Thankfully, there’s no escaping ‘The Babadook’
The following is a reprint of my 2014 review for The Patriot Ledger:
“If it’s in a word, or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook.”
You may think that phrase was coined by Dr. Seuss, but it wasn’t. It’s more the purview of Dr. Freud and his theory of the unconscious mind, the place where we stow our deepest and darkest fears. You spend your life denying their existence, but eventually, they come to the fore, likely when you least expect it.
So it is for Amelia, the widowed mother at the heart of Jennifer Kent’s brilliant debut feature, “The Babadook.” Like most single parents, Amelia (an Oscar-worthy Essie Davis) is over matched by the responsibilities of holding a job and rearing a troublesome 6-year-old with a knack for irritating just about everyone. Adorable, but devious, little Samuel (Noah Wiseman in a smashing debut) is forever forcing Amelia to extinguish his mischievous fires.
If ever a mother had a right to resent her child, it’s Amelia, who already subconsciously blames the kid for the loss of her beloved husband, Oskar, who died the day Samuel was born. Since his death, she has suppressed anything to do with the darkness of what should’ve been her brightest day. She won’t even let Samuel celebrate his birthday on the correct date because she equates his delivery with Oskar’s departure.
Stubbornly, she has survived six of these bittersweet anniversaries, but with the seventh fast approaching, dread has taken hold. Same with Samuel, whose scrapes with his cousin, classmates and school administrators escalate by the day. Might the cause be a real-life incarnation of Mister Babadook, the taloned, all-in-black creature from the indestructible, Seussian pop-up book that suddenly appears on his bookshelf?
Samuel seems to think so. Like the tykes in “Monsters Inc.,” Samuel is certain the Babadook is residing in his closet, biding his time until he’s ready to slay both he and his mother. Convinced of their imminent demise, he’s even begun fashioning weapons out of scraps of wood and metal.
Amelia, naturally, thinks the kid’s hyperactivity is due to a behavioral abnormality best suppressed by medication. But as the long days and even longer nights progress, Amelia comes to believe in the Babadook just as much as Samuel does, maybe even more.
What’s great about Kent’s script is that the appearance of the Babadook is never explained. He might be a card-carrying member of the paranormal. Or he could be merely a manifestation of the locked-up grief Amelia and Samuel have refused to confront for far too long.
Whatever the root cause, the Babadook is foremost a terrific metaphor for the monsters lurking inside everyone with an affliction, be it depression, addiction or mental illness. Like the Babadook, those monsters must be confronted and conquered or you’ll go insane.
Kent illustrates this graphically through the gradual deterioration of Amelia’s faculties, a la Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance in “The Shining.” It’s suspenseful, even terrifying, yet it’s also darkly funny and surprisingly moving. How many “horror movies” can you say that about? “Psycho,” “The Exorcist,” “The Shining,” “Rosemary’s Baby”? All sensational films, and “The Babadook” rightfully takes its place among them.
What they all have in common is a deft touch in combining horror tropes (ghosts, endangered pets, long knives) with fresh ideas that strike to the heart of the things that truly scare us, like losing our minds and striking out at the people we love the most. “The Babadook” handles the latter especially well, because we know there’s nothing stronger than the bond between a mother and son. And to see that bond so believably frayed, gives you a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.
That’s exactly what a horror film should do. But it’s not all thrills and chills. Both are in abundance, but what makes “The Babadook” dazzle is the depth in which it sinks its fangs into human emotion, particularly the way we grieve. Keeping the pain bottled up can literally kill you. But facing it and learning to tame it, and live with it, can be liberating.
So is Kent’s filmmaking style, which combines the basics of German Expressionism with modern-day gore, all abetted by director of photography Radek Ladczuk. As “The Shining” and “Rosemary’s Baby” did, Kent and Ladczuk create an unsettling air by isolating the characters in a way that effectively feeds their building paranoia. It’s really something to see, as are the performances by Davis and Wiseman. You’ve never heard of them, but that anonymity only enhances the verisimilitude of a movie that speaks truthfully about the very real demons residing within us all. But see it only if you dare; it just might scare you straight.
Movie review
The Babadook
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman
Director: Jennifer Kent
Writer: Jennifer Kent
Runtime: 93 minutes
Where: In theaters Sept. 20
Grade: A-
