Good but seriously incomplete

Rating: 6/10 (15 November 2014)

I think it certainly deserves 8 points but it is good in building tension and has very good scary elements. It has many good ideas but not elaborated enough. So if you are a horror fan and if you haven't watched this film I suggest you to watch it certainly.
*Edit* Since it is certainly announced that there won't be a sequel, I cannot do anything but to downgrade my rating to 6 as it stands quite incomplete and nothing much more than a jump-scare film.
***Spoilers below***
I did have second thoughts about giving it 8 points. It certainly does it job to scare but so does the scream or blair witch when you watch it for the first time. Unfortunately at some places, it only depends on noise, sudden volume ups, screams and yells to scare you though.
I think what people are fascinated about this story is that it makes you think that the woman has psychological problems. Perhaps she has but in the end you are presented with a real monster feeding on worms. That gives the story a very unusual taste. A taste that is good only if it was accompanied by some more explanation. Besides this point, there are also many other elements that are not explained in the story. First of all, the death of father. Did he die in an accident that his head got cut off? Did he die just after talking about the weather? Are those just the imagination of the mother? So the story does not elaborate on the accident enough. It also does not make sense that father died while taking mother to hospital. It is normally the mother that dies during the birth not the father. There is something quite unusual there. How did she reach the hospital then? Was that a car accident or train? What happened during the accident? The film also leaves it unclear whether the bugs are just the psychological hallucinations of a traumatized mother or the way our supernatural being, Babadook, messes with his victims. These are all left unanswered.
A good horror film is the one that scares intelligently. As a standalone film, Babadook feels more like an unplanned story written hastily without connecting dots. Moreover, it gives you the feeling that there is something really intelligent going on in the background, that will be explained in a sequel.
To sum up, Babadook is a very good yet incomplete horror film. It is probably the first film of a saga as there is so much left to be answered and without these answers it is not much different then an average horror film. Yet, it is simply a big disappointment if there is no sequels. The accident of father is a serious aspect that needs to be explained more detailed. Yet what is even more important is the babadook himself. His character is not elaborated deep enough and there is so much potential to exploit in there. Hopefully, we all will enjoy this treasure in its sequels in following years...
Unfortunately it is announced that there won't be any sequels. It is good to leave some stuff to imagination, I like that. But this film leaves too much for imagination as it is.