Part of Shocktober
Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia [Essie Davis] is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her ‘out of control’ six-year-old, Samuel [Noah Wiseman], a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel’s dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called “The Babadook” turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he’s been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son’s behaviour, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.
“An imperial stout that will have you walking funny — and it might rip into your sleep…. A rich assortment of mixed-media pleasures, tributes to early film and cheeseball magic videos, glimpses of Méliès-ian tableaux. The Babadook…like a stout, is a superbly made, darkly rich, small-batch treat that can change the composition of your evening — and should absolutely be kept from the kiddos.” —Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice (Nov 26, 2014) “Noah Wiseman has a demonic sweetness that recalls some of the evil children of ’70s scare-cinema. And Ms. Davis’s performance is a tour de force of maternal anguish…. But then all of a sudden, the mood shifts and you wonder if you should be afraid for Amelia or afraid of her. In any case, you will be scared. And also, perhaps even more scarily, moved.” —A.O. Scott, NYT Critic’s Pick, New York Times (Nov 27, 2014) “The portrait of mother and son locked in a single, escalating fantasy is gripping and horribly credible…. It’s genuinely scary in its jump moments, but also imparts a lingering sense of dread that will stay with you for days — and will definitely come to mind the next time you wake up in the middle of the night wondering what that scratching noise was.” —Kim Newman, Empire Magazine (Oct 23, 2014)
