A few weeks ago, I said that IT FOLLOWS was possibly the best horror film since CANDYMAN. I had not yet seen THE BABADOOK.
My first impressions of a film are never my final impressions. Great cinema is worth revisiting--in fact, it demands it--but, for now: damn.
I love horror movies. If you know me, you know that. But: horror movies rarely unsettle me. They rarely get under my skin and make me feel some measure of contempt toward the film makers for, you know, horrifying me.
THE BABADOOK got to me.
It's hard to say how it will change over repeat viewings, but if I had to level one criticism (and I'm not sure it's a hefty criticism), it's that it doesn't rise to the level of, say, THE EXORCIST or THE SHINING simply because it is obviously aware of those films (and a few others--kudos to writer/director Jennifer Kent for evoking early Raimi with class).
But it actually might stand beside those films, and, in some regards, it may succeed in places those films don't.
I think I really love this movie.