Horror down to earth

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2018)

Babadook's beautiful combination of suspense and grief descends each of its audience members into a dark hole where a glimmer of hope is the only way out. The film is presented in such a way where character development and a story driven plot is displayed subtlety but also is very impactful on the viewer. The audience is truly able to sympathize with the main character's grief because there is no control of her surroundings. The sound produced throughout the film are harsh noises to make you cringe, from the grinding of teeth to the constant squeaking of breaks while the list goes on. These examples are few of many constant situations, noises, and images making the audience never able to become comfortable or safe. Babadook is its own work of art where this isn't a play-on from horror films in the past or using familiar horror movie tropes one may consistently see. Rather this psychological horror uses the suppression of this poor woman's grief to create this evil character the Babadook. Ultimately digging down to the fears of an everyday (slightly older) audience to create empathy and disruption of the everyday world. Jennifer Kent does a beautiful job of displaying a truly horrific roller coaster ride which doesn't need anything flashy to instill fear rather a dark realistic idea put into motion with the Babadook's character being an intricate part with all the right pieces falling into place.