Welcome
horror fans, to Day 23 of the 31 DAYS OF
HORROR! We are back in our lead up to Halloween with a superb Australian
independent horror film from a couple years ago. We present to you...THE
BABADOOK. Enjoy!
The Babadook is an Australian horror film
written and directed by Jennifer Kent. The film stars Essie Davis, Noah
Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney, and Barbara West, and tells the story of a mother,
Amelia (Davis), and her son, Samuel (Wiseman), as they are struggling through
life some years after the death of Samuel’s father on the day of his birth. Samuel
believes there is a monster after them and it is causing him (and by extension
his mother) insomnia. From this background we are given one of the best horror
films in years.
The Babadook truly is one of the best
horror films in a long time because this film really subverts our modern expectations
and tells a deep story within a solid horror shell. This movie is fundamentally
about depression, grief, and mental illness, not the creature feature that a
very base view of it would make it out to be. Kent really takes a risk in this
respect as she has a solid creature feature to fall back on but she chooses to
challenge the audience by having a film with layers and depth. At the start we
are really frustrated with Samuel because of how challenging he is as a child.
This all pays off and when the film reaches its eventual conclusion you
understand where everything is coming from and if you look beneath the surface
there is a hugely interesting allegory to explore.
In
addition to a risky and interesting story, this film has great performances, production
design, and sound design. Essie Davis is truly superb. She is one of the most
relatable characters to be in any film ever. She looks fully believable
throughout and you understand her torn emotional state because of the
performance Davis puts in. Noah Wiseman as Samuel is also excellent. He has the
job of being very grinding on the audience for most of the film to being the
most sympathetic character by the end and he hits every note of that perfectly.
That is something most adult actors would struggle with and he pulls it off
perfectly at his very young age.
As
mentioned, the production design in this film is great. It is obviously a low
budget independent film but the practical nature of all the effects and
different things that happen in the film and the great paper textures used in
certain sequences with the Babadook looked really excellent on screen. This was
a great use of resources and, on the whole, are really well developed from
a production perspective.
The
last positive I would like to point out is the sound design in this film. Kent
uses sound frequently throughout to create an atmosphere of uneasiness
and it is tremendously effective. Through frequently discordant sounds, the
audience is really driven mad along with the characters which makes the events
of the film so much more appreciable and effective emotionally.
This
film has very few negatives. It gives extremely short shrift to its secondary
characters to be sure and though you can empathize with the lead characters you
can still be frustrated by them. I also think that if you expect this to be
purely a creature feature you will leave disappointed. I wouldn’t call that a
negative of the film per se, but just something to adjust your expectations around.
Overall,
The Babadook is an extremely
brilliant horror film that explores true horror within the structure of
fictional horror. It capitalizes on our fears through great performances, great
production design, and eerie sound design. This film is a triumph and a must
see for any film fan whether you like horror or not!
Ryan’s Score:
9/10
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