I have spent nearly six months with the video file of The Babadook on my computer, and yet I have not watched it. I wanted to watch it, but after doing a Google search and being terrified for weeks upon weeks by the images it produced, I could not bear to watch the movie.
But last weekend, I finally did it. I was actually settling in to watch a different movie, but then I was like “you know what, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna watch The Babadook.”
Turns out, it wasn’t nearly as scary as I thought, and I would up absolutely loving it.
In fact, I liked it so much that I’ve been strongly considering watching it again. Maybe a third time. Maybe it’ll become my favourite movie.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The Babadook is still pretty terrifying. Just not in the way that I’d imagined. It’s more of a self-reflective, thoughtful kind of horror. Which may not make a lot of sense if you haven’t seen the film. I can’t even relate it to anything because it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I got the same feeling of dread from it as I did from It Follows, but really the only other thing the two films have in common is that they’re great.
I really don’t want to say much else about it, because it’s definitely worth watching. Just thinking about it makes me wish I could be watching it again right now. Maybe I will…
