The Babadook

Director: Jennifer Kent
Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman
Length: 93 min
Country: Australia

The Babadook is the kind of experience that doesn’t come around often enough within genre cinema. Though pitched as an effective, supernatural horror fare through its marketing material, Jennifer Kent’s debut feature is one that goes far deeper into the minds of its characters than anyone could expect; and the final product is one of the most unsettling, frightening and emotionally charged films of the year.

Following the loss of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is struggling to raise her troubled son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), alone; a problem exacerbated by Samuel’s growing fear of Mister Babadook, a creature from a children’s popup book, and the increasingly abnormal effects that spawn from this fixation. But what Amelia begins to recognise is that something malevolent is starting to surround her and Samuel, and that Mister Babadook may be responsible for this growing turmoil that grips their family and home life in unforgiving ways.

One of the most remarkable things about the film is the immense focus that Kent has placed upon the relationship between Amelia and Samuel. Two characters twisted and driven apart via devastating circumstances, Kent presents the division between the two from the outset as the film’s focal point. The build up of passive aggression and disconnect between the two is a constant that boils under the film’s most intimate moments, and the introduction of the book into the story is so matter-of-fact that it adds to the presence of a beast in the room before it even arrives. The slow burn quality of the plot is admirable as it allows you to come to terms with who these people are, before the more sinister qualities come into full effect. The fear of something living closer to home is where the real danger lies for this isolated family.

Amelia begins to recognise is that something malevolent is starting to surround her and Samuel, and that Mister Babadook may be responsible for this growing turmoil that grips their family and home life in unforgiving ways.

Showing immense restraint in its scares, Kent builds atmosphere and ambiguity through dramatic tension. For the longest time it presents the idea of there being no other elements at play, that the unfurling of Amelia’s grief and maternal skills are pulling her psyche to pieces, and she is in effect willing such fantasies into existence. Of course, there probably is something more going on beyond mere apparition, and the merging of the real and the unreal are where the ambiguities lie open to interpretation. It also takes time in conceptualising dark fairytales, involving fears of the unknown that relate to our everyday existence – the unseen pages read between the stories that captivate us as children.

As for Mister Babadook himself, his true identity and nature is something of a mystery. The abscence of his exposition aids the insidious aura that the creature brings. There is very little of him ever on screen, withholding his existence in at least a visual sense. Whenever he actually does appear, though, the creature is a marvel of stop-motion and practical effects, draped in the consuming darkness of Radek Ladczuk’s cinematography. A gliding, creeping, nightmarish vision of creativity, with discernible visual and metaphorical (sometimes literal) roots in classic horror cinema that hark back to the earliest of cinema’s great nightmare creations, such as Nosferatu and Caligari’s Somnambulist.

Outside of its notable aesthetic, though, the performances from the two leads are just extraordinary. Essie Davis as Amelia is a force to be reckoned with, while young newcomer Noah Wiseman balances the complexities of little Samuel with significant power and ease. While not every element of the film fits together perfectly, they are very much artistic liberties and means to an end that only add to a film that is very open to further reading; in particular an ending which may leave many to decide on whichever context it bares itself to.

The Babadook is a great picture that utilises old and new tropes to the best of their effects, and is a fresh reminder of just how powerful true horror can really feel.

Image Source: Sundance