Film Club: The Babadook

I have one more list, I promise, but I just watched The Babadook last night and lemme tell you.

Just to get this out of the way first, I do think it was a bit overhyped, but that doesn't make it any less of a fantastic movie. It was familiar but at the same time refreshing on so many levels. The core plot of the film is a widowed mother, Amelia, dealing with her difficult son, Samuel, who was born the same day her husband died - in fact, he died driving her to the hospital to deliver their son. Despite her protests to her sister, Amelia hasn't dealt with her husband's death very well, if at all, and the events in the film show the consequences of her actions or lack thereof.

Samuel has a very strong, very obvious fear of monsters which is only worsened by the pop-up book he finds on his bookshelf and gives to his mother to read aloud. He insists that the Babadook is in their home and that the monster is responsible for various happenings, including shards of glass in soup, car wrecks and so on. For her part, Amelia suffers from frequent nightmares and a subsequent lack of sleep, and these both take an additional, considerable toll on her relationship with her son. Their clashes escalate further and further until something snaps and all hell breaks loose.

The Babadook is not a subtle movie. The titular monster very clearly stands for Amelia's grief and anxiety that she's swept under the rug and refused to deal with for seven years; by the end of the film she's finally facing her demons, both literally and figuratively. That said, the film doesn't rely on jump scares, thankfully (though the stop-motion Babadook definitely gave me goosebumps). Instead the fear comes from the suspense and situations that feel real and can hit incredibly close to home. I was never scared out of my wits, but I was afraid for Amelia and Sam both throughout the movie. However, I do know a few people - mainly parents - who would be terrified. That's not to say The Babadook isn't an effective horror movie; it absolutely is, and I'd recommend it to any horror fan looking for something new to watch.

I really loved the Babadook's design as well. The monster himself is rarely seen for very long, but what we catch of him wouldn't feel out of place in a movie from the early 20th century. Director Jennifer Kent seems to have drawn inspiration from German Expressionism for her monster, as Mr. Babadook would fit right in with Nosferatu and Dr. Caligari's sleepwalking Cesare.

Earlier I mentioned that The Babadook is familiar but refreshing, and a lot of the "refreshing" part lies in the ending. Horror is typically a tragic genre in that most or all of the characters die and those left standing have a Pyhrric victory. Examples include The Silence of the Lambs, in that Clarice Starling has killed Buffalo Bill and earned her rank as an FBI agent at the cost of letting Hannibal Lecter toy with her mind (also, he's escaped and living quite nicely in the Caribbean too), Psycho, where Norman Bates has been caught but he's completely succumbed to his alternate, evil "Mother" personality, and Marble Hornets (yes I'm counting this and you can't stop me) when the last man standing is still standing, technically, but his future is up in the air and it's very likely nothing will change for him.

In contrast, The Babadook gives us a happy ending: Amelia has dealt with her grief over her husband's death - for real this time - and she's learning how to handle Sam's quirks. The future is bright for the two of them, despite the skeletons in their closets or monsters in their basements.

While it's not necessarily the most terrifying movie I've ever seen (that goes to Eraserhead, which I never want to see again), The Babadook is a fantastic horror movie. It's well written, beautifully shot, wonderfully acted. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it already.