A tour de force of genuinely intelligent and frightening horror

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2015)

The Babadook is a magnificent film. It is so much more than a horror, it is a film about the nature of fear, grief and anxiety itself.
The trailer may indicate that this is a bog standard "possessed child" or quiet-quiet-quiet- jump movie. What is turns out to be, however, is a journey into grief, maternal anxiety, hallucinating and acute fatigue, rejection, love, fear, and psychological suppression. The nature of the Babadook is sufficiently opaque (at least initially) to further inject the film with a foreboding sense of paranoia. He is first introduced as a character in a creepy children's book, Mister Babadook, read by Amelia (Essie Davis) to her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman). The relationship between mother and son is at the front and centre of the story, already strained by the death of Samuel's father and brought to breaking point by manifestations of Samuel's own grief and fear. Is the Babadook merely a character in the story? Is he a real malevolent spirit haunting the boy?
As it turns out, the Babadook is neither, and it is not Samuel who is beset by most of the fear, anxiety and grief but his mother, who struggles to cope with everything to the point of descending into madness. As she feels her grip on her own sanity loosen, the activity of the Babadook intensifies, until she manages finally to suppress it, whereupon her relationship with Samuel is significantly healed.
A masterclass of a portrayal of naked grief, fear and anxiety, truly stellar performances from the two leads and genuine terror make this an astonishing, highly intelligent and gripping, haunting, captivating and deeply moving watch.