"The Babadook": A NEW Horror Classic

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2015)

I am a poor lad, having been born in 1999. Now, I live in an age where classic horror is dead and the term "horror" has became a joke with modern "horror" movies like Ouija, Devil's Due, Smiley and the once great Paranormal Activity franchise taking the meaning of "horror" for "an orgy of endless, predictable jumpscares". This leaves few good modern horror movies like The Conjuring, Sinister, and The Ring to carry the torch of what horror once was and can still be.
Now, The Babadook has arrived.
I'm unsure of how jumpscares became a necessity for horror, and while I'm not completely against jumpscares, it's all too easy to get tired of them once you see them coming before they're on screen. Even good horror films have one or two jumpscares, but they create a creepy, ominous atmosphere well-deserving of at least one pass.
The Babadook challenges this theory by creating one of the most eerie, unsettling, dark, nightmarish inducing atmospheres ever put to modern horror...and not a single jumpscare is thrown out.
The film's story at heart is not about the monster haunting them (more on that later), but the family being tortured by it's lingering presence. The family, a mother, Amelia, and a son, Samuel, live a rather pathetic existence, with Amelia spiraling further into depression after the death of her husband in a car accident, while her son concocts small wooden weapons to protect himself against the "imaginary" monsters of their house. When Amelia reads Samuel a story called "The Babadook" for bed, the Babadook makes his grand entrance.
Aside from delivering a refreshing, unsettling atmosphere, The Babadook seems to have something almost no horror films, even good ones, have; a soulful story. The interactions between the Amelia and Samuel are perhaps the heartfelt (and heartbreaking) moments in recent cinematic history as the main theme of the film is dealing with grief and depression; a subject that no horror film, and even many other movies, do not tackle it with this force.
The main characters, portrayed by Noah Wiseman and Esse Davis, each gave award-worthy performances as a mother and son going from day to day living a bleak, dis-interesting lifestyle filled with grief and depression. And the film, with subtle yet obvious symbolism, uses the Babadook monster as a euphemism for grief and depression.
Before wrapping up, I'd like to back my point up how jumpscares have swallowed what good, genuine horror is in modern films; due to the lack of cheap, clichÃ© scares, small audiences saw this while larger audiences saw jumpscare-riddled horror films leading to The Babadook never getting a full release in theaters. So my advice to you, reader: don't watch thinking you'll get your regular dose of clichÃ©s, watch knowing this a soulful story under the guise of a terrifying, unsettling horror atmosphere.
Watch "The Babadook" if you can, it's on DVD and Netflix, as this film is going to be remembered as a THE horror classic of the 21st century.