Amelia’s husband died driving her to the hospital to give birth to Samuel. Samuel is now six, builds weapons to fight monsters, screams in supermarkets, and has been removed from school. One night he picks a book off the shelf for bedtime: Mister Babadook. It is a pop-up book about a thing in a top hat that gets in once you let it in. Amelia does not remember buying it. The Babadook is a horror film about grief and about a mother who does not like her child, and Jennifer Kent does not look away from either.
What Happens After The Book
Amelia tears the book up. It comes back on the doorstep, taped together, with new pages that show her killing the dog, then Samuel, then herself. The Babadook gets in. Amelia stops sleeping, starts seeing it in the police station and on television, and the last half hour is her, possessed, with her son in a house she has locked. Samuel, who was the problem for the whole film, is the one who fights for her. The ending in the basement with the bowl of worms is the film’s whole argument in one image.
Why It Was Called The Best Horror Film Of Its Year
Essie Davis plays Amelia from exhausted to monstrous and back without a false note. William Friedkin, who made The Exorcist, said he had never seen a more terrifying film. The book was made for real by illustrator Alex Juhasz and was later published. It was shot in Adelaide on a small budget and the house is a set.
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