AM I ALONE FEELING A LITTLE DEFLATED BY THE BABADOOK?

'If it's in a word or it's in a look you can't get rid of the Babadook', apparently. 

Since recently starting 'Your Horror Fix' I thought it would be an interesting idea to not only focus on the recent horror movies of our time, but to also flick back to past horror/thriller titles that may have slipped through my viewing net, well until now that is.

I started out with a simple Google search - 'Top scariest horror movies of all time' when the title 'The Babadook' seemed to continuously pop up in my web searches. Up until this point I hadn't even heard of this movie if I'm honest, which only made me more inquisitive as to what it was all about. Watching the unsettling jump scare style trailer left me with may questions floating about my mind. Was this 'Babadook' fellow known before the movie had launched? And at first glimpse would the beady-eyed long clawed top hat wearing monster appear to be as fucked up and frightening as he is first portrayed to be in the movies trailer?

I sat down and first started watching 'The Babadook' with no real expectations, although the online spoiler-free reviews I had read were highly singing the movies praises. I didn't want to over-spoil my eyes with an overload of trailers, which just about every movie now released seems to do. So, instead I decided to read a little about the writer/director; Jennifer Kent, an Australian writer and director who was the mastermind behind the creation of 'The Babadook'. A former actress turned screenwriter that was surprisingly behind the 1998 family friendly movie 'Babe: Pig in the City'. 

Back to the movie topic at hand please allow me to give you a brief backstory of the movies plot script and its cast members -

The story is based around a struggling mother who after losing her husband in a brutal car accident has since found the weight and burdens of life, as well as the never ending behavioural actions of her ever disobedient six year old son more than a handful to cope with.

The mother, named Amelia (played by Essie Davis) and her son, Samuel (played by Noah Wiseman) struggle to find their way in life, as Samuel voices his displeasure of 'the monsters that live under his bed' and builds homemade 'Home Alone 2' style quirky weapons to help further protect both himself and his mother from the things that go bump in the night.

But his creativity skills soon lands him into serious trouble with his school following a string of bad behaviour, as the school principal steps into offer a one on one focused teaching method for 'the boy',  after Samuel had taken one of his snazzy dart firing weapon creations to the school without his mothers knowledge of doing so. This goes down like a lead balloon with his mother, who chooses to refuse the ruling suggesting it singles her Samuel out from the other children and chooses to remove her son from school.

Shortly after a red sleeved, what is believed to be children's book suddenly appears on the boys bookshelf at home titled, yep you guessed it 'Mister Babadook'. A pop up style scarefest of a read which only heightens her  son's belief in 'the boogeyman' being very much real and hiding away in the closet.

'The Babadook' isn't hiding under here, or is he? 

Amelia quickly tears up and disposes of the book only to later find it return on her doorstep after three sharp and heavy knocks on the front door, only this time the book has been repaired and slightly edited to paint her out to be the monster in the story, suggesting a more 'gore-iffic' ending is just around the corner.

I'll stop my temptations to discuss the movie in its entirety and now give you my thoughts and feedback on the movie, which not everyone who has watched the movie would agree with.

But for me, I was left majorly disappointed after they gave 'The Babadook' monster a rather dodgy voice and a rather vacant glare in the short scenes it appeared in. I wasn't convinced by his 'eerie' crackling accent, nor do I feel we seen the evil creature nearly enough throughout the entire movie, much like we didn't see the dinosaurs all that much in the first installment of 'Jurassic Park'.

I feel this movie could have struck real horror gold if the directors had used the jump scare option much more throughout the thriller flick. As for me, I was left feeling a little flat in all honesty and somewhat disheartened by the lack of any real fear oozing from the movie that you might expect from a horror scare movie. Not once did this horror flick leave me feeling unsettled. In all honesty I was left more unnerved after watching the movie trailer and after spotting a photo of 'The Babadook' online, which is somewhat disappointing to say the least.

With so much potential to be truly horrifying, I can't help but feel 'Mister Babadook' missed the mark.

Am I being a little over critical and somewhat unfair? I guess many would argue so, but I stand by my comments on the hope that if a sequel ever did arise in the near future from the movie franchise we might just witness a true fearful jump scare horror flick in its absolute finest form.

'The Babadook' was released by IFC Films on 14th April 2015 in the US and UK, and is currently available on Amazon Video, Netflix and to purchase on Amazon UK/US.

          

Have you seen 'The Babadook'? if so what were your first thoughts? Did the movie unsettle and scare you? Let us know your thoughts and feedback in the comments section you'll find provided below.

And until next time, horror fans...