Don't Be Afraid of The Babadook - SPOILER

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2015)

There are many horror films that involve a possessed child and the tragic events they put their parents through. This plot has become quite typical in the history of horror films. From The Omen (1976), The Exorcist (1973), and The Sixth Sense (1999), The Babadook completely turned this plot around by possessing the parent along with the child. At first, the audience feels bad for the mother because she is dealing with a misbehaved, but adorable, son. While watching the scene with the birthday party, I felt deja vu like I have seen this movie before. It reminded me too much of The Sixth Sense where Haley Joel Osment attended his friends birthday party with his mother and he was stuck in the attic which made a scene in front of everyone. Naturally, the mother in The Sixth Sense and The Babadook stood up for her child when people would treat them as if they are freaks. The Babadook showed a strong relationship between the mother and son up until the mother also became taken over by the Babadook. I was pleasantly surprised with the way Jennifer Kent played with the plot. I was expecting the movie to be much more simple but the plot twist in the rising action of the film was very different, but in a good way. All in all, I give this film a 7/10. I love a horror film that separates itself from other predictable, cheesy horror films and The Babadook was a perfect example of that. To make this film perfect, I would prefer a scarier creature than the babadook. The scenes where the babadook appears did not scare me as much because we barely see what the babadook looks like.