery that hangs over Amelia and Sam. As the movie goes on, the house starts to look more and more disheveled and unkempt, reflecting Amelia's descent into madness and becomes really dark once the Babadook comes out in full force and possesses her.

It's been said that horror films are at their best when they get under the surface and tackle truly taboo subjects; in the case of The Babadook, a major theme is how motherhood, rather than being nothing but a wondrous, warm and fuzzy, loving thing, can be challenging, psychologically exhausting, and even damaging, especially for a single mother like Amelia. I'm not a parent but, throughout my life, I've been around lots of kids who've driven their parents crazy in various ways and I can understand how, at some point, you just

can't cope with their running around, making noise, getting into trouble, causing damage, and craving constant attention from you. As I said earlier, Sam, while ultimately a likable character, does have his moments of being an annoying, impulsive, hyperactive, and downright loud child who takes his toll on his troubled and sleep-deprived mother, and it's not surprising that she has moments where she snaps and yells at him to be quiet (or, like in that one moment when he's freaking out in the backseat, "Why can't you be normal?!"), and others

where she just wants to get away from him. This, of course, is compounded by the many issues she has regarding Oskar's death and Sam's direct connection to it. Speaking of Oskar, the void his death has left in Amelia's death is apparent not just in her simply missing the man she loved but in how sexually frustrated and starved she is. It hurts her to see couples in love, be it in real life or on television, and when she tries to ease her frustration with a vibrator, just as she's about to

orgasm, Sam bursts in and tells her the Babadook is in his room. And finally, there's also the notion of Amelia having to deal with others who, while maybe meaning well, but don't really get what she's going through and insensitively gossip about it, trying to compare it to their own, insignificant problems. Besides Claire's indifference, one of her upper-class friends insensitively tells Amelia, "It must be difficult. I do volunteer work with some disadvantaged women and a few of them have lost

their husbands and they find it very hard." Needless to say, Amelia does not appreciate that and, when they talk about how they now have their kids 24/7 and can't go to the gym anymore, she snarls, "That's a real tragedy. Not having time to go to the gym anymore? How do you cope? You must have so much to talk about with those poor disadvantaged women."

The Babadook itself acts as an embodiment of the repressed darkness that's dwelt within Amelia ever since Oskar has died. Just as Amelia's suppression of what happened to Oskar has caused her nothing but misery, as well as deep-seated resentment and bitterness towards her son, her denial of the Babadook's existence gives it the power to enter their lives, their home, and finally to possess her. In fact, there are some theories that Amelia may be unintentionally responsible for the Babadook's very creation, given how, at one point, she says she once

wrote some children's books. Because of how frayed and tired her mind already was at the beginning of the movie, some have suggested that Amelia may have put together the Babadook's popup book but doesn't remember doing it because she was in a sort of insomniac trance (meaning she's also the one who put it back together after she tore it up). Jennifer Kent has said this was never her intention but she's willing to go with it, as she likes the idea and feels it kind of makes sense in a way. Whatever the case, the Babadook's presence

makes Amelia become far more intolerant and aggressive towards Sam, and when it possesses her, it brings all those dark feelings out and turns them into full-on venom and hatred, to where she chases Sam around the house, attempting to kill him. But then, once Sam gives her the strength to expel it out of her, she confronts the Babadook when it tries to take him and, rather than being evicted from their lives, it retreats down into the basement, where it remains. During the film's final few

minutes, you see that both Amelia and Sam have made a huge turnaround and are living happily, with Amelia acknowledging Oskar and his connection to Sam's birthday, which she actually lets Sam celebrate on the day now. At the same time, the Babadook still dwells within the basement, where Amelia brings it food, and while it is still very threatening towards her, she's able to talk it down by speaking softly, shushing, and even acting rather motherly towards it. Just like how

they're now living with those dark parts of their past and their inner-selves, they're also now living with the real monster. What's more, the Babadook has taken up residence in the place Amelia had previously forbade Sam from, as it's where Oskar's personal possessions are, and, significantly, she promises to take Sam down there one day and show him everything.

