Amelia (Essie Davis) is a widow raising her six-year-old son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), alone. Her husband was killed in a car crash while driving her to the hospital to give birth, and seven years later she still has not grieved. Samuel is difficult, anxious and obsessed with monsters, and Amelia is exhausted.
One night, Samuel picks a strange pop-up book from the shelf: Mister Babadook. Its pictures of a tall figure in a top hat are frightening, and soon Samuel insists the Babadook is in the house. Then Amelia starts seeing it too.
Essie Davis gives an astonishing performance, moving from exhausted love to frightening rage. The house is grey and suffocating, and the Babadook itself, often only glimpsed, is genuinely creepy. Jennifer Kent uses old-fashioned, handmade effects that make the monster feel like something out of a nightmare.
Samuel can be very annoying at first, which some viewers find hard. But The Babadook is a powerful, intelligent and truly frightening film about how unspoken grief can turn into a monster.
