This is Australian, writer-director Jennifer Kent's first feature length film, which is hard to believe as she appears to have a fantastic skill of understanding the film language by creating and building tension and fabricating complex characters, far beyond the standard you expect from a first-timer.
Amelia (Essie Davis) is a struggling widow trying to raise her 6-year-old son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman) alone. She is traumatised and haunted by memories of her husband's death in a car crash en route to the maternity ward prior to Sam's birth. His mother isn't the only one battling demons of her own, as too is Sam. His imagination is getting the better of him as he becomes obsessed by the spectral monsters lurking in the shadows and so builds a series of homemade weapons to destroy them.
Samuel discovers an odd book entitled The Babadook that has apparently appeared out of nowhere on his shelf. Amelia begins reading it aloud but realises all too late that this isn't a child friendly book and before she knows it they are being haunted by the eerily strange creature, Mister Babadook.
The themes present in the film are elaborate and intricate. And believe you me there is much more than meets the eye as this is not your typical ghostly, paranormal tale.
As I do not want to give too much away I will keep this review short and sweet and let you experience the film without any spoilers.
The dark fairytale feel helps to create plenty of tension and a few scares here and there. Thankfully, there aren't any jump-scares for those of you with a nervous disposition. If you fancy watching a horror film with a thought provoking outcome, then this is for you. If you want gore, masked murderers and teenagers with below average intelligence running into trouble then you may want to rethink.
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