The Babadook (18)

Directed by Jennifer Kent

5/5

EVER wonder what Tony Blair must have looked like as a child before the evil entity hidden inside took over?

Then the search is over with Noah Wiseman (pictured) playing Samuel, a six-year-old with issues since the day of his birth, in the Babadook.

In fact, it should come with a mental health warning, since this is no ordinary horror film, calling as it does on terrors triggered by post-traumatic stress.

That brings to mind the old adage about a feature not being fit for those with a nervous disposition or anyone afflcited with clinical depression, guilt or grief.

Director Jennifer Kent is to be congratulated for evoking the childhood fears we associate with the Brothers Grimm, Roald Dahl and creepy pop-up books.

The film tells the story of Samuel, who lives with his mother Amelia (Essie Davis). She’s a working single mother since the untimely death of her husband. Her boy, constantly playing with guns and attempts at being an illusionist, claims he’s being threatened by a monster.

Apart from causing mayhem in the house, he frightens the neighbours and the word goes out that he’s a “bad influence.”

Mum tries to cope, increasingly finding it difficult to find a school for her son, yet everything contrives to create an atmosphere of doom — from the gloomy house to officious social services — with only the occasional shaft of light as a reminder of normal life.

The trouble is Amelia keeps reading him Mister Babadook, which appears to have a life of its own and which dares the reader to turn the page. The consequences are indeed terrifying.

Unlike others who have favoured style over content, Kent constantly returns us roughly to reality.

We witness the mental metamorphoses created by unique circumstances, not least harassed mothers having to cope home alone.

There’s nothing trite in this story. It’s all too common and should be required viewing for those who have no idea of mental hell.