- Director
- Jennifer Kent
- Year
- 2014
- Runtime
- 94 min
Also released as
- Mister Babadook
- Le Babadook
- הבאבאדוק
- Babadook
Filed under
The Babadook
The Babadook is a 2014 Australian and Canadian psychological horror film directed by Jennifer Kent.
A film about a widowed mother who resents her son, wearing a monster as a coat.
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Jennifer Kent's first feature, made in Australia for very little, and the monster is the least interesting thing in it.
Amelia is a widow whose husband died driving her to the hospital to give birth, which means her son's birthday is also the anniversary. Samuel is exhausting: loud, needy, obsessed with weapons, and the film is honest enough to let him be hard to like. What the Babadook actually is is the thing Amelia is not allowed to say out loud.
Essie Davis is extraordinary and was ignored by every awards body. The ending refuses the exorcism the genre usually promises and settles for management instead, which is the truest thing in it.
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Australia
Canada
Germany
Finland
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Written about
- The meaning of elevated horror as a label
The meaning of elevated horror, where the label came from, what it predicts about a film’s pace and release, and why the genre keeps resisting it.
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