Film

The Babadook

Name: The Babadook
Genre: Drama, Horror
Released: 2014
Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall, Barbara West

A widow and her son are already fraying at the edges of grief when a sinister pop-up book insists a creature called the Babadook is coming for them. It's less a monster movie than a portrait of exhaustion and denial curdling into something monstrous, shot in shadowy, claustrophobic domestic space. For horror fans who want dread with real emotional weight underneath it — patient, upsetting, and quietly devastating rather than jump-scare fast.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow-burn psychological horror where the dread comes from grief and a frayed household, and you don't mind the scares being a metaphor you have to chew on.

Skip it if you want brisk pacing and frequent jolts, since this lingers in exhaustion and unease and rations its shocks carefully.

What it asks of you: It runs a little under an hour and a half and invites you to sit with a mother's exhaustion, letting the dread build slowly rather than arriving in bursts.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Hereditary2018

Grief as an inheritance you can't refuse, filtered through a family unraveling in real time. Same slow-building dread, same sense that the horror is emotional before it's supernatural.

But It's punishing and bleak, with a tonal swerve partway through that some viewers find alienating rather than terrifying.

Relic2020

An Australian chiller about three generations of women and a house that seems to be forgetting itself along with its owner. Dementia as haunted-house metaphor, aching rather than shocking.

But Very slow, very quiet, and more interested in sorrow than scares — patience required.

Under the Shadow2016

A mother and daughter trapped in Tehran during bombing raids while something else stalks their apartment. The domestic-monster template done with real political teeth.

But Farsi-language and unhurried; if you want fast frights this will feel more like a siege drama.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Babadook

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dick Johnson Is Dead2020

Both are about using invented imagery — a monster, a staged death — to make an unbearable grief small enough to survive. One does it through fear, the other through something closer to love.

A documentary filmmaker stages her father's death over and over — falls, accidents, a mocked-up heaven — as a way of rehearsing for real loss. Funny, tender, and strange.

But It's a documentary, not horror, and its warmth is the opposite of the Babadook's dread — some will find the tonal gap too wide.

The Orphanage2007

A Spanish ghost story steeped in maternal loss, gorgeously shot and genuinely eerie without leaning on gore. Del Toro produced it and it shows.

But Subtitled and melancholic — the scares are atmospheric, not visceral.

Goodnight Mommy2015

An Austrian film about twin boys convinced their bandaged mother isn't really their mother. Unsettling, clinical, and builds a similar sense that the home has turned hostile.

But Cold and clammy by design — some find it more distressing than scary, with a twist that divides audiences.

A Tale of Two Sisters2003

Korean horror at its most operatic: grief, family secrets, and a house that seems to remember trauma better than the people in it.

But Structurally tricky and best watched without spoilers — a second viewing rewards more than the first confuses.

The Others2001

Nicole Kidman as a mother guarding her photosensitive children in a fog-bound house full of wrong noises. Old-fashioned gothic dread, elegantly constructed.

But Gentle by modern horror standards and its big reveal is now fairly well known.

The Witch2016

A Puritan family isolated on the edge of the woods comes apart from within, paranoia and faith curdling into something monstrous. Same slow dread, different century.

But Archaic dialogue and a glacial pace test some viewers' patience before the payoff.

We Need to Talk About Kevin2011

Not horror exactly, but Tilda Swinton's portrait of a mother dreading her own child carries the same queasy, guilty dread about maternal ambivalence.

But No supernatural release valve here — it's a drama, and a genuinely harrowing one, with no monster to blame.

Repulsion1965

Same architecture: a mind fraying inside a domestic space until the apartment itself seems to turn hostile. The Babadook modernises this exact idea — isolation made literal — but Polanski got there first, minus the monster costume.

Polanski's black-and-white study of a young woman's mind collapsing inside her own flat, decades before 'trauma horror' had a name. Suffocating, claustrophobic, genuinely disturbing.

But Slow, dialogue-light, and shot in a style that will feel dated to viewers used to modern pacing.

Paperhouse1988

Both hinge on a child's private grief conjuring something that crosses from imagination into reality. Paperhouse plays the same premise as wistful fantasy instead of horror, showing how thin that line really is.

A lonely, feverish English girl draws a house — and a boy — that start bleeding into her waking life. A gentler, fantastical cousin to the Babadook's imagination-made-flesh idea.

But It's a children's fantasy at heart, dreamlike rather than frightening — don't expect anything like real horror.