Released in 2014, Jennifer Kent’s Australian psychological horror film The Babadook became an instant genre classic, the thinking person’s horror film. Kent’s unnerving story is as much a coruscating exploration of grief and denial as it is a story about nameless, creeping dread and something nasty lurking in the shadows. Yet for all the plaudits heaped upon it and all the awards it has quite rightly won, The Babadook never really broke out and became a Box Office phenomenon, and whilst it easily recovered its tiny budget and delivered a healthy profit, it remains in many ways the cultiest of cult horror movies, a film appreciated more by aficionados than the traditional ‘date night’ horror audience looking for simpler, slashier fare.
The Babadook has already been released on physical media but this gorgeous and impressive new 4K special edition from Second Sight finally gives this extraordinary film the attention to detail it and its admirers have always deserved, if not demanded. This is a package that is nothing is not utterly comprehensive. Housed in a sturdy, rigid slipcase this breath-taking new edition features both a new 4K master of the film produced by the original post-production facility and presented in HDR10 alongside a standard Blu-ray disc. A 150-page hardback book contains essays from horror scholars, archive interview material, production stills, and original artwork concepts, and also included in the set is a selection of collectors’ art cards. The film looks absolutely stunning in 4K, of course, the format really accentuating its muted colour palette and its use of deep, dark shadows, but the real meat of this new release includes not only all the features ported over from the original Blu-ray but a wealth of new interview material. British film-maker Phillip Escott has spoken to all the film’s major players both in front of and behind the camera including actors Essie Davis (Amelia) and Hayley McElhinney (Amelia’s sister Claire), producers Kristina Ceyton, and Kristian Moliere, production designer Alex Holmes, film editor Simon Njoo, music arranger Jed Kurzel and Alex Juhasz, designer and creator of the diabolical Babadook book itself. These substantial interviews confirm not only what a Hellish experience it can be mounting a film at all but also how difficult it was to get The Babadook off the ground in an Australian cultural climate largely indifferent to horror movies. Many of the contributors are commendably candid not only about the problems inherent in making such an ambitious film on a low budget (some crowd-funding was involved to even get the piece finished), but also about how the film received terrible responses from test audiences and only started to find its audience when it was accepted for inclusion at the Sundance Festival and began to be appreciated by critics and genre fans in both the USA and the UK.
Few would argue that The Babadook is a modern-day masterpiece, a film that lives on and haunts the mind and the memory like its titular boogie man. It’s a film that is never destined to cross into the mainstream because it was clearly not intended for that audience but this superb and exhaustive new set finally gives it the in-depth attention it deserves and its admirers will find that literally no stone has been left unturned in its appreciation of this important and powerful movie.
THE BABADOOK – LIMITED EDITION 4K SET is released on July 26th and is available for pre-order through Second Sight
