The Babadook - Good or Bad?

[THGhost]

What do you all think of The Babadook? I personally think it was one of, if not the best horror film of 2014. It has 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, 87% on Metacritic, has won over 30 awards and is generally viewed as a great horror film. I hadn't heard of anyone saying it was bad, until last night.

A friend of mine came round and we started discussing horror films. He isn't a fan of them and struggles to find many that he actually likes. When I mentioned The Babadook, he could not believe that I liked it and thought it was one of the best 2014 horror films. He thought it was terrible. He said "nothing happened" (he says that about a lot of films actually. Doesn't really make sense, does it?), that the boy in the film was one of the ugliest and most annoying children he has ever seen (a bit harsh) and that he didn't care if he died or not. He then started checking off all the major plot moments from beginning to end, making them sound as mundane as they come, and then concluded again that "nothing happened" and that it "wasn't even scary".

Is it me, or has my friend completely missed the point of this film? It isn't supposed to be "scary", at least not in the conventional sense. It's not that kind of film. The trailers wrongly advertised it as a monster flick; that The Babadook was like Freddy Krueger or something. Instead it was a mature, challenging psychological thriller about depression and grief, that doesn't rely on any CGI, jump scares or gore. It also features a truly excellent performance from Essie Davis.

I believe that because my friend doesn't really like horror films that he fails to dig deeper beneath the surface when it comes to these types of films, and that really saddens me - not that I'll ever say this to his face of course.

So what did you all of think of the film? I'd love to hear some real criticisms from others that didn't like it, whatever they might be.

PS. Be warned. Turo602 has completely derailed this thread.