The Babadook is also a prime example of how effective the fear of the unknown can be, as at the end of the day, you don't get a solid answer as to what this thing is, where it came from, or why it's specifically targeting this family. Its storybook just suddenly appears in Sam's bedroom one night and, after Amelia reads it, it slowly but surely begins to enter their lives. It's kept offscreen for much of the movie and, save for the images in the book, you don't really see it at all until we're a little bit into the second act, but it is sensed, first by Sam, who

thinks it's in his wardrobe when the doors are wide open and then begins to actually see and even talk to it, trying to make it go away. Little by little, Amelia starts to feel it, first as an unseen, menacing presence in the dark corners of the house late at night. Then, the lights begin flickering, she hears random knocking sounds, and she sees some strange, old-style clothes and shoes down in the basement, before it escalates into mean-spirited and potentially dangerous occurrences, like small

shards of glass in her food, which she attributes to Sam. But after she tears up the book and throws it in the trash, the Babadook begins to assert itself more and more by bringing the book back, with newer, more horrific pages, calling Amelia and speaking over the phone, and manifesting its dark coat, top hat, and claws against the wall in the police station when she goes to report someone stalking her. It then isn't long before she begins to truly see it, the first time is in Gracie's house across from her kitchen window while she's washing dishes, and it fully infiltrates their house and ultimately possesses her.

In many ways, the Babadook is the quintessential personification of all the classic childhood fears: the thing in the dark, the thing hiding in your closet or under your bed, etc., which Sam is already dealing with before he and his mother read the storybook. That's another thing that's unsettling: its direct ties to childhood, in that it has a funny name, tied to the knocking sounds it makes (and not excrement, as one immature idiot I know seems to think), and seemingly originates from a popup storybook. At first, the book is fairly innocuous,

depicting the Babadook as an odd-looking but seemingly friendly being, but then, as it goes on, it becomes more and more sinister. The book tells of how its signature knocking sounds signal the its presence, features popup drawings of the creature itself, often saying, "LET ME IN!", says that you won't sleep a wink if it appears in your bedroom, and then shows an even more frightening popup, indicating that the one from earlier was only a disguise and that what's underneath is all the more terrifying. When Amelia reaches the end of the

book, the Babadook basically starts talking to her through the rhyming text, saying that once she sees what it really looks like, she'll wish she were dead. This is enough to send Sam into hysterics and later, when Amelia looks at the book itself, she notes there are many blank pages in the back. At first content to keep it stored where Sam can't see it or get to it, when he keeps insisting the Babadook is trying to get in, she tears the pages apart and throws the whole thing in the trash. But, the day

after Ruby's birthday party, the book turns up on their doorstep again, now reassembled and with all new pages. First, the pages tell her that she's only giving the Babadook strength by denying its existence, then shows it terrorizing her, saying she'll start to change once it gets in, and then there are popups of her breaking Bugsy's neck, doing the same to Sam, and cutting her own throat, complete with a popup insert of running blood.

Like any childhood monster, the Babadook's ultimate goal is scarily simple: it intends to kill Sam for its own nefarious reasons and it tries to use Amelia as a means to do so (if it is indeed an unintentional creation of Amelia's, then it could actually be jealous of Sam). First, it scares Sam with its presence, adding to the stress he's already causing his mother. Second, it then begins targeting Amelia, scaring her to add to her stress and committing malicious and disturbing acts, like the aforementioned shards of glass and the defiling of

a picture of her and Oskar, which it leaves on her bed (it also appears to create a vision of Sam running away from her bedroom to make her think he was behind the latter). After she initially denies its existence and makes it stronger, it ratchets up its attacks and terror, showing itself to her and pushing her to the brink of madness, especially towards Sam. Finally, showing just how much it knows where to attack Amelia at her most vulnerable, it appears to her as Sam, luring her down into the basement, and then as Oskar,

promising to return to her if she brings Sam to him. With that, it manages to chase Amelia down and possess her, and once it does, it wastes no time in attempting to kill Sam. It first kills Bugsy, who'd been sensing its growing influence over Amelia for a long time, and then chases Sam all over the house, bringing out all of his mother's repressed darkness as it does. But the Babadook underestimates Sam's resourcefulness, as he manages to use his handmade traps to trip up

Amelia and tie her to the floor in the basement. Though she almost does kill Sam, she's able to fight off the Babadook long enough to expel it from her body. This thoroughly enrages the monster, which drags Sam upstairs to Amelia's bedroom, only for her to rescue him, and it begins shaking the room and the bed, as well as cracking the walls, with its fury, and even forces Amelia to watch a vision of Oskar's death. Amelia's standing up to it diffuses its power, as it collapses to the floor and then retreats down to the basement.

