Blowing down the house

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2015)

There is very little more horrific than real life, and Jennifer Kent's first feature, The Babadook, proves it.
Amelia (Essie Davis, in a tour-de-force performance) would have a hard time of it even without seven-year-old Samuel (Noah Wiseman) to constantly keep from trouble. And Sam's not exactly some mischievous little scamp --- he plays with dart guns at school, assaults other kids, and throws around firecrackers like confetti. He makes the titular terror from "We Need to Talk About Kevin" look like a total pussy.
And Amelia's not exactly mother-of-the-year. You can practically see the monster within her many times in the early part of the film, gnashing to escape the prison her deceased husband's confined her to, after he died in a car crash while taking Amelia to the hospital to deliver Sam. This is a risky, potent set-up that Kent could have only realized solo (with her Kickstarter and other funding, of course). Both mom and son are so pitifully unlikable (and realistic) that no big studio would come near this concept.
Yet Kent makes it work constantly, due to the strength she imbues in every frame --- from the acting, to the at times beautiful chiaroscuro lighting, to the creepy sound mix, ominous visuals (which are just puppets, but damn good ones), and camera tricks that would make Hitchcock and Welles look twice. it really is a fantastically made film for any budget.
But it's the emotional tension that Davis and Wiseman bring in truckloads that keeps you riveted, more than any cardboard bogeyman. The Babadook contains some really disturbing sequences, not the least of which is brought to life by superb graphics designer Alex Juhasz's ghoulish "children's book" that features mom strangling son to death just before slashing her own throat. Yes, it's that strong and that effective, at times recalling Friedkin's The Exorcist in it's shock value.
As many other reviewers have noted, The Babadook is much more richly dimensioned than a cheapo monster movie. It's got enough allegory and symbolism to keep a Sociology class busy for a semester. It'll more than keep you hypnotized for ninety odd minutes.