Review of The Babadook

So, as promised, here's my first review of a horror movie. Lets jump right in.

The Babadook tries to make some emotional ties right away in the beginning, as we're immediately introduced to the two main characters; a single mother and her child. The mother, who is clearly worn out and tired, works a nine to five job which involves taking care of dementia and Alzheimer patients, only to get home and take care of her feisty seven year old son. Although he's not just a normal sassy little boy, he has a strange obsession with monsters, which is where our story begins. One night, after a long day, the mother takes her son to bed where she begins to read him a book that he chooses. Unsurprisingly, he picks a book she's never seen before; The Babadook.

She begins reading it to him, and although it appears childish in nature, in begins having terrifying images and ideas; talking about a monster that seems nice at first but then kills you.

Of course, that's where things start to turn sour in a classic horror movie fashion, except it it strangely isn't. The boy in the movie slowly begins to get more and more rowdy, claiming that the Babadook is real and that he's seen it before. In the beginning, it could honestly just pass as a child having an over active imagination and the mother getting irritated by it. The one of the scariest parts I think, that it is so perfectly normal and understandable in the beginning. However, about two thirds of the way through the movie, we see the characters roles begin to switch. The mother, normally calm and cool, begins to break down under the stress and pressure. She keeps her son out of school, becomes isolationist, and finds herself unable to sleep almost all the time. Her son, in the meantime, keeps assuring his mother that the Babadook is real, and that he's in the house, however is very calm and collected in his methods.

Up to this point, the whole thing has been mostly expository information, however the tension it builds up as we finally see our characters alone in the house with this thing is extremely incredible. We never actually see anything besides small shadows and sounds until this point, making us even wonder, is the Babadook real? Or is this just a spawn of the child's creativity and the mothers insanity? Once you get to this point in the movie though, things become real real quick.

The Babadook IS real. It even predicts the outcome of the movie during one scene, when the original book reappears on her doorstep. The mother, scared as hell, reads it with horror. The book, using only its childish tone, talks about a mother who's possessed, snaps her dog's neck, strangles her son, and then kills herself. Talk about foreshadowing, eh?

In the climax of the movie, we watch in horror as the mother is seemingly possessed, then, with a strange calmness, snaps her dogs neck like it's nothing. Then she chases after her son, trying to kill him the whole time.

The amazing thing about this whole movie though, it has zero jump scares. I don't really know how they did it, but they made a movie that's scary and suspenseful as hell without a single jump out of your skin moment. All in all, there really wasn't anything I could point out as being wrong with this movie. And, since we're getting into the movie mindset, I'll rate it a solid eight out of ten pens. You know, because my names ink? Ha... Ya I cringed right there too. But really, a solid horror movie. Anyone who's feeling ready for some nightmares should definitely give this a watch. Until next time guys, peace.

-Ink