Aaah the Imaginary friend! I had them when I was a child…At least I hope
they were imaginary.
That is the plot of tonight’s movie from Australian film director
Jennifer Kent I’m talking about The Babadook.
All the rage on the Festival circuit in 2014 The Babadook
takes us to both a new level of creepiness while utilizing some of our basic
and fundamental fears.
Most of us first learned of fear at a young age. For some it
was the creature under the bed and for others it was the monster in the closet
and as a child you are the only person that can see these entities.
The origins of these monsters come from various sources to a
child. They can come from a film that they have seen or a toy that takes a
different shape in the night shadaws or in this case a scary children’s book.
The origins of this film can be seen in one of Kent’s early
short films Monster that can be found on the film’s official website.
Now on to the flick.
The film follows Amelia who’s husband was killed in an
accident while driving her to the hospital to give birth to her son Sam and six
years later Amelia is not over the tragedy. Even going as far as not to let Sam
celebrate his birthday on the date since it also falls on the date of his
father’s death and locking up all of his things in the basement.
Sam is now terrorized by a mysterious unseen monster that he
is obsessed with battling and spends his time making elaborate weapons to face
this monster and the rest of his time he is playing like he is a magician.
Amelia soon finds a book that Sam asks her to read to him
and she finds this book titled The Babadook is loaded with frightening imagery
of a malicious maneater that lurks in the shadows and seeks the death and devouring
to all that live in the home.
While she refuses to read the story and discards the book Sam’s
obsession with The Babadook continues to grow and soon Amelia begins to realize
that The Babadook may be real. All of this while slowly loosing her grip on
Sanity.
As I stated earlier This film is creepy, not just with the
imagery that also includes the use of stock footage of silent era films as well
as the artworks but also with the cinematography and locations as well.
The film mostly relies on film techniques and shadow to tell
the story rather than special effects which it utilizes on occasion to further
the suspension of disbelief.
The story is also well written and allows for character
development and while slow paced it does work for the suspense of the film.
The Babadook is definitely a metaphor for grief in the film
with the characters refusing to cope with the death of the other characters. I
will also state that the film takes a look at the impact that child development
has on a single parent who while struggling to earn a living has to also deal
with the management of a child in distress while dealing with lack of sleep and
alienation from her friends and family.
This is definitely a film for the supernatural fans that
follow today’s trends.
1 Dead Body
1 Dead Dog
0 Breasts
1 Beast
1 Broken nose
2 Angry Parents
Home Alone Style weapons
Gratuitous Vibrator action
Vulgar Bingo
4 Stars
Check it out.
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