I finally caught up with 'The Babadook' this week, just before it disappears from cinemas, and I'm glad I did because it is almost certainly the best horror film of 2014. If it even is a horror film. The emphasis is on psychological unease rather than formulaic jump scares and it's reminiscent of films in the vein of 'Repulsion', 'Spider' and 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'. It's not a monster movie. It's a "monsters of the mind" movie.
In an Australian suburb a single mother struggles with her grief several years after losing her husband in a car accident that happened as they drove to the hospital to give birth. The boy who was born on the same day as Amelia's husband died is now a 'difficult' six year old with a vivid imagination, an arsenal of home made weaponry and all manner of behavioural problems. All the sympathy and support seems to be drying up. The school authorities are getting serious, Amelia's sister is distancing herself and her employer is losing patience. All of these problems compound the feelings of grief and resentment. And now there is this pop-up book - 'Mister Babadook' that seems to be foreshadowing other horrors to come. The monster is waiting outside this unhappy house. Dook! Dook! Dook! Can you hear him knocking?
If you look at any of those Top Ten horror film lists you'll see 'The Exorcist', 'Halloween', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Shining', 'Let The Right One In', 'The Omen' , 'Carrie', 'Don't Look Now' and 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' as perennial choices. They are all to a larger or lesser extent about our fear of children or fear for children. 'The Babadook' has nods to all of them and is worthy of joining the canon. This is not a reheating of hackneyed themes but an intelligent progression and exploration of the genre.
It's an accomplished debut film from Jennifer Kent. The framing and pacing of the film recall the early work of that other Antipodean director - Jane Campion but it definitely has a distinct flavour of its own. An American or European take on this material would probably have turned out quite ordinary. This is also one of the best edited horror films that I've seen in a long while. It has a slow burn set up but it never drags its feet. Scenes seem to last exactly as long as they need to and the audience is trusted to fill in the gaps. What a joy it is to see stop-motion and in-camera effects rather than the usual barrage of CGI imagery. There are even sequences inspired by film pioneer Georges Méliès and German expressionism. It's the perfect antidote to stupid fucking creepy doll movies and quiet, quiet, bang! scares.
Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman are fabulous as mother and son. Horror films are normally derailed by actors not being up to the job if the role calls for something beyond screaming and looking worried. Your sympathies and viewpoints will shift a lot with these characters; these performances keep them as believable people you really care about.
Is it scary though? Well, yes....and no. This is always a problem. What's 'scary' differs from person to person. I would say that 'The Babadook' is more "unsettling" than "scary", but then again I don't particularly find 'The Shining' "scary" even though I admire it. This film certainly wrong-footed the audience I saw it with, who thought they were going to see another 'Annabelle', but then couldn't quite figure out where to scream and giggle. The intention is not to provide a rollercoaster ride of jump scares or create a new "Freddy' or 'Jason'. Instead, this is a subtle and powerful impression of a mind unravelling itself in the face of domestic horrors and the gentle drift into mental illness.
'The Babadook' embraces everything good about the horror genre, draws on the best material within that genre and reshapes it into new and unnerving shapes. It's ambitious and distinguished and exciting. It also has a great ending that doesn't need a big stupid twist or apocalyptic destruction to make it work. It's small-scale but epic in its implications.
'Annabelle' felt like the nadir of modern horror. 'The Babadook' feels like a good place to start again. Let's hope it is. After all, you can't get rid of the Babadook.
Dook! Dook! Dook!
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