The Babadook

The Babadook

Starring Essie  Davis and Noah Wiseman

Directed by Jennifer Kent

Produced by Causeway Films

2014

Unrated

Most of you might not know this about me, but I taught a Children's Literature class at Saint Mary's College this past Spring Semester. I love children's books, especially fantasy. It is no wonder then that when I read the blurb on this movie that I had to see it. It centers around a children's picture book! How great is that?!

Also, not many horror movies get 5 star ratings from viewers or 98% ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. That alone told me that this directorial debut movie from Jennifer Kent, who also wrote the story, was going to be something worth watching.

Amelia is a widow, having lost her husband in a horribly tragic accident on the way to giving birth to their son, Sam. She has had to take care of Sam alone for about six years now, and she has never really recovered from her husband's death. Add to this the fact that Sam is a handful! He is a child who has tantrums, mainly caused by fear, I think. Every night, he wakes in terror of monsters under the bed or in the closet, and his mother has to check and examine every nook and cranny. In the end, he usually ends up in bed with her, and Amelia is never able to get enough rest.

As part of his fear, Sam constructs various weapons to fight the monsters and protect his mother from them. Early in the film, he gets into trouble because he brings one of his rather scary and potentially dangerous weapons to school. Amelia, in desperation and exhaustion, decides to remove her unusual son from the school rather than figure out how to help him fit in better. It is all too overwhelming to her.

As part of their routine in the evening, Sam is allowed to select books for his bedtime story. One evening, he selects a picture pop-up book called Mr. Babadook. 

Amelia doesn't recognize this one. Where did it come from? She begins to read.

This is creepy and sounds much to familiar. Could this be why Sam is having nightmares?

The pictures get worse and worse, showing strangely familiar figures committing horrifying acts. Amelia cannot finish and hides the book so that Sam won't choose it again.

But this is a horror movie, so you can guess what happens! The book returns to the book shelf and more pictures appear. Amelia goes so far as to tear up the book and throw it away in the trash.

Now the story gets much too realistic and scary for some people. Amelia starts to see shadows that move and hears noises that shouldn't be there. The call of "Baba Dook-Dook-Dook"  can be heard in the house. Sam has a seizure, from seeing the Babadook, and Amelia is feeling helpless to understand or help.

Is the Babadook real or only in Sam's imagination? We think it might be all in Sam's imagination until we then see the book, reassembled, on the front porch. 

I don't want to give away too much of this story because it is one any fan of horror will want to see. It is a great story of mother-child relationships and love, possession, childhood fear, and madness. The Babadook, so like the Boogeyman most of us have imagined at one time or other, is depicted as a large black man/monster with a top hat and large teeth. He can walk, climb, fly, and pass through walls, so nowhere is really safe from him. Every child's nightmare, right?

The Babadook depicts every mother's nightmare, too: the slow descent into madness caused by isolation, lack of sufficient rest, constant problem-solving, and inability to help your child when there is a problem. Kids can drive you crazy, usually not literally, but having to deal with them all the time by yourself is very daunting to even a strong mother. Amelia is already fragile from the loss of her husband, so she is an easy victim of the monster that wants in.

Jennifer Kent, the director, made her debut with this movie and it premiered at the January 2014 Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah--a festival I have attended myself and where many great new films by independent filmmakers are shown. It was released in November 2014 in the States, and came out on DVD in April 2015. It was described as a fresh new style of horror with no gore and jump scares, but real psychological horror. Kent relied more in her writing and filming on the horror classics, analyzing what made them scary to audiences. It is possible to see elements of  Nosferatu, The Shining, Halloween, Let the Right One In, and others in this story. 

Really there are only two main actors in this film, Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman. They are both excellent and realistic in their parts. I am excited to find out what other roles Essie Davis has done. Her portrayal of a tired, desperate mother is perfectly executed here. The young boy, Noah, is also convincing in his role. He is a cute little boy who makes you want to either give him big hugs because he is so scared all the time or lock him in a room and run away because he is so strange.

I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who likes horror movies. It is not rated, but I probably would not allow somebody under 13 to watch it without reservations. It probably should get an R for the horror factor. It is pretty intense at times. I did not watch this one alone!

Here is the official trailer for you to watch.

I am really excited now to see what Jennifer Kent does next. I hope it is another horror film!

The Memory of Trees

The Memory of Trees
by F. G. Cottam
Sutton, Surrey, England: Severn House
2013
249 pages


This is another adult book that I think teens might also like that also involves some mythology, this time British mythology and history.

Tom Curtis is a tree expert. He has been hired by billionaire Saul Ambercrombie to complete a very unusual job. Saul has purchased a very large expanse of land in Wales and wants to convert it back to the medieval forest that existed there over 1000 years ago. But he doesn't want baby trees, he wants full-grown, authentically Welsh trees that would have existed there originally.

Clocaenog Forest, North Wales

Tom is going through a bad divorce and custody battle, so he is looking for work that will help him gain financial stability in order to gain credence in the courts. He takes the job, despite its odd nature. Where else is a "Tree Man" going to find such a good opportunity?

Soon after Tom arrives to the estate, he discovers that all is not as it seems. There are local legends surrounding the place, and the few landmarks are steeped with eerie vibes. He takes an instant dislike to a humongous thorn bush at a spot called "Gibbet's Mourning," which seems to move on its own. There is a small unidentified church with a stained glass window of a knight holding up the head of a monster. The knight just coincidentally (not really) looks very much like Tom. There is also a mysterious cairn near the edge of the sea cliff, called Puller's Reach.

Tom plants some ceremonial yews near the cairn to mark the beginning of the project. This is where the creepy events begin to take place. Checking back the next day, there is not only one yew at Puller's Reach but two full grown yews, and every day they multiply. Work begins on the forest renewal and trees appear faster than they are planted, as if the forest is trying to replenish itself. But why? And why does Saul want to help it?

We eventually learn that long ago, the forest was ruled by Morgan le Fay, enchantress and nemesis of Arthur. She walked the land, with evil smelly beasts to do her bidding, and woe to any who got in her way.The knight of the window was Gregory of Avalon, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table and renowned for slaying dragons, who was commissioned to kill the monsters and eliminate or at least render her harmless. He accomplishes his task and the forest is burnt to the ground.

Tom is contacted by a mythologist, Professor Andrew Carrington, who has learned of the project and is greatly disturbed by it. He knows the stories that have been passed down and suspects that reclaiming the forest to its original state would not be a good idea. He tells Tom some of the story of Gregory, and also that of another man who wanted to study the forest but experienced terrible disaster there, but it is rather hard to believe, and anyway, what can Tom do? He needs the job and is committed to it. But soon the situation becomes so intense and tragic that Tom can no longer pretend that the project should continue.

I thought the mythology in this story was interesting, the characters were realistic and motives explained well. The suspense of the horror is built well and convincingly. I was glad that Tom survives to the end and Morgan is again incapacitated, but it is not a happy ending at all. Too many characters that I cared about ended up missing or dead, but this is horror after all.

In looking up a cover photo for this book, I found other "Memory of Trees," a mystical song by Irish songwriter and singer Enya. It doesn't have the same spirit as this book, but it is still worth a listen.