The Babadook (2014)

This was the second part of my Australian double feature.  Hollie opted out since she's not much for horror in general and things to do with children in danger in particular.  To each their own.  Tyler, the new boyfriend, was gratifyingly creeped out and I really couldn't have asked for more.  Originally posted 20 Jun 15.    I think Christy feels bad about leaving because she actually volunteered to watch this with me.  She even broke one of her cardinal rules and watched it after dark.  She did play on her phone the entire time, however, but baby steps.

Amelia (Essie Davis) is a single mother of imaginative six-year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman).  His seventh birthday is fast approaching but Amelia finds it hard to cope because that was also the day her husband died.  To compound matters, Samuel has begun harboring a fear of monsters and fashioning various homemade weapons to defend himself and his mother.  This leads to several incidents resulting in a lot of embarrassment for Amelia.  When a creepy children's book shows up at their house, it sends Samuel into paranoia overdrive.  Amelia tries to reason with him until weird things start to happen around her as well.

As a movie, it is not terribly frightening.  You merely get a suggestion of the monster here and there and some sound effects.  As a metaphor for a parent's fear of deliberately hurting their child, you can't do much better.  So much of the terror is conveyed through Amelia's desperation, the same desperation felt by anyone who's ever tried to reason with an unreasonable child, where you love them more than anything but you still want to choke the life out of them.  I don't know a single parent who hasn't admitted feeling homicidal towards their kids at least once and to feeling incredibly guilty afterwards.

Calling this a simple horror movie is insulting.  It treats grief and anger and fear as musical instruments, weaving them together to make an effective chamber piece of feeling.  Pretty to the ear of the untrained, yet holding so much depth to a connoisseur.  I highly recommend it.