The Babadook

The Babadook (2014)

98% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 126 reviews)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Jennifer Kent

Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Barbara West

From: Causeway Films/Smoking Gun Productions

Yes, this is the last review I'll be doing until Monday the 29th. I will be leaving on vacation on the 22nd and I won't have time to watch anything between now and then; I will be back next weekend. Now, onto the Letterboxd review of a movie most love... but I don't.

Note 1: This will be my last review for about a week and a half. As most well do, I'll be out of town for the holiday season and I won't have a lot of time to spend on the site.

Note 2: Before I get to talking about this little Australian horror film that has gotten near universal acclaim, let me tell some backstory about my history with it. This past spring it actually played at the local film festival in Orlando. Sad to say due to circumstances beyond my control I wasn't able to attend what was then a little-known movie that sounded interesting. I could have seen it on the big screen last night at the local arthouse joint. But, to save time and money I instead saw this from the comforts of home via Xbox Video; I am pretty sure that I'd still feel the same about this movie if I saw it in a theatre last night... or even in the spring before all the hype and praise appeared.

I presume most know the plot by now of how the film follows single mom Amelia as she raises a 7 year old boy named Samuel. The father died on the day she gave birth via a car accident, and maybe that's why Samuel is a hellacious brat but that kid has massive behavioral problems; I wonder why she doesn't try other methods besides yelling at the kid. I mean, how about spanking or literally whipping his ass with a belt? But I digress. One night a book seems to be placed on the shelf via magic and she starts reading it to the kid. It's actually a terrifying tale about a spooky creature known as The Babadook and from there on the kid believes it's real, which greatly annoys the mom, but, things start happening...

To make it clear right away, I have no problem with the general idea of the story, it being a psychological horror tale and a look at how grief still haunts someone and the horrifying realization that you may not actually like your own child. That sounds like something I'd enjoy The performance from the kid is pretty good but it is the mom who does a fantastic job. There are creepy moments, for sure. Scary ones? Well...

To me, the scariest aspects were how terrible that little brat acted and the poor parenting job the mom did. I know I shouldn't focus on that but I bring it up as this resulted in me hating both lead characters, which is an issue as the main plot point is Amelia changing as she deals with the pressures of her brat kid and now that mysterious entity. The film just never grabbed me even with some effective scenes. I am being vague to avoid spoilers but I had more than a few issues with this. Also, most of the characters you see are pretty terrible, which makes it even worse; the actual nice people are only seen on rare occasions.

Then, the final act happens and to me it flies off the rails by being totally ridiculous and I don't even want to get started on the final 5 or so minutes before the end credits begin, except that I think it's flat-out bad and at best, dopey. That did not help my opinion of the film, which I wish would have remained more psychological and not brought in such goofy elements.

I really do wish I could love this like most do. I imagine that in the future newbie director/writer Jennifer Kent will deliver an effective scary film I will enjoy. If it has the same issues as this does, though... while I have seen some quality films this year, I will forever think of this as a disappointing 2014 for motion pictures as too many just let me down, including this one.