Did A Lot Right

Rating: 5/10 (16 October 2017)

I really liked the premise of this film when I read the summary, but was ultimately disappointed when I was finished. Although there were a lot of spectacular moments where I felt my chest tightening, the amount of times an overused trope or predictable encounter occurred killed any scary vibe the movie had.
Things I liked:
-The use of the book (as well as the knocking) was a great way to introduce the idea of the Babadook without feeling like exposition was being dumped on you. When the book returned, it was one of the most frightening sequences in the movie!
-The use of music (and lack of music) really set the tone. Many times a film will unintentionally kill the immersion by playing thematically inappropriate music, or playing music when silence would really be more appropriate. This film did a great job of building tension all around.
-The set was fantastic. The layout, color scheme, and slight disrepair all created an amazing atmosphere. The thematically relevant television they watched was a nice touch.
Things I didn't like:
-In a lot of cases, the acting was a little over the top. Less is more in a horror film, and often times when trying to be scary, the extreme performance ended up seeming more humorous.
-The appearance of the Babadook itself could've been a lot scarier. I had really hoped that this movie would deviate away from the typical scare tactics of other movies, but I was unfortunately wrong. They used cheesy effects to make the creature move quickly, and again made it seem more comical than scary. The voice modulation was also cringey and immersion-breaking. Again, less is more, especially with a movie with a premise as good as this one.
-The use of graphic imagery to be scary was attempted in this film, which in my opinion is not very frightening. When done right it can be, but in this instance it felt forced rather than disturbing or scary. I will say that when violence was depicted in the pop-up book, it was done very well and was chilling, but when already foreshadowed, the actual thing seemed redundant.
-Unrealistically happy endings always bother me, and this one is no exception. The idea that a child was able to perform an exorcism just by loving his mother and touching her cheek was asking a lot of the audience, considering how powerful the creature was shown to be. I will say that the black bile was a nice and concise way of showing that he had left.
In conclusion, it's not terrible, and worth a watch if you don't have much to do, but don't expect to be scared very frequently, as the overuse of horror tropes kills the mood.