The Conjuring meets the Shining

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2015)

In the Babadook, Essie Davis plays Amelia, a woman who is widowed in a horrible car accident the night she was to have her first child. She was in the car with her husband in route to the hospital. Cut to seven years later and she is living alone with her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) in a large, old, and unsettlingly scary house. Samuel, to put it mildly is a less than well behaved child. So much so that she is decides to pull him from school to find an alternative one that will be able to accommodate his wild temperament. One night when Amelia asks Samuel to pick out a bedtime story. He brings back a book she does not recognize entitled "Mister Babadook". The book is a terrifying pop-up book that tells of a monster, the Babadook that terrorized people. After reading both Samuel and Amelia begin to notice that they are not alone in the house. This is the first full length film for director Jennifer Kent. And may I say, what an amazing freshman effort. This film reminded me a lot of the feel of the Conjuring (2013) and the Shining (1980). I cannot remember a film in recent years that kept me on edge for as long as the Babadook. It is a hair raising, terror thrill ride from 5 minutes in to 5 minutes before it ends. Essie Davis's performance is spectacular. Essie's is a transformative performance that feels a lot like Jack Nicholson in the Shining. Your bear witness to her decent into dark madness. This film not only gives you the jolting scares you come to expect from a horror film, it gives you an amazingly haunting performances that linger. Noah Wiseman as Samuel is phenomenal. He transforms from a bratty unruly child you want to hate, into innocent and sympathetic. He feels like a cross between Danny from the Shining and Robbie from Poltergeist (1982). The overall subtext to this film is indictment of the modern family society. Specifically the struggle of the single mother and male centric society that has her raising one. It offers an answer I'd rather not go into for fear of spoiling the ending. The ending is probably the weakest part of this otherwise very strong film. This is the best horror film of 2014. It is a must for horror fans, especially if you like a little depth and psychology over gore. "Ba, Ba, Dook, Dook, Dook" will be etched into the darkest part of your nightmares for nights to come.
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