"You don't know how many times I wished it was you, not him, that died." -Amelia

This one is in my top five horror films right now. The atmosphere is incredible; the terror palpable. This story centers on a single mother who has trouble raising her six year old boy after the death of her husband, six years earlier. One day a children's book arrives on their bookshelf, and turns their world completely upside down.

The cinematography in this is absolutely amazing. It echoes and mirrors the color palette and hard edges of a dark children's book perfectly. There's a shot of the stairs with the shadow of the railing thrown up on the wall behind it that looks like it's cut from the pages of a pop-up book. Breathtaking. The editing is really well done, and the casting was superb. We don't really see too many films come out of Australia like this one, but it needs to happen.

Essie Davis gives a performance of a lifetime. You can physically feel the amount of strain and torture her character is placed under. The only other performance I can think of to place in the same ring is Shelley Duvall's role in The Shining (1980). You feel a considerable amount of sympathy, pain, and revulsion toward her character, Amelia, many times throughout the film's runtime. In some scenes, you feel all of it at once.

The best part about The Babadook is what is implied in the shadows. Quite a few people seem to believe this is a creature feature, due to mis-marketing from the trailer, but not so. Yes there is something waiting in the corner for you. But it's worse than any monster you could ever imagine.

Sometimes, in order to banish the dark forces crawling around in our minds, we need a little help now and then. We need help to remember who we are, who we have on our side, and how to put that thing in the corner in its place.

But one thing you must never do, is ignore it.