THE BABADOOK (Jennifer Kent, 2014) ***

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2014)

Although I was vaguely aware of the film under review being "the new phenomenon" in horror movies, it had slipped my mind to try and score a copy for my month-long Halloween marathon which I have just gone through. In fact, it was the recommendation of a local film-buff friend of mine which jogged my memory and made me spring for it sooner rather than later. As usual, in hindsight, the end result fell just short of all the hype that had preceded it – but, having said that, it is still the best horror film I have watched since James Wan's surprise box-office smash, THE CONJURING (2013). Being a contemporary low-budget Australian production, it is small wonder than none of its cast and crew ring a bell but, as it turns out, as had previously been the case with legendary genre stalwarts like George Lucas and John Carpenter, writer/director Kent's breakout film turns out to be an expansion of a previous work, in this case the award-winning short MONSTER (2005; which, incidentally, is generously available to view in its entirety on "You Tube")!
The simple storyline revolves around a widowed care-worker and her disturbed young son being menaced by the eponymous villain of a children's book. The film is anchored by two exceptional lead performances from Essie Davis (as the beleaguered mother) and Noah Wiseman (as her volatile kid), sensitive and subtle handling and a creepily effective sound design. Surprisingly enough, the titular villain (played by Tim Purcell mostly in silhouette) barely features in it – which makes its belated and sparse apparitions all the more electrifying. Unfortunately, the director still felt the need to cater (ever so slightly) for the "torture porn" crowd and gore-hounds in the audience by, at one point, showing the possessed mother plucking out a tooth from her own mouth (for no apparent reason!) – thus virtually stifling the effect of the preceding scene (one of the best in the film) where she breaks the neck of her fluffy dog during a late-night TV screening of the original Italian-language version of Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH (1963)! – as well as exorcising herself of the offending spirit (which, inexplicably, she later keeps chained in the basement!) following a bout of bloody vomiting!!
Like most horror films of recent vintage (particularly the good ones), as it was unfolding in front of me, I was reminded of several earlier genre efforts to which the film-makers could well be paying tribute or referencing, the most prominent of which here being Roman Polanski's REPULSION (1965; in its harrowing depiction of the psychological unraveling of its sex-starved female protagonist), William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST (1973; in the medical examination and possession sequences), Mario Bava's own swan-song SHOCK (1977; in the fractured mother-son relationship played out in a house haunted by the malevolent presence of their late husband-father) and the Tobe Hooper/Steven Spielberg blockbuster POLTERGEIST (1982; in the climactic aerial abduction attempt by the spirit on the boy – who had been constantly coming up with elaborate weapons to combat it). The trump card of this particular film, it seems to me, is the fact that all the supernatural horror on display emanates from an obscure literary figure that finds itself in the house out of nowhere, puts itself back together after the mother tears the inventively illustrated book up and even rewrites itself anew in a more personalized and intimidating manner as a consequence of this very defiance!