Film ReviewsThe Babadook: batten down the hatches! the babadook wants in
Dec 22, 2014, Anchorage Press
|
|
From down under comes the rhythmic thumping of The Babadook, a fictitious character in a children's pop up book that jumps out from the pages to terrorize the main characters. The Babadook is director Jennifer Kent's first feature horror film and stars Essie Davis as Amelia, the mother, and Noah Wiseman as Samuel, her seven-year-old son. The story begins as Amelia and her husband Oskar, played by Ben Winspear, are in a car speeding to the hospital to deliver the baby. The film shows contraction after contraction in slow motion which are interrupted by the shattering glass from the impact of a car accident. Oskar dies during the accident, as a result, the tragedy not only significantly marks the death of Oskar and birth of Sam, but also sets the stage for the seven-year-long postpartum depression that opens the door for The Babadook.
Kent put a lot of thought into developing the story, and it shows. The Babadook is a smart horror film. Not only does it build on the wide genre of psycho thrillers that came before it, but the film also reaches into the literary world to build a narrative that employs foreshadowing and leitmotif. The attention to detail is evidenced throughout the film, but especially through the creation of the dark and menacing pop up book that mysteriously appears in Amelia and Sam's home one day. Kent invented the story of The Babadook paying close attention to the rhythm of the words, "If it's in a word, or it's in a look, you can't get rid of the Babadook Dook Dook." The book, wrapped in a deep red cloth, contains a drab world inside where shadows linger and the angles of floors, windows and doors are never quite right emerging out of greys and muted blues. As the plot develops and the characters begin their descent into mental disarray, the environment inside the house begins to reflect the environment in the book. Kent blurs the lines to create shifting realities, so that viewers, like the characters are never really sure of what is real.
The Babadook is very rich, and while it pulls on a number of other resources, it delivers its own unique aesthetic and storyline. For example, the 1963 movie The Haunting (skip the atrocious 1999 remake) creates a sense of terror through the use of elongated shots and sounds that come and go. The characters in The Haunting are scared to death through the anticipation of something coming closer and closer-this something is never seen, it is just heard through the walls until the presence surrounds the protagonists in the room. Kent uses the same technique but improves on it. She uses timing and sounds to augment the tension, she adds rhythm to the sounds and layers them-a repeating drip, the scratching at the door by the dog, the sound made by flickering lights, all come together. Through elements like these, Kent is able to sustain a high level of tension throughout the film. But unlike The Haunting's never-seen evildoer, Kent reveals The Babadook, and he's just as frightful as the book pictured him. What's worse, he's like a bad penny, as Samuel notes, one can't get rid of The Babadook.
Through The Babadook, Kent calls to question many societal norms and perceptions about love, relationships and grief. One could write an entire book on the philosophical or feminist concepts Kent explores. Mothers are supposed to love their children, but what if they don't? Or can't? Fathers are supposed protect and provide, but what if they don't? Or can't? All these questions come up in the film in very subtle ways and through the interactions of others, including family, neighbors, school and government officials. The madness that ensues in The Babadook is multidimensional and is rooted in a history of complex human dynamics, from oppression of the rights of women, to taboo ideas about parents and their sexuality. Some viewers won't help but make the connection between Amelia's crazy quest to conquer the roaches in her walls and the quest of the protagonist in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel, The Yellow Wallpaper, to reclaim her sanity. Other viewers may note Amelia's recurring toothache that Kent expertly weaves into key shots to signal internal conflict or process, very similarly to Arthur Koestler's character in Darkness at Noon. There are other very interesting ideas in the film. If fear can be had, and it can be shared, then it makes sense that the fear instilled by The Babadook is transferred from Samuel's imagination to Amelia's state of mind, and from there to a manifestation of its own.
Kent's film is thrilling from beginning to end, it has stamina and rigor in delivering the plot and developing multidimensional characters but the film is not perfect. As the story unfolds, and after the viewers and characters are all ready to call it a night with The Babadook- being scared takes energy, after all-it may appear to viewers that Kent wasn't quite sure which exit to take, so she tries multiple doors. Behind one door is the projectile vomiting resolution to exorcise The Babadook, like in another familiar, head spinning film; behind another door is a bloody conclusion worthy of Freddy Krueger; and last but not least, behind yet another door is a calm aloofness, a detachment only a mother like in Rosemary's Baby can deliver. But, still, The Babadook stands on its own, because Kent understands the viewing experience as well as the film making process. In giving deference to the breadth of the genre, from psycho-thrillers to campy horror, she is able to tell the story she wants, in the way that she wants.
