Well done, but vastly overrated

Rating: 5/10 (31 December 2014)

This movie was a let down. The movie's reputation is overblown and widely undeserved. It pleases to a certain intellectual breed of moviegoers who would appreciate the cerebral plot and the undertones. And it certainly has atmosphere and interesting visuals. However, the Babadook is very, very, very thin on content. It is, basically, an extended metaphor for accepting one's own inner demons that crawl beyond the surface of socially accepted rules and moral practices. But this simple premise is too thin to be stretched to a full movie, and, once you can see through it, the result quickly becomes boring and pretentious. As a genre movie, it does not contain enough thrills to really be interesting. As an art movie, it just does not have the necessary depth. So, the movie can only live in the middle ground, essentially pleasing the crowd that does not typically enjoy neither horrors nor more sophisticated movies. Some visuals are stunning (like the recurrent images of the main character floating), but they seem designed mainly to remind the viewer of how much smart and sophisticated this movie is supposed to be. The most disturbing aspects of the movie? The fact that I actually paid 6.99 to watch it on DirecTV.