Slow in parts but overall a fresh take on the 'boogie man' sub-genre...

Rating: 6/10 (24 November 2014)

I have been wanting to see this film since I first saw the trailer back in August and consequently lost a good few nights sleep thinking about 'Mr Babadook' and those gangly arms of his. What I gathered from the preview was that a creepy boogie man (more than slightly reminiscent of a handful of CreepyPasta characters) from a child's book came to life and started haunting a mother and her son and that as a reaction to this, the mother went a little loopy.
I went into the film with these preconceptions but I am happy to say, I was wrong - for the most part.
The Babadook is more of a tale of loss rather than mental illness or urban legend, as the trailer might have you believe. It starts off a little slow, letting the characters unfold steadily so that you can really come to grips with what you're about to witness. I have to say, at the beginning I couldn't stop thinking 'wow, this kid needs to shut up' and I honestly thought it was his whiny little voice that was going to send his mum over the edge. But then the scary stuff started to happen, and I don't mean Mr Babadook...
As soon as Amelia's character is shunned by her friends/family, things take a grizzly turn and, although this may or may not have been the aim of the director, I found myself shocked and terrified not by the eerie Mr Babadook, but by Samuel's mother's awful behaviour towards her son. I won't ruin it for any of you who've yet to see the flick but some of the language and imagery used in the 'possession' scene are truly daunting and I felt myself wanting to scream at the kid 'just leave!' but that's the whole point of the story - sticking together to fight loss and the effects of grief is the only way to get rid of the metaphorical 'monster.'
The one true surprise to me, aside from the fact that we never really get a good look at Mr Babadook, who I came to like as the film went on, was that the movie didn't find its climax in the stereotypical 'mum realises she's mentally ill and gets help - poof! Monster is gone' way. Rather, the ending leaves you with an unusual feeling of intrigue as to Mr Babadook's true form (is he an animal? a man?) and, for me at least, a strange niggle that if Amelia lets the monster free in the future, things will go back to how they were before.
So, What did we learn? FEED THE MONSTER BUT DON'T LET IT TAKE OVER!