THE BABADOOK (2014)

Directed by Jennifer Kent, Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman. Psychological horror. Australia, 2014, 93mins, Cert 15. 

“If it's in a word, or it's in a look, you can't get rid of the Babadook.”

Six years after surviving a horrendous car crash in which her husband was killed, Amelia (Essie Davis) is still struggling to come to terms with her loss, and equally struggling to cope with her six year old son Samuel’s “significant behavioural problems”. Unable to get a good night’s sleep due to Samuel’s bad dreams about a monster coming to get him; Amelia’s increasingly fragile mental state begins to unravel further after Samuel chooses for his bedtime story a pop-up book not seen on his shelf before entitled: ‘Mister Babadook’.

Building on her award-winning short film MONSTER, writer/director Jennifer Kent’s debut feature is a disturbing portrait of a mother being slowly consumed by unresolved grief and a traumatised child haunted by inherited guilt and fear. The very real traumas of how Amelia’s sleep deprivation and encroaching social isolation seep into her dysfunctional relationship with son Samuel makes for uncomfortable viewing. Amelia’s descent into a maelstrom of exhaustive depression and then further down into even darker waters is brilliantly conveyed by Essie Davis. Young Noah Wiseman, making his feature film debut, is equally convincing as the demanding, terrified and ultimately heartbreakingly vulnerable Samuel: “My daddy’s in the cemetery. He got killed driving my mum to the hospital to have me.”

The domestic reality-based psychological drama is skilfully drawn with an assured hand. Embedding the relationship between mother and son so carefully, director Jennifer Kent’s reward for her meticulously layered groundwork comes with the introduction of ‘Mister Babadook’ and the escalating sense of unease that the viewer can’t help but share right from the moment the dreaded book is opened.

It’s a matter of interpretation as to whether the Babadook (a cross between comedian/card magician Jerry Sadowitz and Struwwelpeter) is merely a physical manifestation of the darkness festering within Amelia, or a tangible entity in its own right, but whatever it is, its status as an instant inductee into the stuff of nightmares hall of fame is guaranteed.

It’s rare for a film to deliver the goods in terms of creepy scares having firstly invested such care and attention on establishing a strong layered character dynamic. But director Jennifer Kent’s first feature offers up a potent blend of both. It’s by no means an ‘easy’ watch – but that’s a compliment. The psychologically damaging fireworks that explode between mother and son are as shocking and effective as the dread and ‘BOO!’ provided by the Babadook.

There are some nice ‘tip-of-the-hat’ genre moments such as the sequence where Amelia is watching ‘The Drop of Water’ segment from Mario Bava’s BLACK SABBATH on late-night TV, together with the bleary-eyed semi-conscious TV montages which include Lon Chaney’s unmasking as the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and the alarmingly surreal but brilliant cameo appearance by the Babadook in amongst a Georges Melies film.

Allowances need to be made however for the EXORCIST-like trappings towards the end (perhaps a by-product caused by Amelia’s seeming penchant for late-night horror viewing – then again she also watches episodes of SKIPPY – so perhaps not). But apart from that, THE BABADOOK represents a rare 2-for-1 offer in modern genre cinema: an absorbing sometimes harrowing psychological drama with well-written credible characters, and a scary nightmare bogeyman that feels integral to the drama rather than just a cheap shock cipher.

(Top tip for parents: if your child is having nightmares or is convinced a monster is coming to get him/her, it is probably best to avoid reading ‘Mister Babadook’ to them as a bedtime story.)

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Paul Worts