Babadook, when grief is turned into a monster

Petru Stratulat

Owner of Lounge Avenue, Radio Personality, Voice Actor & Puppeteer in love with Science.

thisvoice.rocks

Babadook is a deeply chilling psychological horror movie that explores the terrifying reality of grief and exhaustion. The story follows an overwhelmed single mother who is desperately struggling to raise her highly troubled and completely unpredictable young son after the tragic death of her husband. Their already stressful life takes a massive turn for the worse when a strange and incredibly creepy children book mysterious appears on their shelf. After they read the disturbing story of a tall monster in a top hat, a very real and menacing presence slowly begins to take over their dark and quiet house.

What makes this movie absolutely brilliant is how it perfectly blends traditional monster scares with deeply emotional real world trauma. The tension slowly builds in a very claustrophobic and deeply unsettling way, making you question if the terrifying creature is actually real or just a wild hallucination caused by total sleep deprivation. The lead performance is completely outstanding, showing the raw and ugly side of parenting when you are pushed to your absolute breaking point. If you are looking for a genuinely scary movie that relies heavily on a dark atmosphere and emotional depth instead of cheap jump scares, you definitely need to watch this amazing film.