The Babadook (15)Directed by: Jennifer Kent.
Starring: Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall and Noah Wiseman.
Rated: 15 for containing strong supernatural threat and bloody images.
Running time: 94 minutes.
Released in UK cinemas from the 24th of October, 2014.
In most cases, Hollywood tempts us all in with the promise of ambitious and arresting horror, yet they often seem to be wrongly luring us into a thieving trap. And, for a year filled with laughable contributions to the horror genre such as "Devil's Due" and "Deliver Us from Evil", I honestly believed that there was little hope for the worn out category. But along came "The Babadook", a low-key horror that creates the crucial themes of tension and psychological fear effortlessly, once again installing the very fear I felt when I first heard the story of "The Boogeyman".
Seven years on from a car crash which killed her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is struggling to cope. Her six-year-old son Samuel (Noah Wieseman) grows restless as the days go by, insisting on his ability to create harmless (they're actually harmful!) weapons out of scrap wood, eventually causing mass mayhem. On top of a troublesome son, Amelia’s best friend is beginning to worry about her, she is constantly showered in seemingly unwanted affection by her co-worker Robbie (Daniel Henshall), and her job in the local care home proves to be a fairly monotonous career. Just when things couldn't get any worse, a mysterious red book appears on Samuel's bookshelf. Its name is "Mister Babadook". After a frightening bedtime story, Amelia is convinced that there is nothing to fear, but her son isn't. He's seen the Babadook himself, and if the book's frightening words of warning are anything to go by, the pair may be in serious peril.
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| Bedtime stories just became a whole lot creepier... Essie Davis and Noah Wieseman appear in a still from "The Babadook". |
After many years of exposure to the horror genre, audiences now demand jump-scare driven films which contain half the care and attention that was implemented into certain horror classics. But, director Jennifer Kent has managed to direct a tense-filled classic, which sets the scene through the simple idea of less is more. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the film doesn't deliver in its ability to shock or scare, but what it does achieve, is genuine and thought provoking fear.
One of the film’s strongest features is the choice of not explaining the villain’s intentions, and why it wants to commit these atrocities, until at least the very end of the film. In fact, the audience never discover who Mister Babadook really is, which creates a vivid and cruel sense of the unknown. After all, when we don't understand something, aren't we more afraid of it?
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| Co-star Noah Wieseman provides a note-worthy performance in "The Babadook". |
Apart from the choice of the film’s villain and style, Kent directs this piece masterfully, as if she had directed hundreds of films. As a matter of fact, this is her first feature-length production. Previously, Kent had directed a shorter version of this piece ("Monster", 2006), but reached out to the people of Kickstarter (Zach Braff’s first choice for crowd-funded films), and received enough money to create a feature-length version. Due to the good-will of horror hungry fans, Kent managed to bring her vision to the screen, and her skills behind the camera are perfect. Each shot is arranged wonderfully, presenting the viewer with strange atmospheric sections of film, which contribute to the tight-as-a-drum atmosphere. Constantly angled so the audience aren't particularly sure of the character's safety, the fright is made all the more real when Kent fiendishly decides that the audience should be treated to some eerie shots of the home in darkness, or the book itself.
But it's not just through the filmmaker's desire to deliver harrowing, yet subtle shocks that sells this piece, it's the performance of a relatively unknown actress, Essie Davis. Davis puts across the role of a desperate mother perfectly, mixing dashes of comedy and strong threat splendidly which prove her acting calibre.
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| Behind you! Or not...? Essie Davis stars in a still from "The Babadook". |
Throughout various horror's we are always subjected to the male's view of the paranormal, but through the use of a female character with a particularly tragic back-story, the audience is treated to a situation that is relatable, and a welcoming story that may be a supernatural horror, but at least it has a mean bite up its sleeve. Co-star Noah Wieseman is also notably talented, as a troubled child who is multi-layered in his ability to juggle not only emotionally disturbing scenes, but pitch-black comedy, much like her co-star Davis. A natural perhaps?
Verdict
Smart, tense and unbelievably effective due to the inclusion of horror’s latest and most imaginative ghoul to date, “The Babadook” is a low-key horror that will remain with the most desensitised of viewers for a long, long while.
8 stars out of 10
Written by Scott Gentry.
Film/TV Rating Key
1-2 stars out of ten = Awful.
3-4 stars out of ten = Average.
5-6 stars out of ten = Good.
7-8 stars out of ten = Excellent.
9-10 stars out of ten = Amazing.
Trailer
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