Every year there’s one or two films that make sitting through hours of crap all the more rewarding. This year, The Babadook definitely takes the cake. However, I want to be totally honest and say that it didn’t live up to the hype for me and that’s only because “hype” can never truly be lived up to. This isn’t the greatest horror movie of all time but it does touch on a lot of issues that end up making it an extremely valuable and poignant piece of film. I am going to write my review spoiler free because I feel you all should see this movie on as blank of a slate as possible.

The Babdook follows a single mother, Amelia, lives with the daily guilt of her husband’s violent death on the day of her son’s birth. She works a thankless job filled with stress, her sister is constantly nagging her to “get over” her husband’s death, and their son Samuel is a completely nightmare. Amelia isn’t getting any mother of the year awards but this kid is truly awful. After receiving a strange children’s book on her doorstep entitled, The Babadook, she soon realizes her son’s imagination may not be the cause of her problems.

The Babadook was written and directed by Jennifer Kent and it’s important to note that because of the underlying message of The Babadook. More on that later, right now I want to talk about the superb acting from Essie Davis who virtually owns the film in one woman show. Davis plays Samuel’s woeful mother, Amelia. I know nothing of Davis in her real life but her portrayal of this tragically distressed woman is incredibly believable. Is she likeable at all times? No definitely not, but that’s what makes this performance all the more striking. Amelia is a real character and at times I wanted to strangle her but I always found her somewhat sad. Her personality change at the top of the film was terrifying, I felt like a little kid myself watching her. I really look forward to checking out more of her work in the future, hopefully she doesn’t get type cast.

Now, about that whole being written by a woman thing. As a female writer who loves all things horror I often see women struggling to make an impact within the industry. The Babadook is a film that only a woman could accurately write because of its underlying message on post-partum depression and single motherhood. Kent does a fantastic job giving her audience a true-to-life glimpse into a truly frightening world that most of us will, hopefully, never know. Her writing/directing coupled with the illustrations of the book put a face on an issue that is usually swept under the carpet and almost never talked about in genre films.

The Babadook may not live up to the hype for you but it is definitely and important film for the genre, particularly for future Australian horror. A lot of films we see coming out of Australia are typically gore fests (Wolf Creek, The Loved Ones, etc), which I love, but The Babadook shows that Australian filmmakers have a lot to show in the realm of atmosphere and storytelling. I can’t wait to see what Kent brings to the table next. One last note, the illustrations by Alex Juhasz are completely original and insanely amazing. Kent and Juhasz worked on the storybook and character before anyone else was involved with the project. I want to see more filmmakers make use of different artists within their stories.