The Babadook (2014) by Jennifer Kent

Horror movie was never one of my favourite genres - besides childish pleasure I get from classic pre-WW2 fantasies like "Dracula", "Frankestein" and "The Wolf Man" (too familiar to be really scary) and certain 1950s B movies (again, simply fun) what I saw as growing up was continuous saga of blood, guts and fingers spilling all over the place in disturbing and sick variations. Its interesting why some people turn to Horror as entertainment because as exciting as it might be, it desperately needs new ideas or else it turns into worn-out cliché dangerously leaning towards parody.

Perhaps I have simply seen too many movies in my lifetime so Horror genre rarely thrills me with something original. The only instances when I was genuinely amused were without exception stories where evil was unseen and unknown - the very moment I see "the monster" on the screen I am left unmoved and 9 times out of 10 I would even feel compassion for it. Occasionally, like in "The Others" I was genuinely interested in story because it was weaved so well, again around unknown psychological danger. "The Babadook" belongs to that category simply because it circles around clichés and tries to sidestep what we have all seen so many times.

Australian director Jennifer Kent toys with atmosphere similar to the one in "The Others" while adding her own twist to it. Its "us" against the world, familiar things that turn into demonic and crippling fear coming from our own living spaces. Very simple in cast that counts only handful of characters, the movie focuses only on single mother and her little son who are slowly sliding down into danger that lurks somewhere from inside this house. Avoiding the simplicity that would result from simply pointing at one focus of demonic possession, Kent plays around with it, suggesting all kinds of explanations and ideas, cleverly keeping our attention all the way trough. What personally I found most interesting is the relationship between parent and the child used in Horror context, which was rarely if ever been so well used like here. Actors are absolutely brilliant, though in retrospective I am not so happy in using little Noah Wiseman for this kind of movie, because I wouldn't like my own child to be exposed to such disturbing things in such tender age. Call me over-sensitive but I am very protective towards what we are putting in kid's heads while they are still growing up and soaking everything in. We are dealing with all sorts of taboos here.