It’s that time of the year again. 2014 has expelled much of its goodies leaving us with time to reflect on its many highs and lows. Normally, I write about video games, but seeing as I spent about as much time watching scary movies as I did playing scary video games, I figured I’d kick off my look back at The Year That Was with a look at five of my favorite horror movies of 2014.
The Babadook
Let’s start with the film that’s still fresh in my memory: The Babadook.
Directed by Jennifer Kent, this film doesn’t want to scare you so much as it wants to make you care. It accomplishes both, thanks to a thoroughly unsettling premise and the smart decision to keep things intimate. It’s cast is small, but that gives Kent the time she needs to give them some humanity. The film follows Amelia (played by Essie Davis), a mother and recent widow who’s having trouble dealing with her increasingly violent son after her husband is brutally killed in a car accident.
There’s a human element that anchors The Babadook to reality, even when its titular antagonist is freed from the pages of a beautiful — and super creepy — children’s book to start wreaking havoc on the emotionally damaged family.