Very good chiller about confronting your demons

Rating: 7/10 (3 March 2017)

Version I saw: UK cinema release
Actors: 7/10
Plot/script: 7/10
Photography/visual style: 7/10
Music/score: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
There was a great deal of hype in horror circles surrounding the release of The Babadook. It was called 'revolutionary', a 'masterpiece', and all despite the title bizarrely invoking cheesy 80s novelty party song 'Agadoo' in my mind. Australia is not without any track record of horror films, but nothing of this kind.
In terms of type, The Babadook blends gore, jump-scares, creepy chills and oppressive psychological horror, and this is the first impressive aspect. Writer/director Jennifer Kent clearly has a command of all the different tools of the genre. There is great work in music, sound and especially make-up too.
Crucially though, it is all in service of the story and the ideas being explored. SOME SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ONWARD. Like many such films, The Babadook has a central mystery about whether the terrors stalking the main characters are real or imagined, and ultimately, it doesn't matter. The 'monster' is a metaphor for the demons of depression and anxiety that stalk main character Amelia (Essie Davis), and the danger of her repression of her issues. The message is one that I have seen very rarely elsewhere: the characters win by confronting her demons, acknowledging them, and not defeating them, but instead learning to live with them. That is what impressed me most of all about the film.
It's not revolutionary though. I don't think it's a masterpiece either. The kid is not a very good actor, for a start. Besides, there are lots of very good horror films, of which this is only one, and singling it out denies all of them. Watch The Babadook, but watch those films too.