The Babadook shows at Bear Tooth at 8:10 p.m. on December 29.
Kent put a lot of thought into developing the story, and it shows. The Babadook is a smart horror film. Not only does it build on the wide genre of psycho thrillers that came before it, but the film also reaches into the literary world to build a narrative that employs foreshadowing and leitmotif. The attention to detail is evidenced throughout the film, but especially through the creation of the dark and menacing pop up book that mysteriously appears in Amelia and Sam's home one day. Kent invented the story of The Babadook paying close attention to the rhythm of the words, "If it's in a word, or it's in a look, you can't get rid of the Babadook Dook Dook." The book, wrapped in a deep red cloth, contains a drab world inside where shadows linger and the angles of floors, windows and doors are never quite right emerging out of greys and muted blues. As the plot develops and the characters begin their descent into mental disarray, the environment inside the house begins to reflect the environment in the book. Kent blurs the lines to create shifting realities, so that viewers, like the characters are never really sure of what is real.
The Babadook is very rich, and while it pulls on a number of other resources, it delivers its own unique aesthetic and storyline. For example, the 1963 movie The Haunting (skip the atrocious 1999 remake) creates a sense of terror through the use of elongated shots and sounds that come and go. The characters in The Haunting are scared to death through the anticipation of something coming closer and closer-this something is never seen, it is just heard through the walls until the presence surrounds the protagonists in the room. Kent uses the same technique but improves on it. She uses timing and sounds to augment the tension, she adds rhythm to the sounds and layers them-a repeating drip, the scratching at the door by the dog, the sound made by flickering lights, all come together. Through elements like these, Kent is able to sustain a high level of tension throughout the film. But unlike The Haunting's never-seen evildoer, Kent reveals The Babadook, and he's just as frightful as the book pictured him. What's worse, he's like a bad penny, as Samuel notes, one can't get rid of The Babadook.
Through The Babadook, Kent calls to question many societal norms and perceptions about love, relationships and grief. One could write an entire book on the philosophical or feminist concepts Kent explores. Mothers are supposed to love their children, but what if they don't? Or can't? Fathers are supposed protect and provide, but what if they don't? Or can't? All these questions come up in the film in very subtle ways and through the interactions of others, including family, neighbors, school and government officials. The madness that ensues in The Babadook is multidimensional and is rooted in a history of complex human dynamics, from oppression of the rights of women, to taboo ideas about parents and their sexuality. Some viewers won't help but make the connection between Amelia's crazy quest to conquer the roaches in her walls and the quest of the protagonist in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel, The Yellow Wallpaper, to reclaim her sanity. Other viewers may note Amelia's recurring toothache that Kent expertly weaves into key shots to signal internal conflict or process, very similarly to Arthur Koestler's character in Darkness at Noon. There are other very interesting ideas in the film. If fear can be had, and it can be shared, then it makes sense that the fear instilled by The Babadook is transferred from Samuel's imagination to Amelia's state of mind, and from there to a manifestation of its own.
Kent's film is thrilling from beginning to end, it has stamina and rigor in delivering the plot and developing multidimensional characters but the film is not perfect. As the story unfolds, and after the viewers and characters are all ready to call it a night with The Babadook- being scared takes energy, after all-it may appear to viewers that Kent wasn't quite sure which exit to take, so she tries multiple doors. Behind one door is the projectile vomiting resolution to exorcise The Babadook, like in another familiar, head spinning film; behind another door is a bloody conclusion worthy of Freddy Krueger; and last but not least, behind yet another door is a calm aloofness, a detachment only a mother like in Rosemary's Baby can deliver. But, still, The Babadook stands on its own, because Kent understands the viewing experience as well as the film making process. In giving deference to the breadth of the genre, from psycho-thrillers to campy horror, she is able to tell the story she wants, in the way that she wants.
The Babadook shows at Bear Tooth at 8:10 p.m. on December 29.