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The Babadook

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 1:45 am
by jonbly
9/10 - really creepy once it got going. The house was a bit too mindlessly monochromatic inside. Some of the text in the book - particularly the secong time round - was flashed by way too quickly... for my seat near the front, anyway. But most everything else was bang on.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 9:53 am
by benj
Yes, really creepy premise with lots of potential to shit you up but never really delivered on that I felt. Even the lead actress was saying it might not scare as we expect, which is never a good thing. I got the feeling the director/ writer was going for a more cerebral and maternal story about mental illness told through a horror set-up than simply trying to shock us. I blame the trailer- classic case of misselling the product as something else entirely.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 11:18 am
by Lost Highway
I thought this was a little disappointing after all the great write-ups this has been getting and admittedly I can't quite put my finger of why I didn't love this when a lot about the film was very good. I suppose the fact that I too didn't find this scary at all didn't help and it does get a little repetitive as it went on. The performances by the two leads were excellent, the boy in particular was fantastic, the subject matter of a single mother cracking under the pressure of raising a difficult child is intriguing and some of the physical effects were lovely, but like almost every film I saw on Saturday the premise would have fitted a short film better and was stretched beyond breaking point. Not bad, but not as good as I was hoping.

The film wasn't enhanced by the couple who arrived late, sat down next to me and rustled around in huge crisp packets throughout most of a film with lots of very quiet scenes. :(

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 8:41 am
by morralex
Lived up to the hype. Amazing film!

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:23 am
by The Soapmaker
The Babadook itself was an interesting creation (I loved the book and the silent-movie clips on theTV) but it was basically just a MacGuffin.

Of course the story was really about the mother and son, disturbed in their different ways; I found the kid's performance occasionally quite good but mostly irritating. As for the mother, fine acting performance but I struggled to find any sympathy for the character, she was just a hugely annoying loon as far as I'm concerned.

So overall, somewhat disappointing.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 4:48 pm
by DavieT
Yesssss ... very monochrome .... not very scary and the kid I'm afraid just irritated the hell out of me. Dissappointing as I was looking forward to this.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:27 pm
by black_rainstorm
Yeah it was a letdown, I expected a lot more from this. I wanted bigger moments and a better ending, but I get where it was going.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 10:33 pm
by jerichodark
Loved this film, my favourite of the festival.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:31 am
by ChrisReynolds
This arrived at Frightfest as the most hyped-up film and in the event it was good, but a bit of a disappointment. First of all the acting is superb: the whole film rests on the shoulders of Essie Davis and seven-year-old Noah Wiseman, they're both never less than riveting and Wiseman gives a completely convincing performance. Maybe too convincing, because he's so bratty that for a while I was really hoping that the monster would eat him. The script is also good and the Jennifer Kent's direction overall is very well handled; this is an extremely confident piece of work.
It's not without a lot of flaws though: it never becomes truly terrifying and it feels like there was a huge amount of potential scariness that was never really exploited. The monster made too obvious a metaphor towards the end and the look of the film is a bit dull: it's all low saturation and high contrast with little variation throughout.
Also, why did nobody take away and destroy the kid's catapult and crossbow? And did he build them himself? That's some pretty impressive work for a seven-year-old.
6/10

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 11:24 pm
by Alex J
Ultimately didn't quite live up to the hype, but an effective chiller nevertheless, making my hairs on the back of my neck stand up a few times. However, I did lose sympathy for both of the main characters, but maybe I'm just not a very forgiving person?! 8 / 10

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 11:30 pm
by soberdave72@hotmail.com
Big Disappointment. It was strongly acted, but the trailer made it look like it was going to be a Paperhouse/Pan's Labyrinth style horror about Childhood fears/Fairytales. Instead it was a rather heavy meditation on Bereavement/Grief. Very well acted, but not my cup of tea.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:34 am
by DJBenz
No one can deny it was a very well made movie, but it seems it either taps into your childhood fears and you absolutely love it and find it terrifying or it doesn't and you find it a bit of a disappointment. Sadly I'm in the latter category, so much pre-hype and a trailer that made it look like it was going to be a real creepy one left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction. A fantastic achievement given the budget, but ultimately a let down in the scare stakes. 6/10

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 9:54 am
by HairyMart
I was a bit disappointed by this, but had seen the orginal short it was based on and like last years' Mama it was based on what I thought was impressively put gether short film. Jennifer Kent made the film Monster back in 2005, and that is a simpler direct creepy monster in house affair, while this twists into more psychological drama, which was a worthy concept to go with when expanding the story, but it still kept the better moments from the original short, so the overall effect was somewhat diminished.

However I am going to be trying to persuade a few non-horror types I know to go and see this, to get there thoughts on if it is more to do with the mother battling her own mental traumas.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:34 am
by TheDukeAbides
Disappointed.

Very well acted by the two leads - though there were many points where I just wanted to punch the kid.

The book was the most effective tool in the whole film but in the end it kind of reminded me of the trajectory of the film The Eye
Spoiler:
in so much that once you realise the entity isn't evil, or in this case is just a facet of the mothers psychosis
then the chilling atmosphere is lost.

Plus as much as I like swearing, I feel it detracts from any mood built who when a character is making hysterical, empty threats to an unseen and unfathomable adversary.

Good bits of humour - but the trailer was more effective than the sum of the movie.

Re: The Babadook

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 11:18 am
by sherbetbizarre
If you have a spare $80, you can own a copy of the book -

http://thebabadook.com/