Glass shards from a wrecked car’s passenger window rain around a woman in slow motion. Unintelligible hysterical screaming gradually becomes prominent and clear. Then returns the woman suspended in fear from her nightmare and back into the real world.
The first shot of The Babadook informs the viewer instantly that there is no time to rest while the Babadook is lurking nearby.
Amelia suffers from crippling night terrors due to the death of her husband who died while driving her to the hospital to give birth. Their son Samuel, now 6, struggles to sleep due to the presence of what he believes to be a monster in his room.
Both mother and son grow increasingly tired due to their own distinct form of insomnia. Tension builds at work for Amelia, while Samuel’s collection of homemade darts, catapults and bow and arrows to combat monsters earns him an expulsion from school.
After being awoken from a nightmare again, Samuel asks his mother to read a book to help him sleep. His only choice was a red book with a shadowed figure on the cover, titled Mister Babadook. There is no author on the book, no publishing company, no year. It seems to have magically appeared in the house.
Instead of being a lighthearted children’s story, it describes how a creature with Freddy Krueger-like nails was once allowed inside and will make terror reign with a force of evil that can never be stopped.
The TV is as much a character in the film as any of the humans. Amelia’s late-night channel flipping builds discomfort as it is filled with Georges Méliès homages, old horror movie clips, disturbing images, and the threat of what Mister Babadook will do to the family.
In her directorial debut, Jennifer Kent utilizes every trick in the book from past horror movies, but eliminates the poor, over-trodden version of the clichés to create new, subtle terror. Where most films use the soundtrack as emphasis of fear, The Babadook uses little scene building music.
The horror is strictly visual and mental.
It shows everything the audience needs to see, while more importantly, forcing you to imagine how you would react in the same scenario. It inspires dread of what’s coming next and simultaneously engages you to the point of being unable to shut your eyes in fear.
The insanity of the film is contagious. Every action will force you to gasp or laugh uncomfortably out of fear. This film does a great job of building and maintaining tension for extended periods of time.
I left with a stress headache, strained eyes and the desire to walk right back into the theater and watch it again. Towards the end of The Conjuring, it began to feel like an action film that happens to be scary. The Babadook remained a horror film from the uncomfortable opening shot to the unbelievably disconcerting finale.
I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.
Follow Craig Wright on Twitter @wgwcraig