The Babadook - The best horror since The Shining (spoilers)

Here, Amelia (Essie David) is reading six year old Samuel (Noah Wiseman) the odd book called 'Mister Babadook'.

Bend over Hollywood because you're about to be disciplined and have a lesson taught to you about how to do horror right by a terror newcomer Jennifer Kent, she'll have your ass red and your head knowing what to do and what to avoid with her new horror masterpiece 'The Babadook' starring Essie David and in his acting debut Noah Wiseman.

The Babadook has achieved what no other horror films were able to do for a while and that is simply to scare, to frighten you, to get under your skin and to actually scare you without the use of cheap jump scares and loud noises American horror directors can successfully master. Jennifer Kent is one of those rare directors that can actually do shit right. In The Babadook the cheap jump scare tricks were devoid of and we the audience finally got something we wanted for years, SCARY. One thing I've always said that works with horror is subtlety, what scares people the most isn't what's there, it's the idea of what could be there and the film creates the tension and atmosphere very well and sets up a good combination of a horror film.

The film starts off with the lead role played beautifully by Essie David who plays an independent widowed mother who works as a caretaker and fully supports herself and her peculiar son who clearly doesn't have enough affection given to him by his mother. Speaking of the mother she has issues of coping with the loss of her husband who died in an accident on the way to giving birth to her son Samuel. This is a key point in the movie as throughout the film the loss of the father Oskar is reflected upon the characters and their actions, an example is that Amelia has a hard time with looking at other couples as she is constantly mourning the loss of her husband and finds herself trying to move on as seen with a co-worker.

This film is not only a horror film, underneath the surface you see that there is more to it. The family faces depression, bereavement and shows you the stress of coping with the death of a loved one so in a way it's also an intense drama.

The mysterious figure Mr. Babadook has only a small screen time which in my opinion is a good way of scaring the audience as early on in the film you are introduced to the idea of The Babadook but as the film progresses you start to see how the family starts to fear it and impacts their emotional behaviors such as subtle imagery from a piece of clothing which you link to the monster. Eventually, The Babadook reveals itself but it does so very subtly not in your typical horror film where it is shown with only a small buildup and jumped into your face skipping a heartbeat and then vanishing completely losing all suspense, however the suspense  here is given throughout the entire course of the film and does an excellent job in keeping the suspense, it does that because you know it's in the house and it's there but you don't know when it is coming, it's like staring down a man with a gun to your face with a bullet in the chamber and a finger on the trigger waiting for something to happen. Another aspect of the creature which is bone chilling is the eerie sound it makes. You know early in the film that it makes the sound "ba ba-ba Dook Dook Dook" and you know when you hear it you're fucked. It doesn't come at you out of the blue and at a scream that pierces your ears, it knows you're there and it will come for you, it does it to intimidate you to get you all shaken up for its pleasure.

Overall, this was a fantastic horror film I have seen executed very well. Although I wasn't too satisfied with the ending but I enjoyed the suspense and the experience this film gave me as well as brilliant performances by both Essie David and Noah Wiseman.