When you were a kid did you ever lie
awake at night convinced that some sort of boogeyman was right there
in your room? Did you ever look out from under the covers and see a
shadow that appeared to be a monster moving in to finish you off?
Can you remember the deep-in-your-gut terror that you felt as a child
at those times? Well Jennifer Kent, the writer and direct of “The
Babadook” does, and her dark and spooky little movie proves it in
spades.....
A good deal of the scariness of “The
Babadook” comes from how effectively it plays on our fears. The kid-fears are obvious. But all
parents are terrified that something awful will happen to their
kids, and nothing is more terrifying that hear your child shriek in
the night. The heroine of the movie is single-mom Amelia (Essie
Davis), whose son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) has pretty typical nighttime
fears. He's a very intense kid, and spends a lot of time in trouble
with the school and with other parents that see him as a behavior problem.
Amelia tries very hard to keep things normal for him, but the stress
of dealing with everything alone keeps her pretty close to the
razor's edge most of the time.
One night at storytime Samuel pulls an
unfamiliar volume from his shelf called “Mr. Babadook”. It
starts off like most Grimm fairy tales, but soon takes a turn into
unfriendly waters and Amelia shuts it down. Samuel however becomes
immediately convinced that “The Babadook” is the mysterious
monster that haunts him at night. As the days pass and strange
things begin to occur around the house, Samuel attributes everything
to the Babadook. Amelia naturally sees it as his excuse to get out of
responsibility and eventually tears the book up and throws it away.
So far pretty standard scary-movie
fare and you are of course sure that there is more to this than Amelia
thinks. But then the story actually moves into more primal fears.
The book re-appears on her doorstep taped back together, but with
some more frightening imagery. The new pages tell her that the more
you deny the existence of Babadook the stronger he becomes, and now
includes a few disturbing pop-ups including one showing Amelia with
her throat cut. This time she burns the book but it's clear that
something or someone is stalking or haunting her and her son – the only questions are what
it is and what it wants.
"The Babadook" is a bona-fide fright-fest of a
movie. As things get worse and worse at the house Amelia realizes that what Babadook
wants is her son and it needs to use her to get it. She starts seeing
really eerie, haunting images virtually everywhere. Jennifer Kent's use of
lighting contributes greatly to the fear as the shadowy images you
see (or don't see) build the tension. At one point (probably the
tensest in the entire film) Amelia actually hides under the covers
like a little kid (the last thing you do when you KNOW the boogieman
is right there....). Amelia's constant battle between self
preservation and her need to save her son is what makes this movie so tense –
if you have kids you will see exactly what I mean when you watch it.
“The Babadook” is getting rave
reviews wherever it is seen, and I guess mine is fairly rave as well.
It is taut, tense, disturbing and at times really scary. You will
get goosebumps. It isn't the best horror movie you'll ever see, but
it is assuredly a good time at the movies if you like to be genuinely
creeped out. Stephen King's short story “The Boogeyman” (from
the collection “Night Shift”) left me with the same feeling of
creepiness, and that, coming from me, is high praise indeed. A
terrific little creeper.
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