The appeal of Aussie writer/director Jennifer Kent‘s psychological horror The Babadook has little, if anything, to do with any chills it offers its viewers. Adapted from her 2005 short film (watch here), Kent explores love, loss, grief, motherhood and our ability to squash inner-demons, as well as our inability to ever let them go entirely in a fairy tale-esque thriller fans of Guillermo del Toro‘s Spanish-language features are sure to enjoy, though horror fans hoping for traditional cheap thrills may walk away disappointed.
The story tells of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her six-year-old son Samuel (Noah Wiseman), six years after the sudden death of her husband. Amelia seems good natured enough when we first meet her, reading Samuel children’s books to put him to sleep even though he rages throughout the day, screaming of a monster that haunts his dreams.
This so-called monster is initially nameless until the sudden appearance of a book titled “The Babadook”, a storybook that’s more than a little disturbing. Now given a name, Samuel’s behavior becomes even more erratic, driving his mother to the edge as he begins building homemade weapons to confront the monster and is eventually expelled form school.
Still mourning the death of her husband and struggling to love her troublesome child, Amelia now begins to wonder if the Babadook may indeed be real. She’s haunted by bumps in the night, the flickering of the lights, cockroaches emerging from a hole the wall that disappears only minutes later and her son’s constant screams of terror. Kent has devised a psychological thriller that will challenge what you believe to be real and what’s merely a figment of Amelia’s fractured psyche as she struggles to pull herself together.
Essie Davis is wonderful in the role of Amelia, playing her as equally stoic, strange, disturbed and determined. We’ve seen countless films that delve into the idea of a “problem child”, but Kent attacks it from a different angle, turning Amelia’s world into a tortured metaphor for the audience to explore and endure alongside her. Noah Wiseman plays young Samuel as an absolute nightmare and to watch Amelia try to keep from cracking under the pressure makes for a tense 93 minutes.
Kent secured a large portion of the funding for the film on Kickstarter and she has done a lot on a very low budget, utilizing extreme close-ups and sound to elevate the more sinister aspects of the story, most of which all take place in one location. Granted, some of the effects work appears a bit primitive, but given the fairy tale nature of the story it is hardly a call for strong criticism, especially once you realize the fear the film inspires is more psychological than it is outright visual terror.
That said, I’m still having a hard time figuring out if I fully accept Wiseman’s performance. It’s tough judging a child actor, especially one playing a character such as Samuel, still struggling with the death of his father, his mother’s inability to move on and the mere fact he is still a rambunctious young boy. Kids will be kids, they will yell and scream until they get their way and his outbursts, I believe, are intended to appear more as Amelia hears them rather than how they actually appear to the outside world.
Kent herself makes comparisons to Roman Polanski‘s thrillers such as wonderful Repulsion and Rosemary’s Baby, and they are apt comparisons even if The Babadook doesn’t necessarily compare in quality as an overall product. The mere fact it strives to such heights is commendable in itself. I’d argue comparisons could also be made to the better work of Guillermo del Toro as mentioned earlier as well as The Orphanage by J.A. Bayona, though, The Babadook is still a notch below those works.
What passionate film fans will also enjoy exploring are Kent’s nods to classic cinema and horror, such as moments her titular creature is spliced into the work of Georges Méliès such as Dislocation Mysterieuse and Faust aux Enfers, the use of scenes from Mario Bava‘s I Tre Volti Della Paura (Black Sabbath) and Segundo de Chomons Segundo de Chomon. Not to mention the use of magic tutorials and children’s cartoons that take on a far more sinister feel when placed within this disturbing little narrative.
As a feature debut The Babadook puts Jennifer Kent on the map as a filmmaker to watch. She has a clear talent for mood and atmosphere, finding ways to stretch her dollar, getting everything she could out of every last penny. Not to mention, she does all this with a movie that’s well worth watching.
