The Red Band Project

“Mommy, that’s an Alexander Wang!”

Rye’s Take

Australia”s The Babadook has proven that the domestic ghost film has officially run its course all over the planet.

There was an intriguing premise here. A children’s book mysteriously appears on a boy’s shelf and his mother reads it to him. It turns out to be a boogeyman story and for a while, there is genuine tension between the sleep deprived, hard-working single mom and the precocious, possibly sociopathic boy. (He creates a dart-shooting crossbow and a shoulder mounted catapult.) The book has possibly “called” the monster known as The Babadook and unexplainable loud banging on furniture begins.

As the film reaches it’s end though, logic and story holes increasingly take over. As a climax to the mysterious shenanigans going on in the very-gray painted house, there is a roach infestation, an unnecessary tooth-pulling scene and derivative black vomit—all were not previously mentioned as in the Babadook legend—as well as a deceased husband/father that may or may not have something to do with the hauntings. Even worse, things get unintentionally hilarious due to one character’s attempt at fighting back with homemade booby-traps against the horror, which calls to mind Home Alone.

Let’s just hope there isn’t a sequel. The Babadook Part Doo?

Lady, who does your decorating? David Lynch?!

Yoda’s Take

As a fan of the /Filmcast movie podcast, one of it’s hosts David Chen, proclaimed The Babadook as one of his favorite films of the year during the summer. From the way he was going on about it, it sounded pretty intriguing. Well, at the time I didn’t think I would ever get to see it since it sounded like an obscure foreign film that would never play anywhere near me. And then low and behold when the HIFF schedule came out . . . The Babadook was on there. Needless to say I had to check it out.

Having seen both The Conjuring and Annabelle, I was a little let down by The Babadook. /Filmcast hype aside, The Babadook carries the same premise that the aforementioned Hollywood movies do; as such, a lot of what I think makes The Babadook a decent horror movie was really old hat for me upon viewing. While atmospherically it was very chilling and a little scary at times, because I had seen the same convention in The Conjuring and Annabelle, I wasn’t as scared as I probably would have been had I not seen those other two movies.

What didn’t help my disposition on the film was that the kid in it was pretty damn annoying. I don’t know if it was the way his character was written, the nature of his behavior due to the storyline, or just the fact that he’s actually annoying in real life, but it really grinded on me. Half the time I was like, “who lets their kids act like that?”

Overall The Babadook is a decent enough horror film that I’m sure horror fans will appreciate, if just for the amount of tension and suspense that is built from situations in the film. If you’re at the festival and up for a late night scare, then The Babadook will definitely fit the bill.

The Babadook screens one final time tonight (11/7) at 9pm at Regal Dole Cinemas as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival.