“Don’t let it in,” they kept on saying. Well, we very much let The Babadook in, and he’s pretty difficult to get rid of Jennifer Kent’s 2014 horror film has gone down as one of the best horror movies ever made.
The film is my favourite horror movie of the past decade and there isn’t really anything that came anywhere close for me.
Jennifer Kent burst onto the scene with this thoughtful, thought-provoking, original and terrifying horror film and it’s never left my head since.
The Babadook is so much more than just your average horror movie. Watching it is an experience unlike anything else.
It genuinely looks like you’re watching someone’s mental health deteriorate in front of your very eyes.
Kent’s movie is bolstered by her incredible ability to make so much out of so little.
Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook is a masterpiece of a horror film
Essie Davis is brilliant in The Babadook – Credit: Entertainment One
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The film is basically shot in one place, a rather old house in Australia, apart from a few scenes that take place outside of the house.
The setting makes the whole film feel claustrophobic and you get the feeling that you’re trapped inside that house with Essie Davis’ Amelia and Noah Wiseman’s Samuel.
They are mother and son, and they’ve recently lost Robbie, Essie’s husband and Noah’s father, and much of the film is about coping (or rather, not coping) with the grief of losing him.
It manifests itself in one of the most terrifying creatures I’ve ever seen in a horror movie before, called The Babadook.
This Babadook comes out of a children’s book and then starts to torment the mother and son until they basically lose their minds.
He’s a rather odd-looking thing, but the unique character design really is effective.
He’s a tall creature, with long arms, fingers the size of tree branches, a deathly white pale face and he wears a top hat.
The Babadook is the greatest horror creature of the past decade
The Babadook is the best horror film of the past decade – Credit: Entertainment One
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The Babadook really does look like it’s been taken straight out of one of those rather dark and depressing German children’s book with a name like ‘The Man with the Long Fingers’, or ‘The Stranger in the Top Hat’.
Those German children’s books are freaky, and this film really seems to lay into that fact.
The fact that this film came out in 2014, and the mere thought of it still scares me to this day is testament to how good a filmmaker Jennifer Kent is.
The past decade has given us some truly terrific horror films. Films that spring to mind are Goodnight Mommy, It Follows, The Cabin in the Woods, Get Out, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, The Witch, Train To Busan, It Comes At Night, Gerald’s Game, Hereditary, A Quiet Place…
The 2010s had some great horror films
Noah Wiseman is super creepy as Samuel in The Babadook – Credit: Entertainment One
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There have been so many great horror films made in the past decade, so many that I might have to make another article detailing the best horror films of the past decade.
However, I believe that The Babadook is the one that will really be remembered, and rightly so.
I will remember it for the rest of my days, and I will probably rewatch it a few times during my lifetime.
What about you guys? What did you make of The Babadook? Did you like it as much as I did, or did you think it wasn’t that great?
Let us know in the comments below.
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