At a glance
| Director | Jennifer Kent |
| Release year | 2014 |
| Runtime | 94 minutes |
| Genre | Psychological horror |
| Starring | Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman |
Plot
Amelia Vanek is raising Samuel alone. Her husband died driving her to the hospital the night the boy was born. Samuel builds weapons and does not sleep. A pop-up book appears on the shelf, Mister Babadook, and the rhyme in it is a threat: the more you deny, the stronger it gets. Amelia wants the book gone. The book does not stay gone.
The film stays inside the house. Neighbors notice. A sister notices. Samuel is sure the Babadook is real. Amelia is sure she is tired. Both of those can be true. The ending does not kill the thing in the basement. It feeds it.
Production
Jennifer Kent wrote and directed it as her first feature, expanding her short Monster. It was shot in Adelaide. Essie Davis plays Amelia. Noah Wiseman plays Samuel. The budget was small, under $2.5 million, with support from Screen Australia. The book was designed as a physical prop, illustrated by Alexander Juhasz, and the creature was played in a suit rather than built only as an effect.
It premiered at Sundance in 2014 and opened in Australia that year. The United States release was limited, then much larger once people argued about it online. Kent has said the film is about grief that is not allowed in the house. She has resisted the reading that reduces the Babadook to a metaphor and nothing else. The later life of the character, as a Pride meme, is not something the film planned.
Cast
- Essie Davis as Amelia Vanek
- Noah Wiseman as Samuel Vanek
- Daniel Henshall as Robbie
- Hayley McElhinney as Claire
- Barbara West as Mrs. Roach
- Ben Winspear as Oskar Vanek
Trivia
- The pop-up book was a real prop. The illustrations were printed and bound for the shoot.
- Kent has said she did not want a film that explains the monster away as illness.
- Davis and Wiseman carry almost every scene. The house is the third lead.
- The husband died on the way to the birth. The film does not treat that as backstory it will soften.
- A sequel has been discussed and not made. Kent has moved on to other films, including The Nightingale.
- The basement ending is the film’s actual position on grief: it stays, and you portion it.