Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Jennifer Kent
Cast
Essie Davis,
Noah Wiseman,
Hayley McElhinney,
Daniel Henshall,
Barbara West,
Benjamin Winspear
Genre
Drama,
Horror
A recently widowed mother battles her son's fear of "The Babadook,” a dark character from a violent children's book who is lurking somewhere in the house. But, when her son starts acting out, she soon discovers the sinister presence is all around her. A terrifying horror whose real monsters deal in grief and loss.
This movie really scared me more than any movie I've seen in a long time. Jennifer Kent does a great job building up a creepy atmosphere and a sense of confusion and uncertainty. It also weaves the horror and emotion in its story together in a very impressive way, where both elements added to each other instead of distracting from each other.
A fine horror film. I didn't enjoy it as much as many seem to have. I enjoyed the ideas about how institutions such as school, family, child services, and the police fail to support Emelia and Samuel in myriad ways. However, I was more drawn to the first half of the film from Emelia's POV that focuses on, and aligns us with, her helplessness when it comes to the way Samuel is acting, rather than their helplessness in the face of the monster.
I judge horror movies by how many times I have to pause the film to see how much of the film is left. I vividly remember pausing The Babadook to check how much more of the film was left, and being disappointing that I would have to survive another 20 minutes. The Babadook is genuinely chilling, and, unlike most horror films, it has heart.
Empire by Kim Newman
One of the strongest, most effective horror films of recent years — with awards-quality lead work from Essie Davis, and a brilliantly designed new monster who could well become the break-out spook archetype of the decade.
Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf
On purely formal grounds (the ones on which the genre lives or dies), Kent is a natural. She favors crisp compositions and unfussy editing, transforming the banal house itself into a subtle, shadowy threat.
Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
Jennifer Kent's maternal nightmare The Babadook is the imperial stout of recent fright flicks -- it's the one that will have you walking funny and might rip into your sleep. It's hard to say that you'll enjoy this film, but it's hard not to admire it, if maybe with your eyes half shut.
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
The brilliance of The Babadook, beyond Ms. Kent’s skillful deployment of the tried-and-true visual and aural techniques of movie horror, lies in its interlocking ambiguities.
Slate by Dana Stevens
The Babadook creates tension not with jump scares or chase sequences but with judicious editing and slow-burn suspense—that is, until it descends into a final half-hour of harrowing emotional and physical intensity, an extended climax that made me gasp aloud, hide my eyes, and weep at least twice.
The A.V. Club by A.A. Dowd
Believe it or not, though, the real horror of this superb Aussie monster movie has almost nothing to do with the title fiend and everything to do with the unspoken, unspeakable impulses he represents. Remove the Babadook from The Babadook, in other words, and something plenty terrifying remains.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
Kent and editor Simon Njoo show maturity and trust in their material, expertly building tension through the insidious modulation from naturalistic dysfunctional family drama to all-out boogeyman terror.
TheWrap by Inkoo Kang
The Babadook is the rare horror tale that's also a triumph of empathy.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
This is Kent’s first feature — an astonishing debut. Not perfect, though.
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
The crisp imagery (by Radek Ładczuk) creates a true sense of menace amid the household banality. Tales about mothers who fear their offspring also strike at a very primal level of mythic storytelling. Vigilance is the only means of protection against creatures from the id.
Slant Magazine by Abhimanyu Das
Its horrors go beyond any single raggedy phantom, reaching back to the primordial fear of death and loss: of a child, of a loved one, of one's own sense of self.
IndieWire
The Babadook isn't a transcendent horror film. But its ability to handle and manipulate the conventional tropes apparent in so many of its peers makes it a satisfying ride.
The Playlist by Rodrigo Pérez
The Babadook is a smart, respectful horror that puts character and emotional issues first, yet never at the cost of a delightful and haunting fright.
New York Daily News
So many horror films trade depth for a thrill. The Babadook has both. It dispenses with cheap scares and draws tension from a slowly enveloping dread. And when you think you know where it’s going, that’s when it goes in for the kill.
The New Yorker by Anthony Lane
No male director would have put so much as a toe inside this trouble zone, although Kent does borrow a helpful domestic hint from “Shaun of the Dead”: rather than vanquish our worst nightmare, why not tame it, lock it away, and hope?
Variety by Scott Foundas
This meticulously designed and directed debut feature from writer-director Jennifer Kent (expanded from her award-winning short, “Monster”) manages to deliver real, seat-grabbing jolts while also touching on more serious themes of loss, grief and other demons that can not be so easily vanquished.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service by Roger Moore
Manages to pop the hairs on the back of your neck more than most repetitive, predictable and gory Hollywood horror films these days.
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