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For my money, the best horror films are the ones where the horror can be scanned as literal or metaphorical, so enter The Babadook. Jennifer Kent’s debut horror film is a striking work of minimalism and subversion of expectations as the routine elements of a supernatural thriller are lined up then promptly upended in strange, hypnotic, chilling ways. The Babadook is a relentless experience, and one that has me excited about Kent will go from here.
Harried single mothers and bug-eyed socially inept children are but one common thread she weaves throughout The Babadook. In fact, they’re our point of entry. Next come the oblong shadows, the cursed object, the strange noises, the potential for demonic/supernatural possession, and an inky creature lurking about ready to strike. Kent lines them all up, and we think we know exactly where they’re going but something funny happens on the way there.
Kent gives up the setup of a film not dissimilar to say, The Conjuring, but then goes about slowly revealing layer by layer that there may be nothing so damaging and twisted as the human psyche, unprocessed trauma, and untreated mental illness. The children’s book that ushers in the eponymous creature, Mister Babadook, is a homemade object and something of a projection of where the story will potentially lead, and it’s not a pretty sight. But notice that the mother’s fingers are covered in charcoal and that’s never explained or commented upon. Then think back to what the book was drawn with. Kent’s laid out the breadcrumbs so minutely and smartly that absolute attention to detail is needed to catch them all before the grand finale.
What’s also deeply refreshing about The Babadook is its female point-of-view. Plenty of horror films have presented female heroines in distress and collapsing mental stability, but few have had a female auteur to guide them. Kent taps into something primordial and taboo in her depiction of a mother’s love and resentment towards a child, and how one side is clearly winning and damaging the home/child right along with it. If the The Babadook gets a little obvious in its final moments, so be it. It has the guts to go for something truly great. After all, what’s scarier: a mind unraveling due to PTSD and severe depression or a literal monster destroying a family by preying on those issues?
