While searching through the sea of the same movies I’ve scrolled past thousands of times, “The Babadook” stood out amongst the rest of the films. As someone who frequently watches horror movies, I was mildly surprised to see that this film wasn’t exactly like all of the other horror/thriller movies I’ve seen before. That doesn’t mean that this movie is completely perfect. There’s plenty of problems with the acting and the build up to the few scares that are  in the movie. Despite these problems, there are a few redeeming qualities.

“The Babadook”, like most horror movies, relies only on the scares. Not  all of the actors and actresses to perform well. The scares need to be built up in order for anyone in the audience to give a reaction. When the main character is unable to give his lines in any believable way, the whole scene loses the attention of the viewer. Granted, the main actor is a child, but when casting the director should keep that in mind. The child really has to bring it in order for the audience to care about his character. The audience is left talking more about how poor the acting was instead of how much their heart raced after the scare. The main actress on the other hand, pretty much carried the movie. Essie Davis, who plays Amelia, takes the subpar script and makes her lines her own.

The director Jennifer Kent really knows how to set the scene. Kent’s intention when creating the movie was to make something “visually beautiful and terrifying”. She definitely succeeded in doing so. As the viewer, you can tell that everything was placed on the set was put there for a reason. The sets had a lot of detail and thought put into them, but not so much detail that it becomes visually overwhelming.

Overall, “The Babadook” wasn’t the worst movie out there. Out of all of the B-horror and other cliche movies on Netflix, it’s definitely worth your time. With the mediocre acting and pretty good set design my rating would be 3.5 spooks out of 5.