Among the best horror movies ever made.

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2019)

Jennifer Kent's directorial debut could not have been better, "The Babadook" is one of the most original horror movies out there that dares walk its own path in one of the most overly crowded genres in the industry. In this film, single-mother Amelia (Davis) struggles to give her eccentric son Samuel (Wiseman) and a stable childhood following the death of his father (Winspear). As they find a children's book with not a very happy ending, they are haunted by the horrifying - but well dressed - entity, the Babadook. The film is without doubt, in my opinion, some of the scariest horror movies released in this decade, as the mother decent into madness following the arrival of the Babadook, an increasing feeling of isolation crawls upon you which inflicts much more scares than the menace himself, who is sparsely seen, making him more fearful when he finally appears. Throughout "The Babadook", the atmosphere and grayish filter adds to the overlaying cloud of unease surrounding the entire story. To me, Kent has created a horror film close to perfection which challenges the innovativeness of the horror industry. More should dare to take leaps into the unexpected since that often brings many more scares than your usually jump scares or overused ghosts. The hype over this film is understandable, and deservingly so, not many movies has had me scared like this. And also, in contrast to an absolute majority of scary movies out there, the film's themes and characters can be analyzed and discussed after. Is the Babadook real or just a reflection of a mother's depression and its subsequent effects on a small child. The more humorous analysis of the title character being a sad, depressed gay man is maybe less to study but nevertheless shows the impact on popular culture this astonishing horror movie has had.