The Babadook Movie Review (2014) | Grief as Horror

The Babadook movie review argues that The Babadook isn’t exactly a horror flick. The film subtly reflects the genre rather than openly copying it. Jennifer Kent‘s movie depicts a person’s madding affair with grief through the many leaflets of terror. And it does in a way you have never come across before. Yes, it is avant-garde at its best.

If you have seen The Babadook movie recently and left not scratching your head, you have probably only witnessed the superficial. Layered underneath the pronounced horror is actually far more intricate. It deserves immediate applause if you see it as I did. Director Jennifer Kent mind-bogglingly holds onto a profound truth by inventively wrapping everything under the aegis of psychotic horror.

The Babadook Movie Review: Grief Beneath the Horror

Jennifer Kent makes the terror feel intimate before she ever lets it become loud. Amelia’s exhaustion, guilt, and loneliness make The Babadook work because the film never treats them as background decoration. They are the air the film makes us breathe. That is why its scares linger. They grow out of a home that has already become unbearable.

Essie Davis as Amelia

Essie Davis dons Amelia’s character so marvelously that it makes you feel the pain inside her eyes. You can read the character’s grief almost instantly, knowing it stems from a deep, long-standing trauma.

I have moved on. I don’t mention him. I don’t talk about him.

The Babadook Movie Explained

The opening scene of The Babadook movie finds an accident. The director portrays this spectacularly by showing the protagonist spinning inside a car. It was more like an incident from the past that the prologue carried. Clearly, she had been in an accident before and it had taken away a big chunk of her from her life.

The constant yammering of her six-year-old son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) then disturbs Amelia. She wishes to view the mishap unperturbed, like a peaceful dream or a memory from a very dark place, but her son always disrupts her. It is like a reflection of chaos knocking at her door in the form of her son that she grows to hate.

The Hatred for her Own Child

Yes, she hates him to the guts, and it is quite evident by the way she tries to ignore him all the time. A severe car accident killed her husband on the day she gave birth to Samuel, which explains the absolute absence of love between mother and son. This again mentioned eventually when she admits that she wanted “him” dead instead of her husband.

The director brilliantly depicts this hatred in two instances: first, at the very beginning when Amelia moves to the edge of the bed as Samuel tries to cling to her, and second, when she asks him never to hug her again

We spend a lot of time story building where we understand how Amelia’s life has succumbed to grief owing to the terrible misfortune. Her devastating misery completely traps her, making you feel extremely sorry for her. Essie Davis aces the grieving mother role to perfection.

The direction and editing are where this The Babadook movie review finds the film at its most subtle. Bits like the way the night would turn into the day, the moment Amelia would slip into her blankets, manifested how fast time flew by. Also, a nod to her life that always lacked proper sleep. Her son’s wake-up call every single morning iced her misery further. You can easily tell it was killing her, as her son annoyed her beyond her limit. That’s what gives rise to her dark side.

What is Babadook?

The dark side is a personification, a reflection of this very hatred. It is none other than The Babadook himself, a figment of her child’s image that becomes real in her head. It is a subtly put metaphor to depict the dark image she carried all this time in her mind. Babadook becomes a mental representation of that very darkness, the hatred, the contemptuous feelings and all the uglies that she slowly helped nurture in her brain.

There are many clever references that hone the aforementioned analogy to perfection too. For instance, there is a scene where Amelia finds a piece of glass in her food. Samuel says it was The Babadook who did it. She checks his bowl but doesn’t find any. The glass is an apt wink to her car accident, where glasses were shattered. It also insinuates how she would always cling to those memories.

Another scene where Mrs. Roach shows up at her door with reassuring eyes compels Amelia to have a change of heart is also a reflection on how pieces of advice and social talks tend to be helpful to grieving people.

The Final Part Explained

We find horror in the form of made-up stories by Amelia’s kid which she inadvertently starts living. The roguish part in her constantly overpowers her and she ends up hurting what’s left.

However, eventually, she overcomes her fears and says no to her past, (mister Babadook here depicted in the final moment) wherein she becomes really strong. Thus finally accepting her son and loving him. She fathoms it wasn’t his mistake but this very fight that she was having with herself. Amelia celebrates her son’s first birthday thus paving way for happiness and love therefrom.

The movie ends up in utter contrast with the beginning: a smile on her face and love in her eyes.

Be warned though! This is only for people who are willing to watch some quality analogical cinema which doesn’t skim the parapet of the mainstream. Kent asks for patience, then rewards it with a horror story whose sorrow stays more vivid than any single scare. That is the lingering strength of this The Babadook movie review.

Check out the trailer of The Babadook movie here:

For more films from the year, browse our 2014 movie reviews.