Though the popup book gives you a clear image of what the Babadook looks like, you don't see a physical embodiment of it for a very long time. You certainly know it's there, as I've described, and there's a creepy moment early on where you see a shadow going across the top of the staircase, but you don't see it in full until a little over halfway in, when it enters Amelia's bedroom, climbs across the ceiling, and then jumps down at her as she lies in bed. You still don't see it that much even after that but what you do see is more than enough, as it's

terrifying. You know what it looks like from the storybook, those bizarre, silent film hallucinations of Amelia's, and those quick glimpses, so Jennifer Kent intends on keeping the actual monster almost totally in the shadows, making it come off as a creepy silhouette. Its design is based on the look of Lon Chaney's character from the legendary lost film, London After Midnight, which is very apparent if you've ever seen stills from that movie, although the more frightening guise that's alluded to being underneath is never revealed to the

audience, as only the characters see it. Various techniques are used to bring the Babadook to life. Sometimes, it's created through stop-motion, particularly in that scene in Amelia's bedroom, making its movements feel especially unnatural and quick, while its design makes it come off like a character from one of Tim Burton's stop-motion movies that was deemed too terrifying even for him. Other times, it's portrayed by Tim Purcell, who worked in the art department. He isn't required

to do much except stand in the darkness while wearing the costume, as they pull him on a dolly, and he sometimes flexes the clawed hands and stretches his arms, but it works perfectly; they do a similar floating effect with Amelia after she becomes possessed. Sound-wise, the Babadook emits a really eerie, insect-like buzzing and whirring when it moves, and sometimes says, "Ba-ba-ba-dook-dook-dook!", in a strained, throaty voice. It can actually speak when it's imitating

other people or when it's possessing Amelia, although her voice then has a noticeable bass to it. It also roars and makes ungodly screeches and screams, with Amelia practically shrieking when she's possessed. However, because of the low budget, a number of these sounds were taken from various video games, such as Warcraft, X-COM, Mortal Kombat 3, and the original Resident Evil.

There's not a single bit of CGI in the film, which was always an intention on Jennifer Kent's part, as she wanted to go for a handmade approach seen in silent films. Besides the effects used to create the Babadook itself, all the effects that appear in the film, specifically in the latter part of the third act, like Sam being dragged up the stairs, Amelia's bed and entire room shaking, and the invisible Babadook taking away the bowl of worms at the end, were all done in camera, and not only work really well but I simply applaud Kent's decision to

take this approach in the first place, as it makes the film stand out among other modern horrors. In addition, while the film is not a gore-fest by any means, there are a handful of instances of violent imagery, like the popup of Amelia killing Bugsy, then Sam, and herself, Amelia seeing a vision of Sam sliced down the middle, the moment where she actually kills Bugsy by breaking his neck (you don't actually see it and there's no blood), and when she vomits up some blood while the

Babadook is being expelled from her. Also, during her final confrontation with it, the Babadook torments her with a vision of Oskar's death that has the top of his head slice off at an angle and then fall to the floor. What's amazing about this effect isn't that it's extremely gory but rather in how awesome it looks. While the decapitated body falling to the floor is probably a dummy, the head slice appears to be a really good example of digital compositing that actually uses the actor, Ben Winspear, rather than noticeably transitioning from him to a 100% digital effect.

