[Just in time for Halloween, a bust of a spectacularly scary movie, that doesn't rely on teenage nit-wit cannon-fodder for its thrills.]
The Babadook (2014) is an Australian horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent, starring Essie Davis, and Noah Wieseman.
In the end, widowed single mother, Essie Davis, confines to her basement, a malevolent entity, emanating from the pages of a terrifying children's book her conjuring obsessed son, Noah Wieseman, insisted she read to him before bed one night, that had threatened both their lives.
When troubled and disruptive seven year old Wieseman is caught bringing an improvised dart gun into class, his mother, Davis, decides to withdraw him from school rather than accept the special measures the principal insist be imposed, that would further isolate him from other children.
Constantly seeking his mother's reassurance, convinced that something intends to steal her away, Wieseman is eventually able to put a name to his fear when he finds a strangely incomplete popup book that introduces a darkly menacing figure, with a monstrous mouth and blade-like hands, one would hope never to meet.
So disturbing is the book, that Davis hides it from Wieseman, who nonetheless becomes obsessed with the story's top-hat sporting subject, attributing several unexplained and upsetting events to its influence, despite his mother's insistence that the character is not real, until Davis finally decides she has had enough and the book must go.
Disposing of it, however, has little effect on Wieseman, who suffers a fit in the back of his mother's car while returning from a party, trying to convince her that the dark figure is travelling with them.
At her wit's end, unable to cope with Wieseman's deteriorating behaviour, Davis finds herself increasingly fearful and anxious, especially after finding the book that she had torn apart before throwing away, re-assembled and left on her front step.
Horrified to discover its story has been completed, depicting Davis not only killing their pet dog but also Wieseman, before cutting her own throat, she wastes no time in burning its restored pages.
Convinced by its reappearance and a subsequent weird phone-call, that she is the victim of a stalker, Davis seeks help from the police, who, without the book as evidence, are reluctant to act.
But while in the police station, Davis is alarmed when she spots something that reminds her of the figure's menacing outfit.
And she continues to catch glimpses of the dark figure all evening as she flicks between television stations, finally falling asleep, only to dream of her dead husband ominously entreating her to join him and bring their son with her.
Chronically sleep deprived, disturbing visions continue to plague Davis, culminating in a nightmarish apparition that crawls across her bedroom ceiling in the middle of the night before swooping down to consume her.
Davis's attitude towards her son and their pet Westy takes a sudden and drastic turn for the worse, that so scares Wieseman, especially after Davis kills the dog, that she catches him desperately phoning their kind but frail elderly neighbour for help.
Flying into a rage, Davis starts threateningly brandishing a kitchen knife, before she is interrupted by their concerned neighbour calling at their front door.
Assuring her son that she means him no harm and promising that they are going to spend the night in the safety of their neighbour's home, Davis instead attacks Wieseman, who is forced to stab his mother in order to escape.
Chased down to the basement, Wieseman succeeds in knocking his mother out using another of his improvised weapons, and with her partially tied-up, manages to exorcise whatever has possessed her, once she regains consciousness.
But when the two try to flee the house, Wieseman is dragged upstairs and flung about by some unseen force.
Determined to deny the looming entity, that again initially takes the form of her dead husband, its prize, Davis uses all her rage to steadfastly protect her son, defying its threats and reducing it to a pathetic whimpering heap, that eventually takes flight, retreating to the basement, where Davis is subsequently seen to care for it.
A plot bust can never properly convey the extreme dread and threat that writer/director Jennifer Kent manages to conjure up on screen. But what really makes her terrifying tale stand head and shoulders above the crowd are not the things she has go bump in the night, but the fear of the desperate things those bumps might drive one to do to one's nearest and dearest, or even to oneself.
If you aren't properly petrified by this spine chilling movie, then you should probably get a friend to check you for a pulse.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Babadook
