The hype machine has gone into overdrive for Jessica Kent’s domestic monster horror, The Babadook. After its premiere earlier this year at Sundance, early buzz surrounding the movie suggests it could be this year’s sleeper horror hit. With additional screenings added at the recent Fantastic Fest in Austin, word-of-mouth means we could be in for some mighty frights when it’s released at the end of November.
Harkening back to a carefully-crafted type of horror that emanates from the imagination of a young boy, The Babadook sure sounds creepy. The film follows a recently-widowed woman and her young son, whose nightmares of a garish monster could turn out to be the subject of a children’s book – which might actually be real. There’s nothing more certain to amp up the scares than a hideous creation brought to life right inside your own home. The new trailer that you can check out below ought to rustle up your primal fears and have you whimpering away.
Our own Matt Donato’s review of the flick called it out on its weaknesses, indicating the film concludes by leaving “so much potential buried in a basement of regret,” and that it failed to deliver “on promises of pint-sized heroism and a haunting villain primed for a deadly game of cat-and-mouse.” Will audiences agree?
The Babadook creeps into theatres and into your homes on November 28th. Check out the trailer above and let us know what you think.
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. Samuel’s dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both.
When a disturbing storybook called ‘The Babadook’ turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he’s been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son’s behaviour, is forced to medicate him.
But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.
