The Babadook (2014)
– One of my favorite film critics, Mark Kermode, named Jennifer Kent’s
writing/directorial debut his favorite film of 2014, so that’s enough for me to
sit up and take notice. Here’s the thing about The Babadook: it’s not, as Exorcist
director William Friedkin said, the scariest film of all time, but it is
unsettling enough. There’s a fine line between disturbing and daft with which
most horror films struggle; see, for example, the superlatively distressing The Strangers vs. the disappointing Mama. The Babadook is on the scarier end of the spectrum, albeit with a
firm and well-appreciated grounding in psychological terror over jump scares.
Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman play a mother and son haunted by a demonic
embodiment of grief, The Babadook, and it’s to Kent’s credit that the
relationship between the two feels compellingly real, such that we care about the
strained bond they share. If I have a complaint about The Babadook, it’s that it isn’t halfway near as scary as I’d have
liked it to be. Kent wisely keeps the Babadook itself off-screen for much of the
film, allowing the mystique to build tension, but that tension never bursts. It’s
all in service of the more metaphorical level on which the Babadook resonates
(and which, I suspect, interests Kent much more), but there is a point at which
the fable-like allegory becomes quite obvious and the film shortchanges those
moviegoers who want something a bit jumpier. For what it is, though – a low-budget
and very personal psychological horror film grounded in the evident sincerity
of its character development – The Babadook
is worth the look and the chill or two it’ll give you.That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!
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