Various actors. "Babadook" - mystical horror by Jennifer Kent

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Modern products of the horror genre are extremely rarely able to surprise the sophisticated viewer, most often they are standard variations of boring genre clichés, seasoned with effects focused on basic instincts. Neither the creators of the pictures, nor the actors embodying the director's idea on the screen hide this. The Babadook is an exception. The film, fitting into the standard horror structure, turns out to be a truly elegant and meaningful creation. The genre in the film serves only to frame the story filmed by debutant director Jennifer Kent. She acted as a director and screenwriter, creating one of the most interesting and intelligent horror films of the last 20 years without resorting to low methods. E. Davis and N. Wiseman, talented actors, helped her keep the plausibility of the plot action. "The Babadook" doesn't get hysterical thanks to their exceptionally organic acting.

Plot of the picture

The main character, widow and mother Amelia (actress E. Davis), has experienced a terrible tragedy. On the way to the hospital, she and her husband get into a car accident. She and the child survived, but her loving husband died suddenly. Years pass, the inconsolable woman, moonlighting as a nurse, barely making ends meet, raises her son on her own. Unadapted to society, little Sam (Noah Wiseman), shutting himself off from the outside world, constantly constructs unpretentious weapons and easily loses control of himself. One day, a child finds a book about the terrible monster Babaduk, who, hiding in the dark, makes people do terrible things. From that time on, the boy completely loses his peace, and with him Amelia, who also imagines the Babadook.

Two-layer narrative structure

The story has it all: forced early adulthood, repressed pain, tormenting guilt. The actors tried to convey this whole range of emotions to the viewer. "The Babadook" definitely does not fit into the conventional formula of mystical horror. The film is constructed in such a way that through the outer layer, the classic story of the Boogeyman, harassing an already troubled family (associations with Candyman and Nightmares on Elm Street), the core emerges - an allegorical dramatic narrative of an early widowed woman who is unable to let go of the deceased spouse. This whole amazing emotional cocktail is brilliantly played by the professional Davis and Noah, a young actor who seems to have been born to star in horror films.

Motion Picture Ensemble

The main roles in the horror were played by actress E. Davis, known to the viewer from the films "Australia", "The Matrix Reloaded", "Girl with a Pearl Earring", N. Wiseman, H. McElhinney, D. Henshall and others. Essie Davis, the female lead, daughter of the famous Australian artist George Davis, portrayed on the screen a heroine with a completely shattered nervous system, which could already be placed in a special hospital. The actress is so good in the image that you just can’t take your eyes off her, her skill is amazing and there’s absolutely nothing to complain about. Essie Davis made her film debut in 1995 and has appeared in over 30 television and film roles.

Clawed monster. The actor who embodied it

At the center of the horror story, as it should be by the canons of the genre, there is a monster from a child's, and maybe an adult's nightmare, which the main characters are unable to cope with. In some episodes, the clawed monster in a cylindrical hat is played by actor - Benjamin Winsper. The artist got a rather complex character. On the one hand, this is really a monster that first inhabits the dwelling, and then the mind of the main character. But on the other hand, the Babadook is the embodiment of Amelia's fears and emotions: the fear of letting go of the deceased spouse, excessive irritability, repressed hatred of the child. No wonder screenwriter and director Jennifer Kent, taking into account the texture of Winsper, uses the caricature, almost puppet Babadook to exacerbate feelings to the limit, their hypertrophy. Character B. Winsper is complex, and the director adhered to noble restraint and brevity when he was shown. No one considered the character to be secondary - neither Kent nor the actors involved in the filming. The Babadook did not make Winsper famous, like Kruger's Robert Englund, however, the project has not yet become a franchise. Maybe we should wait for the sequel.

Kent's Directing Celebration

The Babadook isn't just another cheap horror story, it's a celebration of the art of directing, a psychological exploration of growing madness. And what frightens him most of all is not something dark that appears unexpectedly, but the relationship between two relatives and the closest people. Jennifer Kent is a real virtuoso, able to fashion drama out of nothing, while doing without musical accompaniment hints and cheap special effects.