The Babadook - B

Unrated, 93 minutes
Wes's Grade: B

Low-budget horror film "The Babadook" creepily affecting

You can't get rid of the Babadook. That's the premise of the creepy, original new low-budget Australian horror film "The Babadook," about a supernatural creature that torments whoever is made aware of its presence. Relying more on story and character than blood, it's filled with some genuinely scary and also touching moments. Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia (Essie Davis) is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her 'out of control' 6 year-old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman), a son she finds impossible to love. Thanks to a pop-up story book, Samuel's dreams are plagued by a monster named Mr. Babadook he believes is coming to kill them both. Directed and written by Jennifer Ken and based her 2005 short film "MONSTER," the intense, low-budget "The Babadook" is a minimalist but creepy horror film that derives most of its thrills from what is unseen, and not on blood and gore, which is a refreshingly unconventional in a genre that feels that the more the blood, the better. The heart of the film is the disruption the creature provides to the unsual and often unstable mother-son relationship touchingly and believably portrayed by Australian character actress Davis and especially newcomer Wiseman, who is quite good here. The memorable relationship recalls another classic (but completely different) horror film, "The Sixth Sense," back when M. Night Shyamalan actually made good movies. The low-grade special effects (a budgetary constraint, for sure), in which you see very little of the creature, is the biggest reason that it works so well and provides so many scares (particularly in the way in which it torments and possesses it inhabitants). "Babadook," with a fantastic climax that will leave you breathless, makes it one of 2014's most memorable horror films. Worth a look.