IT'S ALIVEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Welp, we're back.

Did you miss me? 

Here we are, 2015, and I've taken a year off the binge. Trust me, I'm as depressed about it as you are. Last year was... well, last year is hard to describe. I got married in May, I lost a job in August, I got a new job in September that I was miserable in, etc etc. In other words, a roller coaster. I spent some of the year blissfully happy with my new wife, going on adventures to tropical islands and soaking up life finally as just the two of us after five years together. Then, right around Augustish, I launched into easily the darkest point in my life. Losing my job made it bad, being unemployed made it worse, and working in a job that drained every piece of me made it horrendous. All of that around Halloween time. So, with all that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the last thing I wanted to do while being in a depression hole was watch movies of people being murdered, maimed, beheaded, tortured, terrorized, or otherwise smacked around by various ghouls, goblins, serial killers, cultists, monsters, ghosts, aliens, or Bill Murray.  All I wanted at the time was to watch Disney movies or some shit and try to be happy and slap a smile on that ol' face.

Really, though, enough of last year. I'm a happy camper now skipping through life (new job and view on life, woo!) and ready to make up for last year with a plethora of horror movies this year. I'm actually pretty pumped about it I must say, to the point where I'm gonna start this year's binge off early. 

I've decided to kick this shindig off with a movie before October just to get things going. Don't expect anything else until October proper, but I wanted to do some September foreplay. Ew.

This fine evening I watched The Babadook, a little horror flick about a dick head kid who sees monsters and his masturbating, inept mother who really needs to take care of that hair situation. 

Shown here searching for said mother's vibrator. 

They find a book that has mysteriously appeared on the shelf called "The Babadook" which immediately grabs the attention of the monster-loving boy. As the movie continues the Babadook of course turns out to be real and begins unravelling the last already frayed remnants of Mom's sanity. 

The director Jennifer Kent proves to be a better creator of mood than a writer/director, as a majority of the movie actually had me pretty creeped out. However, when the movie morphs into a weird Home Alone/Exorcist/Poltergeist/Amityville Horror/Nosferatu horror hybrid it proves that Kent doesn't really know what she's doing and is instead making a bizarre melting pot of other movies she kinda enjoys. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Macauley Culkin as much as anyone but... c'mon. All these influences-bordering-on-lazy-ripoffs coupled with the super weird and even lazier use of the Dragonzord sound from Power Rangers as the scary Babadook scream really weakens the good scares the movie has.

  

I wish I was kidding but I'm not. This is quite literally the sound the Babadook makes. It was driving me nuts too, trying to figure out what it was. Thank you internet!

All that said, The Babadook isn't terrible, and really Kent might of had something here if she had pumped the brakes with the whole kitchen sink thing and not added in such a lame, lackluster ending (really, though, the ending blows). I enjoyed the mood and the psychological, pained aspect behind the movie and wish Kent would have just delved deeper in that. This is one of those cases where the monster is better being left hidden. The mind is more powerful than the eyes.

7/10, -1 for that beyond stupid Dragonzord noise, 6/10

See ya in October; it's good to be back.