There is a children’s picture book by Edward Gorey called The Gashlycrumb Tinies. It teaches the alphabet by assigning each letter to the name of a child, and then describing how that child dies. “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs,” it begins. “B is for Basil assaulted by bears.” All the way down to Z (Zyllah, by the way, who drank too much gin). Gorey was the master of picture book horror stories, and his work is written all over The Babadook, a new horror film built around a children’s nursery-rhyme pop-up book (this one is decidedly not for children).
If any of the unfortunate Tinies of Gorey’s book were to be found in the The Babadook, I suppose it would be poor “Susan who perished of fits;” the movie not only features numerous fits by the mother and son at its center, but also is likely to cause them in viewers.
The story follows Amelia, a nurse for the elderly, and her 6-year old son Samuel, after they discover a children’s pop-up picture book, eponymously titled “Mister Babadook.” The relationship between Samuel (Noah Wiseman) and Amelia (Essie Davis) is strained by his behavioral troubles which she believes are caused by his deeply rooted fear of monsters. His school plans to remove him from contact with other students, and as a result Amelia pulls him out and stays home with him as she looks for a new school.
Samuel is a creative boy; he’s studying to be a magician, and also builds homemade weapons to protect himself and his mother from the monsters he believes live inside their home. After they find “Mister Babadook”, this fear begins to actualize, as a haunting presence of some sort enters their home, torments Amelia to near madness, and refuses to leave. “You can’t get rid of the babadook,” the book says.
The wonderful thing about watching horror movies is they leave so much room for surprise. Not just in their stories, but in their accomplishments. That The Babadook is as good-and emotionally effective-as it is will be one of lasting surprises 2014 at the movies. Writer/Director Jennifer Kent builds her movie around the genre machinations of horror (a mom and son haunted by a monster or spirit or ghost-whatever horror movie trope is at hand). To the non-horror movie crowd, it’s possible to see the trailer for The Babdook and find little reason to watch it if you’re not one for scares.
There are many reasons this is wrong.
Primarily among them is Kent’s direction. This is the first film from Jennifer Kent and she is magnificent in her confidence and style. She has such command of vision here that one can almost immediately dispense concerns that things might fall apart. The movie pulls from the traditions of the horror genre, with canted angles and dark tones, but it has human performances and a cinematic identity of its own. It’s a testament to craft that so much can be done with as few moving parts as Kent has at her disposal.
Kent manages to construct a tone and pace that is as disturbing as the unraveling psychological state of Amelia and Sam. One scene features Amelia and Sam reading Mister Babadook, only to smash-cut to her holding his head as he screams out in terror. It’s unsettling and skillful film-making, evoking both the horrors of the genre and the difficult nights that come with being a parent.
Which is, in reality, what The Babadook is about. Audiences learn that Samuel’s father was killed in a car accident as he was driving Amelia to the hospital to deliver their son. Her loss and the resulting depression has affected everything and everyone around the family. Despair is in the air in all of Amelia’s interactions, and this has had psychological repercussions on Sam.
The manner in which these elements unfold is what leads The Babadook its greatest, and most unexpected achievement: giving life to grief.
Representation of the physical reality of grief and despair is exceedingly rare in the movies. It requires an actor to succumb to a director and project in a way few appear willing to do (the best physical performance of grief I’ve found is Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart). But Jennifer Kent and her actors Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman (who at 7 years old gives a performance almost too good for comfort) are able to pull out an empathetic family story of loss a despair by recognizing something that some in the audience will understand too well: grief is a physical force that cannot, really, ever be expelled.
A few critics have used descriptions like “smart” and “little” to describe The Babadook, perhaps not realizing the condescension they hold (generally this means it had a small budget; The Babadook cost $2.5 Million). But the film stands ably next to its horror movie predecessors, The Shining, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Excorcist among them. It is one of the year’s best movies.
The Babadook is playing in limited engagements around the nation. It opens Friday, December 12 at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Film’s Society.
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