An independent Australian production, the critics appear to be raving about The Babadook, but honestly I thought it was hopeless.
Single mother Amelia struggles to cope with her six year old son named Samuel who appears to have violent, antisocial behavior. When a book called "Mister Babadook" mysteriously comes into their possession, things go from bad to worse as an unseen entity haunts them. Is it all in their imagination?
I went into The Babadook with absolutely no idea what it was or what it was about. A five-star rating from Empire certainly made me invested in seeing it.
The film is a slow boil. If the audience is looking for the next Insidious or even a new Woman in Black, they will be sorely mistaken and will quickly become restless. But this isn't where the film lost me. The Babadook does well in setting up two characters who are both unhappy and deeply troubled, our actors Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman are great at invoking unease and bringing a lot of physical acting into their roles. Also the best, best part of this film is surely the "Mister Babadook" book itself, a creepy, demented children's pop-up book which is wonderfully designed. There's little wrong with the setup of this film, even if it does feel at times like an episode of Kids say the Darndest Things.
But things quickly go downhill after the first forty minutes or so. The story is only ninety minutes long but it feels like an eternity by the time the third act swings around. While Noah Wiseman's Samuel is believably weird, after so much screaming and yelling you become apathetic to him, and when things finally begin to happen the film immediately cheapens itself. Our wait through domestic troubles and the alienation from our characters' friends is rewarded with some of the most cliche horror beats and unintentionally funny and awkwardly paced scenes. I'd say it was all intentionally funny if it weren't for the volume of critics and audiences claiming it is genuinely terrifying...
The Babadook is an independent film, as I said, and I appreciate that, but they ignored a far more terrifying end to this story (an ending more likely within their budget too) and chose a more straight-forward, cliche, horror movie finale. I was never frightened or on the edge of my seat throughout this movie, and the pay-off was completely absurd and laughable after the inexorably long build up.
The best I can say about it at the end of the day is: great acting, good potential in the story and a unique creature. Just a shame it was so badly implemented.
Additional Marshmallows: I just like saying the word Babadook.
Babadook.
Babadook. Babadook.Babadook-dook-dook...
Uh oh...
So I guess I should eat my words a little bit... well done James Wan, you managed to prove you can direct some scares after all!
When writing the synopsis for horror films, it always sounds the same:
When a family move into a new house in the countryside they find themselves noticing an increasing amount of supernatural goings on. But when these ghostly happenings start to target their children, the parents decide to call in two experts to investigate...
On paper The Conjuring sounds like every single haunted house story that has ever come before it, and that's because it sort of is. Familiar ground is tread frequently here, even from director James Wan's own arsenal (the deplorable Insidious) but happily I can report that The Conjuring delivers a great dollop of spooky atmosphere and deliver tropes and cliches well enough that they prove decent amounts of scares.
Patrick Wilson is back, but this time he isn't playing the victim but the analytical partner of the investigative team, Ed Warren, and beside him Vera Farmiga as his clairvoyant wife Lorraine. Together they want to help the Perron family who, not a day or two after moving into their new home, lose their dog and find a dusty, sealed basement in their house.
The film boasts the tried and tested "Based on a true story" tagline, but of course this can be taken with a pinch of salt, it comes with all the Hollywood trappings of a classic possession story. Spooky doll? Check. Spooky girl? Check (the Pessons actually have five daughters to utilize for scares!) Spooky tree? Check. Spooky piano and music box? Check and check. If all of this is to be believed then I guess reality isn't so far from a screenwriter's dreams after all!
Wilson and Farmiga deliver decent performances, the character of Lorraine definitely stealing the show being at the centre of most of the film's quieter, tense scenes. But Lili Taylor's casting as the mother was transparent. I don't like criticising this, but when an actor/actress becomes typecast to this degree within a single genre the plot becomes predictable!
But for what it is worth, The Conjuring delivers a lot of good tension and murky atmosphere. It is hard to believe this is directed by the man who directed Insidious... they are very different in tone and substance. It might be full of tropes and maybe a little forgettable, but I am fairly certain you will be avoiding mirrors, looking over your shoulder and questioning any bump in the night for a while afterwards. And that's what is important.
Additional Marshmallows: For a film called "The Conjuring" there wasn't a whole lot of conjuring going on.
Additional additional Marshmallows: The cinema where I worked when this film released proved to me how few people could pronounce the title. CON-JEW-RAN.
Oh James Wan... no matter how hard you try you still aren't convincing any scares out of me.
Following the events of the first film, Chapter 2 follows the Lambert family as they attempt to leave the horrors behind by moving into father Josh Lambert's old home. But when they do it is apparent something is still lingering and following Josh from his previous experiences.
To say I hate 2010's Insidious would be... accurate. I found it abrasive, stupid, childish and worst of all not scary. You might wonder then why I even bothered watching the sequel? Well I am a man who looks for the best in people, and perhaps Chapter 2 might prove to be director James Wan's redemption.
It isn't really.
All of Insidious 2's saving graces are in its final act where it takes what little original ideas it has and spins some clever, elaborate trickery for the briefest of moments. As a film it also drops a lot of the "stupidity" I mentioned from the first film: instead of Darth Maul from the Star Wars films being the ghoul in question (and silly Irish-jig-ghost-boy) we get a more traditional ghost story woven together with some unnerving domestic abuse undertones. Patrick Wilson as the father plays his part well too, and is probably the only stand out performance here.
The tone and pacing feels much the same as Insidious, we still have our gormless "ghost hunter" sidekicks chewing up the scenery. If you actually liked Insidious you will enjoy this just as much!
But James Wan still treats his film like amateur-hour ghost stories. The soundtrack still drives me completely batty, telegraphing surprise scares like a great big warning sign with a narrator. "EAK EAK EAK EAK" "WooooooOOOOOOOooOooOoOOOEOOOEOEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEEE".
James... it is possible to scare people without the silly violin and piano chords.
In fact, there was one, ONE moment that actually freaked me. In this entire film, one fleeting shot was actually clever enough to surprise me, and you know what? It didn't have any music playing during.
I've never seen so many badly timed and badly implemented jump scares, at least not since the first Insidious. I kid you not, one such initial scare was basically the mother walking into a toddler's walking frame. THE HORROR. The first hour was extremely dull and so predictable that you'd have to be seeing this film with a friend to get any enjoyment out of it. A friend who has the spacial awareness and self security of a paranoid doormouse.
So no, I didn't care for Insidious Chapter 2, there are far far better scares in superior films (I couldn't help but feel this was directly ripping off one such film, The Woman in Black) and while its third act has a bit more merit and intrigue, it takes a long hour to get there.
