Jennifer Kent's seminal psychological horror The Babadook is returning to the big screen this September for its 10th anniversary this September via IFC Films, in partnership with Iconic Events Releasing.
Select screenings, which start from September 19, will also feature an exclusive filmed Q&A with writer/director Kent and certain showings will have an in-person discussion with her exploring the influence that The Babadook has had on the horror landscape over the last decade.
Starring Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman, The Babadook premiered in January 2014 at Sundance Film Festival, before releasing worldwide later that year. In the film:
Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia (Davis) is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her ‘out of control’ 6 year-old, Samuel (Wiseman), a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel’s dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called ‘The Babadook’ turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he’s been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son’s behaviour, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.
The Babadook has been considered by many to be at the forefront of a new wave of arthouse horror that prioritized metaphors and themes surrounding grief, trauma and motherhood over excessive gore and jumpscares.
The film as also been celebrated as one of the best Australian horrors of all time, inspiring fellow Australian horror filmmakers like Talk to Me‘s Danny and Michael Philippou.
A special screening of The Babadook was held at Sundance earlier this year to commemorate both the film's anniversary and 40 years of Sundance. Fondly, Kent remembers the impact the film had on her career:
“I definitely have some distance on Babadook now, after ten years. The film feels like an old friend, one that changed my life in many ways … Sundance was such a huge part of that change. I look forward to ‘coming home' to the place where it all began, and to the festival that has given me and ‘Mister B' so much.”
Tickets for The Babadook anniversary screenings go on sale today, so don't miss Mister B if he's visiting your town.
Below is IFC Films' brand new trailer and poster for the 10th anniversary celebrations.
