You will Never Feel Terror Quite like The Babadook (Contains Spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (27 March 2017)

The Babadook will not only slowly creep up behind you, steadily intensifying and sending chills up your spine, but it will make you wish you never opened that big red book. The Babadook was one of the most meticulous and well-made films I have seen. The Babadook will not give you cheesy and expected jump scares, instead it will crawl under your bed and you will know its there. The psychological terrors that The Babadook expertly instills into the audience establishes the feeling of true horror. Every child and parent can remember a time when they read a bedtime story, and to think one night you may pick up that large, blood colored book with the title: Mister Babadook and your life will never be the same. Amelia, Sam's mother, had two choices, to ignore the Babadook's existence, or to fight back and stand strong to protect the only family she had left. Like every mother, Amelia brushed off her seemingly disobedient son's crazed stories of this petrifying dark figure; her denial seems to add to the suspense and horror of this film. We as the audience just want to yell out, "Stop being stupid, listen to Sam!" The basis of this film invokes very real emotions in the audience. The dark creature embodies Amelia's fear and suffering since her husband's death; as her fear grows, the Babadook gets stronger. The Babadook manifests as Amelia's grief, epitomizing the detrimental repercussions of letting our nightmares control our lives. This sense of verisimilitude taps into the audience's true human fears. Grief is a powerful creature that lives inside each one of us. Just as Amelia tries to repress her grief and sorrow, so do we. However, this film subtly proves that living in denial of our fears is the quickest way to allow them to take over our ability to function. We must face the vicious thoughts that haunt our minds instead of surrendering to our psyche and allowing it to transform into the shape-shifting, black shadow that will take over if you allow it to. The Babadook was an intense and captivating film, showing us that not all monsters are men in masks, but that the real monster can be a figment of our imagination which we fail to control.