If you don't want to read it all:
Score: 7/10
Verdict: It's got a great story, but is not scary at all
Again, I am aware of the fact: it's really hard to make a good horror movie in the 21st century. It's almost impossible to scare the people nowadays, almost as hard as making them laugh so I really appreciate all who dare to try. So I do my best to watch as many horrors as I can, as a token of appreciation for... trying. I've heard of The Babadook from a trailer I saw on TV, which is a bit weird because I don't remember the last time I saw a horror movie trailer on TV. And I don't really watch nor like trailers in general since they never show the real thing. Then I found out it was funded by a Kickstarter campaign, so I really had to see this one.
So... The Babadook. Mister Babadook. The story is actually really good (if you can connect all the dots and realize what it is really about, which I am not going to say here) and it's a shame the movie itself fails to show its full potential. Even the acting is great, the characters are well portrayed and you can understand them pretty well almost right from the start. It's a story of a single mother and her 6 year old son who has big problems socializing with the world in general. He is obsessed with monsters and sees them everywhere, having a hard time fitting into school and making friends. Because of his constant fear, he is often awake at night and wakes up early in the morning, giving his mother a really hard time because she is constantly tired and lacking sleep. One day he brings a "children's" book called Mister Babadook for her to read for him and the book turns out to be... well, anything but children's. Soon, all he could talk about was Mr. Babadook which makes her try to destroy the book. Try.
Again, the story is REALLY good, but the movie's obvious lack of funds and a definite lack of imagination when it comes to scaring people (after all, this IS a horror movie and as such it MUST have scary scenes) makes it so much less enjoyable than it should be. Another problem with it is a somewhat slow start - it takes almost an hour for anything even remotely scary to happen. But if you don't mind the mild horror elements in it and if you like a good story that makes you think - you will like The Babadook. It seems as if the makers of this motion picture could not decide whether to make it a thriller or a horror, so they ended up somewhere in the middle. And that's the worst thing they could do.
As you can see, I am not even decided if I like The Babadook or not. And it seems like I am repeating myself. Well, watch it yourself and decide for yourself :)
If you don't want to read it all:
Score: 7/10
Verdict: It really is hard to make a good and memorable horror movie and this one is quite satisfying.
Listen to the dog. Always listen to the dog! Seriously, if you have a dog and it gets hostile towards anything in the world - just listen to the wise animal and stay away from it! They obviously have a superpower to sense evil while humans have their own power... to ignore it and put themselves into grave danger. So just... listen to the dog.
Horror movies are something special. Most of the people actually don't like them in general because they don't like to be scared (I may be wrong though and this might be correct for the country I live in; when I was in United States I found out that scaring little children and horror in general is absolutely normal and even welcome), but those that do are usually BIG fans. I personally like horrors because they are almost always tied to some myths and fantasy and that is something I like by default. In the same time, making a good horror movie is the most futile thing in the movie industry. 50 or 80 years ago it was a piece of cake and people would be scared of just about anything that was not an every day thing, but last 20+ years have been a huge problem. I've seen a total of 4 horrors in last 2 years and this one feels the best, even though it's the worst rated one.
The story follows 21 year old Tim who has just been released from a mental institution. 11 years ago, he and his sister Kaylie survived a bloodshed in their house, a horror that claimed both their parents. They believe it was caused by a demonic entity "living" in an antique mirror that hung on the wall of their father's home office. Anyway, as soon as he leaves the institution, he meets his sister and she asks him to help her prove that it was indeed the mirror that caused all that. She got a hold of the mirror and moved it back to the house (she owns the house now), set up the cameras and is eager to document everything it does. The mirror, of course, has something else on it's "mind".
Even though it starts a bit slow, Oculus is very satisfying psychological thriller. Wait, it's not a horror? Well, some might call it a horror indeed, but I didn't really get scared while watching it. It shifts back and forth between the events that occurred 11 years ago (showing us what really happened back then) and now, with the mirror playing mind tricks on Tim and Kaylie. Oculus does not play the BOO card (accompanied with sudden sound effects) which is a good thing, I really got bored of those. Instead, it frightens you with the mere presence of evil and what it might do next. That is a nice change from today's standards, at least that's how it felt for me.
I mentioned I watched 4 horrors in the past 2 years. The remaining three are Drag Me to Hell (which I found stupid), The Conjuring (it was just so damn loud and overhyped, I didn't really like it. Or maybe I just expected too much) and The Devil (I liked this one!).
Well that's it, enjoy the movie!
