The Babadook

Heavy in psychology, a bit weaker when it comes to terror. The Babadook is certainly not a fun or happy movie. The characters are psychologically fucked-up long before any spook shows up, and the director translates this with a lot of skill. It made me pretty nervous almost from the beginning. A widowed - and sleep deprived - mother and her screaming and hyperactive son, both descending into a psychological maze, and you can only guess who is more bonkers. The core storyline about the monster from the book was quite uninteresting, I’ve seen similar ones countless times. I didn’t give a toss whether the Babadook was real or not, besides, the director doesn’t use it to scare the viewer much. I also have mixed feelings about the ending, where very impressive moments alternate with other less stellar. In fact, the last twenty minutes felt as if the thus far carefully built and maintained atmosphere was fully reset several times. The ending is slightly WTF, if not a little ridiculous; it felt out of place given the tone of the film up to that point. Overall, it’s good, very good, actually, but this year’s competitors Oculus and It Follows scared me more. (31/10/2014)

Visually and sonically refined, this Australian variation on the night-time haunted house motif is made distinctive by its editing. The film plays powerfully on the unhappy mother/problematic son relationship and their lonely world after the loss of their husband/father, and delivers the haunting quite nicely in technical terms. But the characters’ reaction to it is strange, as if it’s not a life-threatening curse, but merely a seasonal metaphorical embodiment of a lousy time that can be endured through force of will. According to the director, this is most likely a more interesting and “artistic” take on the substance of the genre, but I did not find it entirely satisfying. (16/10/2020)

In some ways it feels like a B-movie and minimalist genre original from the hands of Jennifer Kent, who, like in The Nightingale, may not have a spectacular budget and therefore no visual freedom, but she compensates for it with atmosphere and directorial skill. The Babadook is pure psychological hell and emotional decomposition of both the viewer and the main characters in a field of 90 minutes that manages to conjure up an unexpectedly dense atmosphere, induce goosebumps and evoke unprecedented levels of paranoia and fear. I like the play with the sound, where the Babadook's voice and some of the more intense scenes have a great backing and are creepy in headphones. I like the hidden symbolism of the whole "scarecrow" thing, and I like the overall work on the film, which manages to frighten, evoke deeper metaphorical thinking, and even cleverly hook and intrigue. The further the film gets, the more it tightens up in its explicitness, and although the finale is a little odd, it delivers its point coherently and in a way that is digestible to the viewer. Great. (27/02/2023)

It's very depressing, but unfortunately in the way that in the most intense moments what remains next to the viewer is not the protagonist, but the poor little boogeyman. Otherwise, a solidly intense tightening of the noose around two characters who can't free themselves from a difficult life situation where The Babadook is merely a symbol of receding rationality and a crumbling mother-child relationship. The scary scenes are really uncomfortable, but there are too few of them, and the story lacks a strong enough climax to exemplarily underscore and cement its shoddy psychological setup. Too gratuitous for art-horror and too long-winded and hard to grasp for the mainstream. (06/04/2018)

What initially looked like the scariest horror film of the year ends up being a solid psycho thriller reminding me of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Great acting, perfect cinematography and editing, solid soundtrack (the Babadook's voice is goosebump-inducing) and it's also decently psychedelic. Too bad the film isn't spiced up with some jump scares as well, then it could be considered a modern day nightmare. 75% (14/11/2014)