The Babadook (2014)
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From Australia comes The Babadook, from first time writer/director Jennifer Kent--a film that has been getting quite a lot of positive buzz behind it after traveling the festival circuit and it's a movie that I've been anxiously awaiting to see myself. Now having finally seen it I can see why it's been praised so much and luckily it's not all just a bunch of hype, as Kent has manufactured a near perfect atmospheric and psychological horror piece.
The story revolves around a single mother and her over-imaginative young son named Samuel, whom claims to see monsters. In fact, the boy is so convinced that his home is plagued by something that he creates these homemade devices to help him battle them. It isn't until after reading a strange children's book titled The Babadook that the mother soon begins to experience things herself, specifically visions of the antagonist from the book. Her visions become more apparent and real as time goes on, eventually forcing her to question her own sanity.
For a first-time filmmaker Jennifer Kent did an amazing job using her own creative style to tell the multilayered story of a very broken mother and her sometimes overbearing son. The movie's interesting lack of colors make it seem almost black and white at times, and is perfect during certain scenes that involve a lot of silhouette and shadow work. I also liked the transitions from day to night and vice versa, making us as viewers question how much time is actually passing.
Luckily the movie relies mostly on atmosphere than the typical pop-up scares, so we're given quite a few scenes that are just genuinely creepy, like the silhouette of a long clawed creature from the distance. Unfortunately there is one particular scene that I felt not only went on a little longer than it should have, but also showed a little TOO much, which kind of took me out of the movie for a brief period. Next to that some viewers may be a bit turned off with its semi-slowburn first half, but I personally wasn't too bothered by it. Nevertheless, there's still much positive here that can't be ignored, along with its stylistic and psychological approach and ambiguous climax that will likely make you want repeat viewings. I know I do.
The Babadook is a prime example of how with the right amount of talent a small-budgeted flick can succeed where most bigger-budgeted genre efforts have failed. Definitely check this flick out.