The Babadook (2014)

If your idea of a horror film is listening to the wild screams of an annoying child for 90-odd minutes then The Babadook is the film for you.

If however you prefer scares and chills and a decent plot then by all means try something else.

This 2014 movie was ranted and raved about all over, I remember first watching it under the influence of pretty bad tonsillitis and then giving it another go a bit after.

The imagery is good enough, the idea even quite original and if you delve deeper into the movie's symbolism and underlying metaphor then it makes quite good artsy sense.

Yet, I do not crave these things from a horror movie. A good book perhaps but not a visual feast which I expect to scare me and make me cringe.

The only thing making me cringe in this movie was the annoying cast - a withered old mother lacking the backbone of the most simple of mammals and her son that spends the entire film screaming in a high-pitched whine that will make you run to protect your wine glasses.

What's it about? On the surface - a single mother raising a difficult child that finds a scary pop-up book, the monster that is featured manifests itself and off we go. Underlying - a single mother's struggle with a difficult child and her desire to do harm to him.

If you want something a bit avant garde of an evening then by all means try this one, you may even enjoy it, but if you watch it expecting a horror flick, you're going to be left disappointed.

3/10 Masks

Initial release: 2014 (Australia)
Director: Jennifer Kent
Running time: 1h 35m