I’m super tired this morning and I haven’t been sleeping very well. Could this be a result of having watched The Babadook this weekend? Probably not. I slept like a baby after seeing the likes of A Serbian Film and whatever other movie you’re thinking of that is supposed to keep you awake at night.
Here’s a cool thing to do for Valentine’s Day: watch a genre film. Doesn’t necessarily need to be horror but that’s where I would probably lean. I remember one year we watched Seven Psychopaths and that was hella romantic. Have I ever mentioned that I love my girlfriend? The kind of girl that gives me a cap gun on Valentine’s Day and watches genre films with me is the kind of girl I’m going to marry.
Anyhow, we decided to save The Babadook for a special occasion and even though we got drunk and didn’t actually watch it on Valentine’s Day, we did get around to watching it the next night. The Babadook came in with some pretty glowing recommendations. Jon picked it as one of his top movies of 2014 on our 9ES Best of 2014 episode and The Indoor Kids (who I often agree with) couldn’t stop talking about it a few months ago. That being said, it’s not without its detractors. Like Leonnie C last week at Rotten Tomatoes:
thought this movie was terrible!! that kid was the most annoying irritating little thing to ever appear on my screen
The movie has a 97% “Fresh” rating from critics and a 76% rating from the audience reviewers. That alone was enough to give me pause. Typically, a horror film falls flat with critics but can be well received by the audience. Weird. So let’s have it.
The Babadook tells a pretty simple story (minor spoilers ahead, skip to the last paragraph if you want to stay spoiler free). Amelia (Essie Davis) is a widow who struggles to raise and discipline her 6 year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). The movie establishes early that Samuel deals with some pretty vivid fears of your standard “monsters under the bed”. To the point where he makes weapons. Like a homemade crossbow and some kind of ball launcher that can smash a window. This alone has you questioning exactly what kind of weird ass upbringing he endured. Turns out that Amelia’s husband died in a car crash driving her to the hospital to give birth to Sam. As Sarah (the aforementioned girlfriend) pointed out: “That’s fucked up.” One day Sam pulls a pop up book called ‘Mister Babadook” off the shelf and asks Amelia to read it at storytime. It’s a creepy little black and white story with fun rhymes but oh shit this book is fucked. (There was a way to get an actual replica of the Mister Babadook book, but the official website has informed that it is over, I’ve never been so jealous of 6200 strangers in my life). ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
