Horror gone haywire

Ervell E Menezes

These days horror has assumed various forms, thanks to FX, which works against the narrative form, hitherto and always the essence of cinema. 'Less is more' is another tenet that has gone out of the window.

The Babadook is a highly dramatic story of six-year-old Samuel (Noah Wiseman) and his obsession with the Babadook, a playbook monster who torments both little Sam and his single mother Amelia (Essie Davis). When Amelia finds the source of the boy's trouble she throws the book into the bin. But it reappears on the doorstep 'reassembled and altered' and even more scary. All this while, Sam is in a world of his own, anti-social and disturbed. Ask no questions. Just look distrusting. To look for plus points it is probably the first film to deal with a mother-son (a six-year-old) relationship, and the performances of both Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman are impeccable, especially for the young Wiseman. Director Jennifer Kent ventures in a new field, giving flesh to her own writing and succeeds only to a point — to leave the viewer thinking. Thankfully, it is for adults only as it is sure to have a traumatic effect on kids.