Warning: Spoilers ahead.

“The Babadook,” released first in January of 2014, is an Australian horror film about a mother and son who are terrorized by an evil monster that shares the name of the film. The movies stars Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman as the mother and son, respectively, who both do an amazing job telling the story of a demon representative of Amelia’s, the mother, severe anxiety and postpartum depression.

The film begins with Amelia having a nightmare inspired by the memory of the car crash that killed her husband. Samuel is there to wake her up claiming he too had had a nightmare. Annoyed, she gets up and begins to help him check his room for any monsters and reads him a book to help him fall back asleep.

The plot really kicks off, though, when a familiar horror motif appears towards the beginning of the film: the mother finds a strange object, in this case a dreadful children’s book, that brings about the Babadook once read.

As the story continues, Amelia and her son start to notice strange things happening. It all starts off when Samuel claims the Babadook is in his room at night, trying to get him. Amelia has trouble believing him at first, because Samuel has always been a troublesome child, so she ignores his preliminary attempts to persuade her that what he’s telling her is real. However, Amelia too is convinced once abnormal occurrences show up in her day to day activities. Eventually, the Babadook takes control over Amelia, causing her to become distant to her son and gives her visions of killing him. Of course, things only get worse from there with the climax of the film happening in the basement where Samuel is waiting to trap his homicidal mother and tries to convince her to not let the Babadook continue to have control over her. Through some intense will power, Amelia is able to over come and defeat the Babadook, and she and Samuel then go on to be a happy family.

Upon first viewing “The Babadook,” I was really taken back by the way the mother treats her son. Clearly, she blames Samuel for the death of her husband since they were on the way to the hospital for him to be born when the crash occurred, and he is obviously quite a handful to deal with but still.

As I watched the film for the second time, I couldn’t hep but empathize with Amelia. We all have things from our past that haunt us and can severely damage how we cope with future things, so her hate towards her soon almost seems understandable. Plus, because of the husband’s death, Amelia has to take a job working at a nursing home instead of following her true passion: writing; a consequence which helps fuel her apprehensiveness.

Anxiety is a heavy theme throughout the movie, a condition which is clearly represented through the Babadook itself. Much like in the film, anxiety takes control of your mind and makes you say and do things you normally never would. This film is definitely filled with a plethora of intense emotions and empathy, both for Amelia and Samuel.

From a cinematic perspective, the filmmakers do an excellent job of showing the anxiety grow and grow as the movie progresses. The writing sets up the themes of Amelia’s anxiety and postpartum depression beautifully. You can tell immediately that Amelia has some very strong disdain for her own son right form the beginning by how annoyed she is about having to get out of bed to help him look for monsters in his room. Near the end of the film, as Amelia is trying to kill her son, the action slows down and she says to him, “I haven’t been good since your dad died,” telling Samuel that it’s not his fault and that she’s struggling to come to turns with her mental problems. A bit later once Samuel has her trapped in the basement, he says to her, “I know you don’t love me; the Babadook won’t let you,” showing Amelia that he understands that he is not to blame, but rather the anxiety and depression restrain her from being able to connect with him.

One of my favorite cinematic tricks the filmmakers use to represent the anxiety’s progression is the subtle showings of the Babadook’s form to Amelia. Once it finds its way inside of her, the Babadook starts to reveal itself. At one point she is down in the basement, and as she turns around to go back up the stairs she is startled by what she sees on the wall. A men’s suit is hanging up on a wall-mounted coat rack with a top hat above it and shoes beneath, forming a simplistic impression of the monster. Naturally, she writes it off asa coincidence and proceeds about her day.

However, as she starts to become more worried about the Babadook’s presence, Amelia goes to the police station to report that someone is stalking her and her son. While discussing with the officer about the strange events, behind him she sees the Babadook appear. She looks frightened, of course, but when the officer turns to see what it is he only finds a normal policeman’s jacket and hat on the coat rack where someone had left them. The increase of the Babadook’s form in everyday objects is representative of Amelia’s growing anxiety and fear which is transmitted into the audience as well, making the viewers feel the same feelings of dread and doom in anticipation for what is to come.

“The Babadook” is definitely one of my favorite recent horror films to be released. I find that the themes of anxiety and depression are transmitted into the viewers in a way that illicit exactly what you’d want from a horror film: fear. Through clever cinematic techniques and writing, “The Babadook” will leave you afraid of what goes bump in the night whether it’s real or just in your head.