Hallowe’en is fast approaching, and as is tradition, cinemas flood themselves with horror films to mark the occasion.
Front-runner this season is Australian horror The Babadook. If it sounds like a children’s film, that’s the idea.
The plot follows widowed mother Amelia, a nurse who’s struggling to raise her hyperactive, behaviourally challenged six year old son Samuel on her own. When Samuel discovers a pop-up children’s book called ‘Mister Babadook’, he becomes fixated on the idea that the creature in the book – Mr. Babadook – is real, and that it’s going to target his house.
While Samuel grows increasingly obsessed with the idea of protecting his mother, Amelia finds herself increasingly stressed at having to look after her paranoid son. But when inevitably things do start to go bump in the night, Amelia is forced to confront both her own fears as well as her son’s…
The Babadook is an extremely well put-together horror film. As the two leads, Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman are terrific. Davis’ anxiety and insomnia grows visibly throughout the film, as Amelia becomes increasingly frazzled, while Wiseman is a revelation as the spirited little scamp Samuel.
What’s interesting is the way their roles constantly shift throughout the film, as the horror mounts and each becomes more vulnerable, and at times Samuel finds himself having to be the adult. What’s more troubling to witness is the way Mr. Babadook’s effect ends up pitting mother against son…
As for genuine scares, The Babadook mainly relies on atmosphere and implied horror to terrify its audience and it’s a tactic that works extremely well. The popup book itself is a masterpiece of prop design, and is easily evocative enough to convey the horror that’s inevitably to follow when Mr. Babadook himself arrives. And when he does, he’s quite something.
Mr. Babadook is a triumph of character design. He’s genuinely terrifying, and is probably the most iconic and frightening horror movie monster to grace the screen in quite some time. Too often in horror films, the monsters are overused and overexposed to the point where they lose a lot of their threat and mystery.
The Babadook takes the less-is-more approach, using Mr. Babadook sparingly, often limited to just fleeting glimpses amid the shadows. The result is that, for long stretches, you’ll find yourself scanning each frame of the film looking for him in a paranoid fog of fear. He’s not often there, but when he does crop up, the shock of seeing him will turn your blood cold. This is an intensely creepy film.
Similarly effective is the film’s sound-design (often an aspect that’s so key to making horror films truly scary – just listen to Mr. Babadook’s chilling speech-patterns) and the film’s wry sense of humour. This comes not just from young Samuel – think along the lines of the kid from Outnumbered in a horror setting – but also because you get the sense that the film knows it’s terrifying; it knows it’s got a fantastic creature; and as such it elects to have a little fun with the audience along the way.
What really sets The Babadook apart, though, is that there’s genuine intelligence behind the plot. Mr. Babadook acts as a manifestation of Amelia and Samuel’s grief over the loss of their husband and father, and their inability to let-go and deal with that tragedy is a huge part of the story. This makes The Babadook as much a psychological thriller as it does a horror film, and it’s as effective whichever way you choose to look at it.
If there’s a complaint to be made, it’s that Mr Babadook’s design is so good that you might actually wish the film would give you more of him (we know – be careful what you wish for..!) But for the most part, Mr. Babadook is a triumph: it’s well acted, wonderfully shot, smart, scary and – best of all – it’s likely to spark a new market for horror-themed pop-up books.
What more could you want?
Released in UK cinemas on Friday 24 October 2014.