At Least It Wasn't More "Found Footage", Still Misses More Than Connects

Rating: 4/10 (16 April 2015)

Australians have a way with stark stories and visuals and this is such a film. However the usual magic of the whole rising above the humbleness ain't here. Should I have known by the name? Maybe in some culture somewhere the so-called "Babadook" commands respect or something, I thought it sounded pretty dumb and in no way hip or cute...or scary. As you can guess I'm a bit at odds with this movie. In some ways I think it could have been a lot better, but it stumbles on it's own dogged determination to build a world of misery for Amelia (I think that's the mother character's name). From the start there isn't a thing that seems pleasant or right, maybe save an elderly lady that babysits the son sometimes. The viewer simply can't invest in the mother or the son and we're not given anything other than the crazy black vapor of the Baba-whatever. The boy is so irritating he's either the most vile child actor of recent memory or he's actually got issues? Either way one quickly feels nothing for the kid, or the mother for that matter. Let 'em lie in their dingy beds in their dark home without any friends save for the "dookie man". I can't even remember how it ends I was so divested of the entirety of it. Move along, nothing to see here...how this is getting good reviews alludes me.