Really wanted this to be good

Rating: 1/10 (11 August 2018)

Simply dreadful.
Obviously a very limited budget, so well done on that score, but so disappointing.
The story is poor. You don't have to have all the effects if the story's good, and you can create terror just as much from something unseen as you can from the visual, but this is way off the mark.
It goes from one stupid scenario to the next, with a dour palette inside a house that is seemingly from the mid-eighties. If this is set in that timeline, it's not made clear, although in the ensemble's clothing and the protagonist's car it would seem that way. Nobody has a mobile phone, but the telephones seem modern.
The cast is far too limited when the main characters are this weak, and I didn't find myself rooting for either the flaky mother or the annoying child.
Aside from those points, this is meant to be a horror film, and there wasn't a second of it that was enough to make the hairs on my arms stand up. The clichés are all there: dull, creepy house, unstable parent, the knowing child, a concerned neighbor, incredulous police and of course a cellar.
The 'Babadook' (what a ridiculous name!) is less scary than some of the costumed revellers I see walking the streets with buckets of sweets in hand at Halloween. Not that you really see it.
The ending is so awful. And not in a good way.
If you're easily scared, or a child under the age of 12, you may love this.
If I'd seen this at the cinema, I'd have asked for a refund.