The Babadook
Directed by: Jennifer Kent
Distributed by: IFC Films
Fear is the currency of horror cinema, and we are in a recession. Viewers have become versed with the tropes of the genre. From the music cues to “don’t open that door, I know what’s back there” moments, it feels as though horror has become a genre assembled from a predetermined set of building blocks.
The Babadook avoids these trappings by completely re-writing the role of the monster in horror films. The titular monster is in fact a complete fabrication of the mind of the mother-and-son duo at the centre of the film. This creates an unsettling and surprising film that draws its true horror from the very lack of any monster.
The film’s script keeps the monster hidden from the audience. In its absence, the chaos it creates is incredible. The most terrifying scenes are all ones where the monster is not visible, but the stress it imposes on the characters lives cause them to bully and harm each other, making their own actions as questionable as those of The Babadook.
The film cleverly represents the rising internal panic of the characters by making the film visually darker as it progresses. The main character, Essie Davis, becomes more ill and fragile-looking, and the shots become more jumpy and scattered, simulating her jarred mindset.
The biggest weakness of The Babadook is its one-note acting. The mother and son glide in a perpetual state of panic, alternating between screaming and apologizing to one another. This would be just fine in such an intelligently scripted film, except neither actor seems to have much range beyond “sheer panic.” Since the film does not depict anything but the relationship between the two, and the flatness of their interactions creates something of a lull in the middle of the film.
Luckily the film comes to a dreamy, complex ending uncharacteristic of typical horror films. This makes up for some of the filler in the middle and rewards with a cerebral cap to the plot that I was turning over in my head for weeks. Hopefully more horror films actively scramble the formula of horror in the wake of The Babadook’s attention.
