The Babadook

Amelia (Essie Davis) loses her husband in a car crash and struggles to cope with her life as a single mother, especially since her son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) displays erratic behaviour connected to a fear of monsters. In their home, she finds a book about a creature called the Babadook, which torments a person indefinitely when they learn about it, and the two find their lives affected by the monster.

This movie is, really, the story of a mother and her son, and it plays up the human element massively, which serves to accentuate the terror as the creature’s malice grows more and more deadly. The two leads are excellent, and bring a great deal of heart to two roles that would have floundered massively otherwise. It plays on the psychological element, allowing us to follow two people trapped in a nightmare, while subtly building tension, rather than cramming in as many jump scares as it can.

This film is incredibly creepy, playing on all your childhood fears and getting under your skin – it is suspenseful, having a scary monster but keeping it at the side and the back of the screen just to play with the viewer, and the Babadook book is a really creepy thing. This is a horror film for smart people, and anyone who gives it a go will enjoy it – good horror comes along so sparingly, so please don’t miss this.

Reece Goodall