The Babadook (2014)
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Cast
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Overview
About the Film
The Babadook is a 2014 Australian psychological horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her feature debut. Essie Davis stars as Amelia Vanek, an exhausted, grief-stricken single mother whose husband was killed in a car accident while driving her to the hospital to give birth to their son Samuel, played by Noah Wiseman. Six years later, Amelia is barely coping — Samuel's behavioral problems have made them social outcasts, and she hasn't processed her grief.
When a mysterious, sinister pop-up book called "Mister Babadook" appears on Samuel's shelf, its terrifying illustrations seem to manifest as a malevolent entity in their home. Jennifer Kent used the Babadook as a metaphor for suppressed grief and depression — the monster grows stronger the more Amelia denies her pain, and the film's resolution comes not through destroying the Babadook but through acknowledging and containing it, a powerful metaphor for living with grief rather than being consumed by it. Essie Davis's performance, depicting a mother simultaneously loving and resenting her child while descending into psychological crisis, was one of the rawest in modern horror.
The Babadook earned $10 million worldwide on a $2 million budget.
