Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm apparently a  little late on this; it's already garnered some pretty amazing reviews.   I saw this with two friends in his home theater last night, and I honestly had trouble sleeping afterwards.   It was creepy, in the best possible way, although the friend who didn't enjoy this movie articulated why quite well: it was slow, and the ending was ridiculous.   

To which I respond, yes, it was slow.   We saw Digging Up the Marrow the week before, an Adam Green rockumentary starring Ray Wise, and she had the same complaint whereas I thought it was clever and had some parts that made me jump.   She does enjoy slower-moving films, but when it comes to horror I think we simply have different types of films we enjoy.   She goes for as much cheese as possible, whereas I will walk out on this films, and have on more than one occasion.   

I really like these slow burn type of horror movies; they not only take the time to ratchet up the tension quite nicely, but they focus on more than just scaring you.   The storyline in Digging up the Marrow played upon quite a few themes - what's real and what's not, unreliable narrators and how one deals with the loss of a child - and so does Babadook.   The loss of Amelia's husband has a huge impact on her and her child, and while the story tip-toes along that, there are some confrontations about this between Amelia and her child, Amelia and her sister, and Amelia and her neighbor and it comes to a head at the end of the movie.  (Please not that Amelia and her neighbor have a very good relationship; Amelia worries about Mrs. Roach her elderly neighbor with Parkinson, but when Samuel calls begging to stay at Mrs. Roach's house, she comes over to check on them.)  But there is more tension and fear: due to their loss Amelia and Samuel both fret about each other, Samuel crying out that he doesn't want Amelia to die when the book Mister Babadook is read to him one night while she worries about his mental state, for the most part, as well as how he acts out.

It also has more in common with Digging Up the Marrow than the loss of a loved one.   Samuel and Amelia are both unreliable narrators at one point, Samuel a troubled child who throws fits and Amelia so unhinged that it seems as if she's hallucinating everything at some points.   (The scene where she goes to the police is chilling.)

But the first part of the film sets everything up: Amelia's relationships with those around her, Samuel's relationships with those around him, and it isn't until ten minutes that the Babadook makes an appearance in a book.   Even after that, a great deal of the movie is spent on, well, what is, or appears to be, rationally explained things.   Samuel's tantrums increase.   Because of the Babadook or because he wants some kind of relationship with - or to? - his dead father, one denied to him as Amelia locks away everything about her lost husband and refuses to talk about him?    It's unclear for a lot of the movie, which only makes this disturbing.   In fact, it's almost in the same vein of Black Swan, a hallucinogenic, claustrophobic horror that seems crouched in the psyche of a somewhat dysfunctional and very broken family rather than in anything supernatural in nature.   

What doesn't work is the ending.   Which is a shame.   It's enjoyable and thrilling right up until the scene where Amelia confronts the ghosts in this story, those of her dead husband, and those haunting her only more recently.   It's, well, lame.   Lame is the word all three of us decided upon last night.   It's too easy and wrapped up too neatly.   That is, until the last scene, which leaves no clue as to how to interpret the actions Amelia takes at the end.   Is she trying to reconnect with the past?   Is she trying to safeguard her house and family by setting on an unsettling comprise?   

It's not clear, and it's not clear in a way that frustrated all of us watching.   Maybe because the whole movie felt so unhinged and this felt so compact and settled; maybe it just jarred the audience out of their hyper sense of terror at that point?   While I can't point my finger right on what went wrong at very last scene, I didn't like it.   It detracted slightly from the enjoyment, enough to knock down half a star but not more.   I also don't usually write long reviews like this, but Babadook, despite its wrong turns at the end, was compelling, thoughtful, and pretty much gave me all the feels.   (Mostly the terrified ones, though.)

If you haven't seen it, it's on Netflix, I'm indulging again today to try to overanalyze that last scene, and despite it's - in my opinion - minor faults, it's very much worth a look-see.   Just, y'know, don't bring that fucking book in your house :P