A very, very pleasant surprise.

Rating: 9/10 (5 November 2014)

This film, as my title mentions, was a complete surprise for me. I saw the trailer a while back, and thought it looked okay; it seemed like it would either be not bad or not good at all.
When I started watching it, I fully expected it to be another lukewarm horror film with flat characters I don't care about. Boy, was I wrong The movie has some of the best, most believable characters I've seen in a horror film in a long time. Before the horror even started, I found I was intrigued, saddened by and even a little disturbed by the situation of the main character and her son. It's a very sad and almost pathetic setup of a mother buried in grief who secretly deeply resents her troubled son. Having such believable characters really helps in a horror movie, as when the horror actually happens later on, you genuinely feel for the characters. This is something many horror films get wrong, but The Babadook got very,, very right.
The direction of the film is stylish and inventive, and I hope the director gets to make another horror film, or any film really, sooner rather than later. I don't like making claims like this, as I'm probably a bit ignorant on what qualifies for such a claim, but the main actress gave an Oscar worthy performance in my opinion, and the child actor was also very impressive. The horror is kept, for the most part, to the imagination. Another thing I really appreciated was how open to interpretation the story is, it's the kind of story you could discuss with friends for a long time and still not all agree on what it all meant.
I feel like the film makers should have gone with another title, as the current one might turn people away, which is a shame because not only is this one of the best horror films of the year, I could comfortably say it is one of the best films of the year, period. Highly recommended.