For Out of the Box Thinkers Only

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2018)

*Spoiler Alert
Throughout the beginning portion of this film, you may feel the need to pop an Addy (only if prescribed, of course). The Babadook is a film that starts agonizingly slow, however, do not let this cause you to make assumptions about the ending. The twists and turns are hardly predictable. Director Jennifer Kent brilliantly sets up the beginning to cause viewers to let their guards down. You most likely will fall into this trap as well. Amelia's rambunctious and annoying son Samuel is convinced that a monster is alive in their home. But of course, any sane adult would know monsters are not real, right? RIGHT?!
The Babadook explores the confinements of the desperate mind and what it is truly capable of. If you believe a dark and dingy home is claustrophobic, imagine being stuck inside the immensely grieving mind of Amelia. She cannot get over her dead husband, and each time she looks at her son she is reminded of him. However, viewers get a quick glimpse of her husband, and holy damn, he was a hot, modern day Jesus (so we can kind of understand why she is hung up). In all seriousness, Amelia's desperate state of hopelessness takes her to places she never wanted to go; she becomes capable of committing unimaginable things without even knowing it. The most terrifying part of the whole film is that the Babadook is indeed real, and in all its horror, it may very well live inside each and every one of us. The posing question at hand is, are you going to let it in?