Directed by:
Jennifer KentScreenplay:
Jennifer KentCinematography:
Radosław ŁadczukComposer:
Jed KurzelCast:
Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall, Noah Wiseman, Tiffany Lyndall-Knight, Carmel Johnson, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West, Benjamin Winspear, Peta Shannon (more)VOD (6)
Plots(1)
Australian psychological horror thriller written and directed by Jennifer Kent. Amelia (Essie Davis), a grieving single mother, grows to resent her difficult son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) in the wake of her husband's death six years previously. As well as having to deal with Samuel constantly getting into trouble at school, things become even more tense at home when he begins having disturbing visions of a threatening character from his storybook 'The Babadook'. Becoming more frightened by Samuel's visions, Amelia also begins having similar experiences, and she starts to believe that there may be more to the hallucinations than she initially thought. (Icon Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (7)
Honestly, I don't think the film was all that bad, but any chance of a higher rating from me was ruined by that spoiled brat with a stress-free upbringing. I kept my fingers crossed for Babadook the whole time, hoping that he had a slow and painful death prepared for Samuel. What surprised me was the therapeutic effect of the monster on the main character, she looked much more relaxed at the end :-)
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It's very depressing, but unfortunately in the way that in the most intense moments what remains next to the viewer is not the protagonist, but the poor little boogeyman. Otherwise, a solidly intense tightening of the noose around two characters who can't free themselves from a difficult life situation where The Babadook is merely a symbol of receding rationality and a crumbling mother-child relationship. The scary scenes are really uncomfortable, but there are too few of them, and the story lacks a strong enough climax to exemplarily underscore and cement its shoddy psychological setup. Too gratuitous for art-horror and too long-winded and hard to grasp for the mainstream.
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What initially looked like the scariest horror film of the year ends up being a solid psycho thriller reminding me of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Great acting, perfect cinematography and editing, solid soundtrack (the Babadook's voice is goosebump-inducing) and it's also decently psychedelic. Too bad the film isn't spiced up with some jump scares as well, then it could be considered a modern day nightmare. 75%
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Visually and sonically refined, this Australian variation on the night-time haunted house motif is made distinctive by its editing. The film plays powerfully on the unhappy mother/problematic son relationship and their lonely world after the loss of their husband/father, and delivers the haunting quite nicely in technical terms. But the characters’ reaction to it is strange, as if it’s not a life-threatening curse, but merely a seasonal metaphorical embodiment of a lousy time that can be endured through force of will. According to the director, this is most likely a more interesting and “artistic” take on the substance of the genre, but I did not find it entirely satisfying.
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This is definitely one of the most interesting horror films of the last few years, even in the way the various scary scenes are presented. It's not something that plays at having jump scares; it's different, new, and original in that sense. You feel like killing the kid the whole time, but he fits perfectly into the situation and story with his mother.
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