It’s tough out there for female directors in the entertainment industry. It certainly has to be even tougher when you’re a foreign female writer/director trying to get a horror film to break through the clutter and reach the ever popular American audience. I’ll say this, I don’t think Australian director Jennifer Kent is going to have any issues going forward if the quality of her future films comes anywhere close to being as good as her debut film, The Babadook.
The Babadook follows a young widowed mother named Amelia (Essie Davis) and her odd but protective seven year old son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). Her son is a handful (he enjoys making weapons) and doesn’t seemed to be liked by anyone, causing his mother unnecessary stress as she still copes with the loss of her husband who died in an accident seven years ago while driving Amelia to the hospital to give birth to Samuel. When Samuel finds a book called Mister Babadook he has him mom read it to him, but as she reads the book it gets creepier and creepier, eventually leading her to throw it out. Shortly after the book reappears and things that she read in the book, including the manifestation of the Babadook, begin to come to life.
It’s easy to call The Babadook a boogeyman film but, in fact, it’s a lot more than that. Jennifer Kent has crafted a film that’s both intensely psychological as it is straight-up monster scary. Mister Babadook is a frightening creature with a creepy voice, but it’s the imagination and delusional attitude of Amelia that creates an unnerving environment for her, her son, and the audience. While an oddball, Samuel isn’t stupid and see’s what’s happening, while as an audience member we’re unsure if this dark force in the house is real or not, Samuel isn’t going to let the monster win and take his mother. He’s there to protect her because he doesn’t want to lose the only parent he has left and does everything in his power to ensure she isn’t destroyed by the Babadook.
There are a couple of moments in The Babadook that really stood out to me. The main one being that whenever Amelia got scared, she would hide under her blanket, refusing to acknowledge the presence of something sinister. She would hide underneath the blanket until the morning when the sun came up. To me, this is the equivalent of turning on the lights when investigating something eerie in a quiet house (think The Conjuring). It’s a smart move that I appreciated because it’s what normal people would do in these situations rather than risk being terrified or attacked in complete darkness. Bonus points to Ms. Kent for this tactic.
One of the best parts of the film for me was watching Essie Davis’ performance. She starts off the film as just a tired, unsettled single mom, but as the film progresses you can see her visibly get more and more worn out. Eventually, she gets to the point of complete exhaustion, taking her to a psychotic brink that helps fuel the tense and scary climax of the film. Essie’s performance was incredible and her ability to portray this physically and emotionally deteriorated woman was nothing short of applaud worthy. Her performance reminded me a lot of Shelley Duvall’s in The Shining, and she didn’t even have to deal with Kubrick to get to that level. Outside of the story, it was her performance that helped drive the film and elevate it from B-grade horror to a well-deserved A.
I can’t say the film doesn’t have its flaws because it isn’t perfect. There are some inconsistencies in the acting by the supporting cast and sometimes Noah’s acting felt amateurish at times (he’s a kid, I know). There are one or two plot issues that feel unresolved as well, but it’s easy to look past these problems when the rest of the film is so solid.
Overall, The Babadook is more than just a horror film about a dark presence haunting a house, it’s a movie about facing the things that haunt you most in life and dealing with them head on, for if you don’t, the fear will eventually drive you mad and to a point of no return. While I still have a few horror films left to see this year, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook is probably the most effective horror film I’ve seen in 2014 and has a good chance of holding that title come the year’s end.
Rating: Frightening on both a psychological and visual level, Jennifer Kent’s debut feature is a horror home run (7.9/10)
IFC Midnight will be releasing The Babadook in the States on November 28th.
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