Rapid Review: The Babadook (2014)

“You can bring me the boy.”
– The Babadook

SYNOPSIS: A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her. – via IMDB

Well, well, well. I know that I have been waiting for this since Tim reviewed it over on his site in May. It piqued my interest, so I wanted to know. Naturally, soon everyone was watching it and the consensus came back that it was brilliant. I had to know. The last good horror film we got was The Conjuring, and that was the first good one in a hell of a long time. The Babadook was excellent for me in the sense that it told a story, and did not get too wrapped up in the monster. It focused on Amelia and Samuel, and things progressively get creepier from there. The atmosphere is fantastic here, seeing as the house that the family is living in is already a flat and depressing space, and Sam is definitely a bit of a problem child for his mother and school, and the way that Amelia pulls away from him is odd to see in a mother, though understandable when more of the back story is revealed. It is as though she loves him because she is duty bound to do so, not because she genuinely adores her son. She has never dealt with her husband’s passing. Both should seriously have gone for counselling ages ago, but evidently it was not very high up on anyone’s list. You never actually get a handle on Amelia’s depression, and what is real and what is not. Anyway, the movie starts simply enough and progressively moves away from comfort and usual days on to something a little darker – and then this absolutely terrifying book makes its way into the home, and damn, it is a creepy one. I want one. Now. To add to my collection of books. It was so messed up and so awesome. I thought the movie was shot fantastically and looked wonderful, and the fact that there was not an overkill of focus on the babadook was refreshing for me. I am big on a concept of something, but so many movies lose it when it gets to the monster. The Babadook does not suffer from this whatsoever seeing as you get to see the babadook from time to time, but never too much, but when it is there? The darn chills! One thing that really got me was the voice. If you have seen this, you will know what I am talking about. Heebeejeebees I tell you. I really liked the concept of the babadook as a monster, too. The cast worked wonderfully with their material, and it was some solid work from all of them, which lent more credence to this. I thoroughly enjoyed that the movie did not evoke fear using cheap jump scares, but crafted a deeper and more unsettling film to work through. It’s smart, it’s scary, it’s unnerving, has been directed exceptionally well and it’s worth the hype and the watch, in my opinion. Good horror movies don’t come around very often anymore. This is just another instance that demonstrates that you don’t need a massive budget to make a flick work, and you also don’t need to squander the whole flick on CGI and silliness. If you haven’t seen it, go, now. Stop wasting time!