By LINDSI HEBERT, Staff Reporter.
Written and directed by Jennifer Kent and notoriously hard to find, “The Babadook” introduces you to the dysfunctional lives of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her six-year-old son Samuel (Noah Wiseman). Amelia tragically lost her husband on the day that her son was born, and clearly hasn’t been able to take hold of the single, working mother role.
Samuel isn’t making it any easier. At the age of six, he’s got an incredible fear of monsters lurking in the dark and a violent drive to overcome them. He is prone to hallucinations and sees a monster (the babadook) in every dark place, making life hard for his mother.
Amelia takes it in stride (sort of) and figures that there must be something wrong with her son. That is, until she also starts to see the babadook.
“The Babadook” is a foreign film that wasn’t released in the U.S. until this past Nov. Even then, it’s a difficult film to track down. Once you find it, however, you won’t be disappointed. Once you get over the excitement and self-righteous gloating of finding the movie itself, you begin to really appreciate it.
For starters, the acting is really good. The character Amelia faces difficult struggles with her life and son, not to mention her own psychological problems revolving around dealing with the babadook. Essie Davis portrays this wonderfully, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I started seeing more of her and Noah Wiseman in other films. If this movie doesn’t win any awards I will be incredibly surprised and also disappointed with the world.
Though “The Babadook” has some horror elements, it is so much more than that. If you go in thinking that this movie is going to be like certain popular horror films involving ghosts and demons, you are entirely wrong. Don’t go into that movie with expectations of demons and monsters and the blood of the innocents splattering up against everything. It’s not like that. “The Babadook” is not the traditional spook movie.
There is horror in it, though. A different kind, but horror none the less. The babadook monster is creepy, and it plays up the childhood horror-terrors we all faced as children. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact that Amelia was also seeing the babadook, it’d be completely reasonable to say that her son was simply making it all up. The horror’s subtle for a while, but effective, and most importantly it doesn’t dictate how the movie presents the plot.
“The Babadook” was a movie that deserves two viewings. One to just appreciate how awesome it is, and another one to let you wrap your head around what the heck you just watched. It’s thought provoking and heart wrenching, and leaves you completely happy that you put the time in to find it. On a scale of 1-5 gummy bears, with 5 being the highest, “The Babadook” gets 5 delicious, sugar coated gummy bears.
If you are interesting in watching The Babadook and cannot find it and/or are too lazy to put in the actual work, you’re in luck. This movie deserves as many viewers as possible, and to do my part to help it get those views, I did. If your cable provider is DirectTV, you can order it on demand. If you do not have DirectTV, go to amazon.com and search for The Babadook. For a nominal fee, you can stream the movie on any electronic device. So get some popcorn, enjoy the movie and spread the word!
