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Fantastic Fest 2014 Review: The Babadook

Published

10 years ago

October 1, 2014

Practically every region has its own boogieman in some form or another. For Australia, that boogeyman is Mister Babadook.

And in a land where every one of the members of their indigenous wildlife can eat you, bite you and otherwise kill you, you know that their boogeyman is going to be on point with something real horror show to exceed the fear of a kangaroo beating you to death or getting poisoned by a koala.

The latest film from Australian director Jennifer Kent focuses on Mister Babadook. From the name Babadook alone I would have thought comedy. Maybe a comedy starring Yahoo Serious, but “The Babadook” is far from shenanigans and more about unadulterated fear rattles.

Babadook Pop-Up

“The Babadook” centers on a young Samuel and his mother who are trying to live normal lives following a car accident that took the life of their husband and father.

After she reads him a children’s story (that mysteriously showed up in the room of the young boy) young Samuel becomes obsessed with an invisible entity that will not stop haunting him.

In a “Monster Squad” meets “Lost Boys” like the approach the boy begins building crossbows and slings along with other weapons to protect him his mother from the monster he believes is lurking in their home.

“If it’s in a look it’s in a book you can’t get rid of the Babadook,” one of the quotes from the children’s book reads. And once Amelia sees the Babadook he relentlessly begins to haunt her and her son Samuel forcing them into a battle for their own sanity and the stability of their already shattered family.

“The Babadook” is a different kind of horror movie. It doesn’t rely on as many tacky jump scares as it does create its own atmosphere and a loveable mother and son dynamic to go with it.

There is a lot of psychological tug of war that the film evokes in its audience as well. As an audience member, you aren’t sure if this is psychological, physical or metaphorical. The great approach the film takes is that any of those three outcomes are equally horrifying.

Focusing on a mother and son dynamic and putting that relationship through the grinder is hard to watch on its own without the introduction of Mister Babadook. But, once he is thrown into the mix things become even bleaker.

‘The Babadook’ via IMDB

Speaking of bleak, the production design work is fantastic. The world that they create is devoid of color by using only grays and washed-out blues. Key points are occasionally highlighted in red to coincide with something going on in the story.

Essie Davis who plays Amelia and Noah Wiseman who plays Samuel are both excellent in their roles. It’s been a long time since I have seen a young actor as believable and someone I felt could sympathize with as much as I did with his character.

“The Babadook” does stay with you after it’s over. I caught myself jumping when there was a knock at the door after this one. It doesn’t go for the scares that we are used to, and for me, that is a big plus. The addition of all the more dramatic elements do a lot to strengthen the bigger scares in the film as well.

Don’t watch this one alone and if any children’s books mysteriously appear on your bookshelf just run.

“The Babadook” opens in the US on November 28.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szaLnKNWC-U

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

6 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

8 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

11 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.