The Babadook 2014

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: As someone who has developed a pretty thick Critic's Shield from years of watching standard haunted house/possessed human/mythological-creature fare, I have to say I was genuinely freaked out by some of the passages in The Badabook. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Sometimes you go to a movie and know from the first image that whoever made it knows what she's doing. You don't need convincing. You're there with her. Jennifer Kent's The Babadook is like that. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: I like to imagine watching this chilling Australian horror film with late, great authors Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey - all of whom would have relished its twisted children's storybook at the center of things. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A small film that packs a horribly big punch. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Shot in chilly shades of blue, "The Babadook" will haunt anyone who's ever heard a cry in the night - or wondered what was under the bed, in the dark. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: Manages to deliver real, seat-grabbing jolts while also touching on more serious themes of loss, grief and other demons that can not be so easily vanquished. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: What really distinguishes The Babadook, however, is the metaphorical potency of its narrative. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: This is a really scary movie. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A potent journey through the fears, anxieties, and repressed rages of motherhood. Read more

Drew Hunt, Chicago Reader: The Babadook makes a convincing argument for classy, psychological horror cinema even as it fails to meet its own lofty standard. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Kent has taste, an eye and a knack for brisk, accelerated pacing. In the case of "The Babadook," familiarity breeds an eerily gratifying contentment. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Credit writer-director Jennifer Kent for lending her Australian indie a healthy dose of brains and subtlety, giving it a distinct advantage over most modern horror films. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Director Kent has made the kind of striking film that is going to have mainstream Hollywood haunting her like a Babadook in a bad mood. For the sake of her idiosyncratic vision, let's hope she doesn't frighten easily. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: In an age when horror movies have mostly become lazy and toothless, here's one with ambition and bite. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: An impressively chilling exercise in old-school restraint. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: This is a different kind of nail-biter that has less to do with demonic possession than with the renegade power of an untamed imagination. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: "The Babadook" is a smart, darkly drawn modern-day horror movie of monsters, memories and mothers. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: This is a dark and shivery story about motherhood, a common subject for horror movies, but one that's rarely treated with such intelligence or seriousness of intent. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Jennifer Kent's startling debut is an artful horror-chiller that gets under your skin and into your psyche. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Let a law be passed, requiring all horror films to be made by female directors. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Although the supernatural seems the likeliest answer, it's not the only one, and audiences can read the film either way. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The Babadook makes the most of its special effects as needed, but this smart little frightener keeps its head close to the rising anxiety of a young widow whose husband died a violent death. Read more

Jordan Hoffman, New York Daily News: One of the smartest and most effective horror films in years. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: You will be scared. And also, perhaps even more scarily, moved. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: No matter how successful The Babadook turns out to be - and Jennifer Kent's horror story deserves all the success it gets - the prospects of a best-selling kid-lit tie-in don't look good. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: This psychological thriller from gifted first-time filmmaker Jennifer Kent will have you climbing the walls simply by plumbing the violence of the mind. Brace yourself. Read more

Thomas Lee, San Francisco Chronicle: At its heart, "The Babadook" is a story of mother and son, whose relationship ultimately determines whether they survive the demon - or die trying. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The Babadook makes everyday domestic life seem like the most natural possible place to encounter monsters of every description, including the monsters that we ourselves have the capacity to become. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Babadook" is urgent, uncanny and entirely disturbing, a dream within a dream within a nightmare. It is the best English language supernatural film of this new century. Read more

Lenika Cruz, The Atlantic: The film has a solid grasp on the mutable, but ever-present pain of loss. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: The line between terrifying reality and terrifying fantasy isn't so much blurred as altogether obliterated. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: This simple yet shiver-inducing tale, the auspicious feature debut of Australian writer/director Jennifer Kent, makes for one of the better horror movies of recent times. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: "An exceptionally rich psychological portrait of a woman, it's an enormously compassionate and sadly relevant film about misplaced blame and the often impossible demands of motherhood." Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Who thinks up a film like The Babadook? Actress-turned-debuting-feature-director Jennifer Kent has the narrative chutzpah to show her entire hand in the pop-up story and then make us squirm as foretold events come true. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: It presents grief as a demon, questions reality, and creeps out the viewer by making psychopathology seem like something that could happen to anybody. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: It's the most horror I've felt at a horror film since Neil Marshall's The Descent, one where the scares don't release the tension - they harrow. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In the running with Boyhood as my favorite movie of 2014 is another work that turns on the challenges of parenting. This one is a tad more insane. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: With its mixture of frights both literal and literary, "The Babadook" will, I suspect, satisfy horror's devotees as much as the genre's doubters. Read more