This is really the first horror movie I’ve seen in a while that I’ve genuinely enjoyed (save for “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”, which shares similarities in that both are pretty dissimilar from the tropes they pull from in significant and new ways). I don’t mind being scared or creeped out by stuff like “Grave Encounters”, but I like--as anyone probably knows--cool genre divergence and interesting metaphors, and this has both.

A lot of people report being disappointed that the “Babadook” wasn’t a real monster. Seriously? Go watch any other monster movie, people. Not that the whole “the real monster is humanity” trope is groundbreaking or anything, but “the real monster is untreated or ignored or unaddressable trauma” is significantly more relevant today and truer to the reality of people with traumatic pasts. Especially with the reveal that the Babadook doesn’t really leave, but is merely contained and can be interacted with properly; it’s great symbolism for healthy ways of dealing with mental illness and trauma in the world outside of cinema, too. Any media that can pull that off without adding a bunch of stigma is a-OK in my book.