The Babadook
2014 · TMDB 6.5
Directed by Jennifer Kent
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
Why it matters
Jennifer Kent's debut makes a pop-up book the vector for a mother's exhaustion and grief, with Essie Davis giving one of the great unravelling performances in modern horror.
- Runtime
- 94 min
- Released
- 2014-05-22
- Studio
- Screen Australia
- Country
- Australia
- Language
- English
- TMDB score
- 6.5
KinoChain appearances
Chains through this film
Where this title sits in a journey — and where cinema takes you next.
When a Mother's Love Turns Stranger
Position 3 of 8
Jennifer Kent's debut makes a pop-up book the vector for a mother's exhaustion and grief, with Essie Davis giving one of the great unravelling performances in modern horror.
Backers and Believers
Position 4 of 7
Jennifer Kent's Australian horror about a single mother and her son terrorised by a storybook monster, funded through a Pozible campaign that raised $30,000.
From External Beast to Internal Trauma
Position 4 of 5
By the 2010s, horror turned fully inward. The monster in Jennifer Kent's film is not an alien or an atomic leviathan, but a pop-up book figure that physically manifests a mother's suppressed grief and depression. The battleground is no longer a spaceship or a city street, but the...
The Mother Who Comes Back Wrong
Position 8 of 8
Jennifer Kent's film about a widowed mother (Essie Davis) and her son, whose lives are invaded by a pop-up book monster that seems to feed on her exhaustion and rage.
Connected films
Where this film leads
Linked through chains, directors and neighbouring cinema.
Rosemary's Baby
Previous in chain · When a Mother's Love Turns Stranger
Relic
Next in chain · When a Mother's Love Turns Stranger
Super Troopers 2
Previous in chain · Backers and Believers
The Other Side of Hope
Next in chain · Backers and Believers
Alien
Previous in chain · From External Beast to Internal Trauma
Get Out
Next in chain · From External Beast to Internal Trauma
The Orphanage
Previous in chain · The Mother Who Comes Back Wrong
Other Mommy
Also in “When a Mother's Love Turns Stranger”
Morvern Callar
Also in “When a Mother's Love Turns Stranger”
Prevenge
Also in “When a Mother's Love Turns Stranger”
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