Babadook - Ba Ba Dooooooooooook

Another week and another horror film.  This time The Babadook; which is less horror and more thriller, as is perhaps indicated in its 15 rating.  The Babadook is an Australian production that has received a lot of plaudits in various parts of the press, to the extent that several of my chums who wouldn't normally be into horror films convinced me to come and see it last weekend.  Showcase in Reading seemed to be giving it a strong showing, with screenings from midday and then every couple of hours through to the evening.  Perhaps not a great decision on their part since when we saw it at 2pm the cinema was completely empty, but good to see them giving a small production prominence for one.

The Babadook tells the story of Amelia and her son Samuel.  She is a single mother since her husband was killed driving her to the hospital to give birth to their son.  Hence she struggles each year to deal with Samuel's birthday, since it is also the anniversary of the day that his father died.  Samuel is a difficult child.  Caught in between Amelia's ongoing depression and his delusions of monsters living in his cupboards, he finds it impossible to make friends with other children and becomes increasingly maddening in his behaviour.  When a mysterious book appears on his shelf depicting pop-up caricatures of a thing called the Babadook tormenting a child in his bed, Samuel becomes convinced that the Babadook is real.  Amelia gets more and more exasperated with Samuel's behaviour, and as stranger things start going on in the house she gets visions of doing away with her son completely.

There are a lot of similarities to The Shining here.  Mainly because though the film is clearly tinged with the supernatural, you're never quite sure how much of it is really happening and how much is going on inside the minds of the characters.  There is a strong implication that the Babadook is either a metaphor for Amelia's fears for herself, Samuel and their future together; or that it is a supernatural force manifesting as a result of her ongoing pain at the death of her husband that precipitated Samuel's entrance into the world.  This is especially true in some of the rhyming couplets used in the mysterious book, and the way the film eventually ends.

The Babadook is a film that looks and feels intensely eerie.  It's all very pale, with bright exteriors and dim interiors that make everything grey and ethereal.  The horror comes from the constant tension throughout the film, the creeping understanding that either Samuel or Amelia could snap at any moment and do something terrible, the fact that the Babadook - whatever it is - may not be the real villain.  At 90 minutes long and telling a clever self-contained story, it is better than I could ever have expected going into it almost completely cold as I did.  I was pleasantly surprised, and I think you might be too.