One of the most original horror films in decades

Rating: 9/10 (13 November 2016)

Black is the colour of this movie. A colour pallet of deep dark blacks and greyish whites. And there is a very good reason for this.
In this stunningly original and absorbing horror-drama Amelia (Esse Davis) struggles to cope with the loss of her husband in a car crash. She was in labour at the time, and during the ride to hospital the tragedy occurs. Amelia's son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) appears to be a disturbed young child, and as the story develops we get the feeling that she has subliminal resentment over her son's inadvertently being the cause of her husband's death. It's about 5 years later but she is still struggling to move on.
Although there is the usual weird kid in it any form of horror cliché ends there. This film is different; not for everyone, yet a treat for those of us who thought all originality was lacking in today's movies. When Amelia reads a story book to her son she finds it dreadfully frightening. A horrible monster - The Babadook literally springs out of the pages at her as a 3D cutout; and it isn't long before he is assuming corporeal form...
The Babadook himself appears to be modelled on the Lon Chaney vampire character from London After Midnight (still a lost film, sadly), but he's extremely frightening and enormously effective.
The conclusion has thrown a lot of people, but for my money it's simply that Amelia has synthesised her latent terrible grief into the form of the monster - he's literally a metaphor for the terrible black depression that has engulfed her; and once her true feelings come out, she's able to deal with him.
I thought this was a brilliant film, and can't understand the rating this movie has at all. The acting from both Davis and Wiseman is first rate. But hey that's showbiz!