Once You Let Him In

Rating: 8/10 (27 March 2017)

Raw, creepy, and thought-provoking: The Babadook is designed to give the viewer an inside perspective on what depression feels and looks like, and it succeeds. In The Babadook, there is no romanticizing this disease, which is cleverly disguised as Mister Babadook. Jennifer Kent's first feature-length film was not wasted with this incredible picture. Beautiful cinematography and allegorical expression are used brilliantly to cover a subject that is sometimes kept in the basement, under lock and key.
We are introduced to Amelia Vannick (Essie Davis) and her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman), and instantaneously, due to the superb mise-en-scène, it is painfully obvious that this is a tense household. The feelings that are presented through the use of these elements give such believable verisimilitude that it is hard not to imagine yourself in Amelia's situation.
This idea of a single mom coping with the antics of a child afraid of "demons" isn't the only part of the movie that engages in intertextuality with The Exorcist (1973). There are also images of the bed moving abruptly, as well as the idea of possession. The Babadook, however, keeps it fresh by making a switch from the possession of the child and innocence to possession of the motherly figure.
This film is an excellent display of concepts that have been covered in other films many times over, but they're used here in novel and unanticipated ways. The Babadook also brings into the mainstream a disease that affects so many people and is oftentimes kept out of the house, for fear it might overwhelm. Jennifer Kent poses an important question: If we don't address the problems we are facing, will they eventually take us over?