Thrills, chills and most importantly,
smarts!
When
teenagers became the default target audience for horror films in the early
nineties, the variety of scary movies narrowed so drastically that the entire
genre was notoriously rebranded as “torture porn”… a succinct summation, as the
aberrant whiplash from jiggling breasts to jittering entrails is ridiculous and
repulsive. This cinematic schizophrenia
presents a particular problem for older, more discerning viewers who prefer a
story that involves more than boobs and bloodshed. Thankfully, “The Babadook” is utterly absent
the hormonal illogic of adolescence: it is an intelligent and mature
supernatural thriller.
Writer/director Jennifer Kent’s debut is a baroque descent
into madness. The story is meticulously
crafted, in large part because the characters and setting are so realistic and
compelling. Single mother Amelia, stoically
portrayed by Essie Davis, struggles to raise her quirky six-year-old son, Samuel, in a startling performance by Noah Wiseman. Amelia works in a nursing home, and is still
trying to reconcile the death of her beloved husband in a car accident on the
day of Daniel’s birth. Amelia is also
grappling with Daniel’s behavioral oddities which have made him a pariah at
school. Though their life is stressful,
they take solace in each other.
However, Amelia and Daniel’s strained existence soon becomes
haunted by a growing anxiety. The fear germinates
from what appears to be a children’s book called “Mister Babadook.” Though the text is benign, the starkly illustrated
pop-up pages reveal a looming, amorphous figure with dagger-like fingers and a
clown face of leering malevolence. It
seems likes spooky but harmless fun, but afterwards Daniel begins having
horrible hallucinations. Essie tries to
destroy the book, but it reappears unharmed and even more ghastly things begin
to manifest themselves.
What started as a smoldering ember of apprehension is slowly
yet diabolically fanned into an inferno of white-hot paranormal panic. Amelia and Daniel find themselves relentlessly
stalked by a specter that threatens to destroy them from the inside out. The Babadook wants to devour their sanity as
well as their souls. Creaking doors,
thumping walls and shaking beds turn Amelia and Daniel’s nights into a hellish trial
of sleep deprivation. Pushed to the
brink of exhaustion, Amelia’s rationality unravels and she lashes out
violently, even at her bewildered child.
“The Babadook” teases the mind and triggers the gooseflesh
because the film relies not on visual effects, but on the reactions of the
characters to convey the emotional shocks.
The actor’s expressions are thrillingly frightful precisely because the
audience is left to imagine so much of what is not shown. This restraint is crucial, and it holds
through to the end. The epilogue is
magnificent because even though it makes sense, exactly what has happened
remains a mystery. The story is not
necessarily over, and the lingering ambiguity is tantalizing in the
extreme. Sometimes the most
spine-chilling thing of all is not knowing.
