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Nov 28, 2014 By Stephen Danay Web Exclusive

Six years after her husband is killed driving her to the delivery room, Amelia is a struggling single mother attempting to raise Samuel, a precocious young boy with behavioral problems. When Samuel begins seeing Mister Babadook, a monster from one of his picture books, Amelia dismisses it as a child’s fantasy, until she starts seeing it too.

The best horror films use their monsters as a stand-in for some real world fear or trauma, and writer/director Jennifer Kent’s feature debut The Babadook is no exception. Kent—along with a towering performance from Essie Davis as Amelia—taps into the isolation and doubt that comes with being a single parent to an unstable child. Pairing drab, grey set decoration with unsettling, unearthly sound design, Kent traps her characters in a lonely, grief-stricken world that would be upsetting without a monster. But what a monster it is. Reminiscent of the earliest German Expressionist horror films—The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in particular—Mister Babadook himself is a masterpiece of design and implementation, a horrific, unknowable presence that appears in the corner of your eye before retreating into the darkness.

thebabadook.com

Author rating: 8.5/10