Amelia (played by Essie Davis) has been living a rough life for the last few years. On the way to the hospital to give birth to her son, Samuel, she is in a fatal car wreck that kills her husband, leaving her all alone to raise their child. As Samuel gets older he begins displaying erratic behaviour: he rarely sleeps through the night, and is constantly preoccupied with an imaginary monster, which he has built weapons to fight. Amelia becomes visibly resentful of her child the more seemingly fanatical he becomes. She can't sleep, she constantly has to call out from work to attend to his needs, and in one scene she can't even get a moment alone to masturbate without him bursting into her bedroom. Director Jennifer Kent's psychological horror film may seem like a straightforward possession story but it's much deeper than that. Sure, there's glimpses of a "monster" who is lurking in the shadows but the film is much more about the guilt that has consumed its main character. The film deals with the taboo subject of what happens when a mother is truly fed up with her child. Sure, Amelia seemingly loves her son but she doesn't seem to like him very much. Davis does a great job at portraying this. Like The Exorcist or The Shining, The Babadook is far more of a human story rather than simply setting up scare after scare.
Jesse Gumbarge is editor and chief blogger at JarvisCity.com - He loves old-school horror films and starting pointless debates. You can reach out at: JesseGumbarge@JarvisCity.com
