It is very rare these days that horror films get any decent reviews. The Babadook bucks the trend, getting not only good reviews, but sterling ones, currently a stunning 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. In many ways it is a throwback to the older films of the past, when they scared you with pure horror, suspense, chills, and thrills, rather than the monotonous cheap scare tactics employed these days by a big scary demon jumping out from a shadow in the corner.
The Babadook follows Amelia and her son Samuel. Sam is turning 7 and still scared of the monster under the bed. He awakes his mother every night to check around his room for ghosts, and wants to be read a story to fall back asleep. At the same time, Amelia is suffering from severe insomnia and nightmares of her own, mostly about the death of her husband. One night Sam picks a book Amelia doesn’t remember seeing before, titled of course “The Babadook.” The children’s-looking book tells of a creature terrorizing a family, wanting to get in to the house, and will not stop until they let him in, at which time he kills them all. After reading the book, the child is scared further, and starts saying he can see the Babadook around him. This sets the family on a course where the viewer is left wondering what is real and what is in their heads, while the child gets more and more disturbed, and the mother tries to pretend nothing is happening and everything is normal.
There are no jump-scares in this movie, no cheap “behind the door” thrills, it is mostly a quiet, suspenseful psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for the other shoe to drop. But more than just a scary movie, it also has a lot of emotion and heart, with the true love of a mother and her son, facing pure evil with nothing but each other to cling to. I am not a big fan of scary movies, but this one is a good one and kept me riveted (albeit with eyes covered at times!).
Jons Movie Takes 