There's no denying that The Babadook is a very well-made flick that has a lot going for it. But, that said, it's never going to be on a list of my personal favorite horror films, nor would it be on any list I were to make of the best movies, horror or otherwise, of the 2010's. So, why don't I love it as much as so many others? One reason is just jadedness. I've seen countless horror films in my lifetime and, when that's the case, something that may be astonishing and earth-shattering to most

may not be all that impressive to you. While I very much respect William Friedkin as a filmmaker and a person, I know for a fact that, despite his most well-known film being The Exorcist (which he doesn't even consider to be a horror film, anyway), he himself is not really that big on the horror genre as a whole and, ergo, hasn't seen them to the extent I have. Another is the problem of hype. While I went into this movie totally blind, all those blurbs and critical reactions on the Blu-Ray case and slipcover still gave me some expectations that

weren't really met. Third, it's just personal taste and sensibilities. I do really like psychological horror films and thrillers, and including many of the movies Jennifer Kent listed as inspirations, such as The Shining, John Carpenter's The Thing, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; but that those and others that Kent mentioned (including some I've reviewed this month, like Vampyr and Eyes Without A Face), do it for me more than The Babadook. In fact, there are other horror movies from around the same time, like It Follows, Stephen King's It, and Get Out, that I can say I like and am even personally freaked out by a lot more than The Babadook.

Another thing that drags the film down for me a little bit is the entire notion of Amelia getting possessed and then attacking Sam. While I can understand and appreciate its thematic significance to the film's story, it feels very cliched and typical, and I wasn't exaggerating when I compared it to The Shining earlier, as that's what it makes me think of, both in her slow descent into madness (that uncomfortable scene between her and Sam in the bathtub makes me think of that unsettling

interaction between Jack and Danny in the bedroom) and when she snaps and chases Sam around the house. Essie Davis' performance may not go as over the top as Jack Nicholson's but there is a connection between the two, like when she stands outside the bedroom door, tries to bait Sam out by telling him that Bugsy's hurt, and smashes her way in. As long as we're making connections to other movies, the handmade weapons and booby-traps Sam uses against his mother make me think of the many times Wes Craven used traps in his

movies, whereas the climax in the bedroom, as cool as it is, feels like a combination of The Exorcist and Poltergeist. Finally, as impressive and scary a monster as I think the Babadook is, its big, earth-shaking appearance at the end feels a little too literal when, throughout much of the movie, they've been going for a more psychological approach to where you're not sure if it's a real, separate entity, a manifestation of Amelia's inner demons, or something she's hallucinating, her troubled mind having been influenced by the book and Sam's claims of it. I think Kent maybe should've have kept the ending a bit more ambiguous and abstract.

There's not a lot of score in The Babadook (only 27 minutes' worth in total), as it relies mostly on eerie sound effects and dead silence to create mood, but what music there is was composed by Jed Kurzel, who went on to score Alien: Covenant, as well as Kent's second film, Nightingale. The most memorable part is the main theme, which manages to be dark and eerie, as well as low-key and calm. It's also noticeably childish, almost music box-like, and gives off a feeling of how, even though they made peace with and are now co-existing with this thing by the end, it will always be hanging over them or lurking in the dark nearby. Much of the rest of the score has this same sort of subtle, melancholic tone to it, hinting at how there's an almost ever-present undercurrent of darkness and sadness. The same goes for the music that accompanies the more frightening scenes: while definitely effective and creepy, especially when the Babadook begins to show itself, it never gets so big and bombastic that it almost swallows the movie.

The Babadook is most certainly a good movie and one I would recommend you give a watch as, on a technical, story, and performance level, I can't really fault it. In her directorial debut, Jennifer Kent proves to have a lot of craft, as she tells this story very well, gets really good performances out of her actors, especially Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman, shoots it in an effective manner, manages to create an eerie atmosphere, commendably foregoes CGI in favor of simpler, more handmade effects, portrays the Babadook itself as a very terrifying presence, and makes use of a subtle, creepy music score. Other than the ending being too literal, considering the rest of the film, any issues I have with are purely personal. Despite being as well-made as it is, it doesn't quite do it for me like a number of other horror films, both from the past and around the same time, Kent's influences are too blatant in some spots, the hyperbolic blurbs on the Blu-Ray case and slipcover alone were enough to hype it up too much, and, above anything else, I think I've just seen so many horror movies by this point that what more casual viewers find astonishing doesn't leave an impact. If you're like that as well, I would still recommend it, but just ask you to temper your expectations.