Freaky Friday: The Baba Ganoush

This Freaky Friday is brought to you by Mr. Coffee, the letter "B", and the number 5.37.


Hello nerd boys and girls,


I’m taking a break from video games to bring you a review of the latest horror movie being crammed down your throat by Netflix and your Facebook friends: The Babadook.  Just so you’re aware of my tastes, I have a long lasting love of horror movies, but especially terrible ones.  I subscribe to the church of Troll 2 and From Dusk Till Dawn sequels.  If a movie contains Bruce Campbell, Tom Savini, or was endorsed in some way by George Romero, then I am watching it.  Warning!  From this point forward this blog entry may contain spoilers (in white), though I will do my best to not ruin the ending. 


The Babadook is a movie you would label a "creature feature" or boogeyman style horror story where a child is afraid of something that the adults insist just does not exist.  In this movie that child is six-year-old Sam.  Sam’s father died in a car accident on the way to Sam's own birth and is being raised alone by his mother Amelia.  Like many six year olds, Sam is afraid of the monster in his closet, under his bed, in the attic, in the basement...  He rarely sleeps due to his fear and is an all around brat, in general.  Unlike most six year olds though, Sam builds Dennis the Menace-style weapons to defend himself.


Our other main character Amelia, Sam’s mother, is working as a hospice nurse and seems run down from working, raising Sam herself, and struggling through what appears to be a lonely, hard life for the past six years.  To add to Amelia’s stress, Sam gets removed from school for bringing one of his many handcrafted weapons with him.  Amelia’s only outlet is her sister Claire who has a daughter, Ruby.  Ruby’s birthday is close to Sam’s so they share a party every year.  (Every year except this one, of course.)  This is partially due to Amelia’s painful experience of losing her husband on her son’s actual birthday but mostly because a joint party is cheaper and less stressful, obviously.


So what the hell is a babadook?  Well, one night Amelia allows Sam to choose a bedtime story.  He pulls down a book that Amelia has never seen before titled Mister Babadook.  This book tells the story of a being that haunts and tortures those aware of his existence.  His presence is preceded by the sound of a knocking “babadook dook dook” noise.

Grandma Ethel is not allowed to buy you books ever again.

  The book itself is modeled after a child’s pop-up book and, if I'm being honest, is probably one of the more creative horror devices I’ve seen.  Sam, who is already terrified of his own make-believe monsters, now has a name to put to his ever-increasing fears.  Sam’s brat-tastic behavior gets worse, and the house suddenly seems haunted, which Amelia, being the great mom she is, blames on Sam and he in turn blames on Mister Babadook.  Already frustrated by Sam’s behavior and suffering from a severe lack of sleep, Amelia tears the offending book apart and throws it in the trash. 


Is this the end of Babadook problem?  Um... no.  Sam suffers a seizure on the way home from his cousin's drama filled birthday party and Amelia brings him to the hospital get checked out.  The doctors find nothing wrong with Sam, but prescribe him sleeping pills which is something every six-year-old needs.  Relieved that her son is ok, and that she is finally going to get some sleep, things are looking up for Amelia.  Her peace doesn’t last long.  She awakes to find the Mister Babadook book not only intact but with new illustrations, specifically pictures of Amelia killing Sam.  She does what any sane person would do and destroys the book again along with reporting the incident to the police thinking she may have a stalker.  The police don’t believe her based on the lack of creepy book evidence and the vague implication that she may have some incriminating evidence on her person.  Namely, chalk on her hands.  The same chalk used in the Mister Babadook book?  *dun dun dun*


Up to this point in the film I was enjoying the story, the characters, and the tension.  I was asking myself: “Is the house haunted or is the kid just out of his mind?” and “Are they being stalked?” or “Did Amelia snap and is doing all this herself?”  A perfect mix of good writing and a true psychological horror where there are a number of possible paths and each could lead to an exciting and fulfilling climax.
And then it took a nosedive.
The latter half of the movie that attempts to answer these questions felt as if  a completely different writer and director had suddenly taken over a completely different movie.  What starts off as a creative and well thought out plot, turns into a heaping pile of horror movie garbage.  It sort of feels like the scene in Independence Day  where the White House gets blown up and you’re all excited about the awesome explosion but then remember that the White House being blown up is actually a bad thing.  Then Jeff Goldblum suggests that the highly advanced alien species can be brought down by a lowly human-engineered computer virus.  Balderdash! 
The Babadook is the horror movie equivalent of Independence Day: a great idea ruined by a seemingly rushed train wreck of an ending. 

**For those of you reading from 'Murica, enjoy your Independence Day weekend!**