Horror movie fans only have a few days left to watch a ‘properly chilling’ flick, with an almost-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, before it is quietly removed from Netflix.
The Babadook became an instant classic when it was released in 2014, winning huge praise and rave reviews from fans and critics alike.
Essie Davis led the way in the psychological scare-fest as widow Amelia Vanek who struggles to come when her son Samuel is plagued by hallucinations of a monster he sees in a book, and becomes increasingly violent.
However, things take a creepy turn when she realizes that the monster may actually be real.
Unfortunately for film-lovers, Jennifer Kent’s masterpiece has been slapped with a pesky ‘leaving soon’ sticker on Netflix in the US, meaning users don’t have long to get their scares in.
The Babadook will be leaving the streaming service on January 25 – but will remain on the UK platform for now.
It currently commands an incredible critics Rotten Tomatoes score of 98% compared to an audience score of 72%, with many reviewers branding it ‘extraordinary’ and ‘supremely eerie’.
RogerEbert.com’s Glenn Kenny said: ‘The finest and most genuinely provocative horror movie to emerge in this still very-new century.’
Samuel R Murrian of Parade Magazine wrote in 2019: ‘It remains the best horror film so far this century.
‘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,’ Peter Travers from Rolling Stone raved.
Writing for CinemaBlend, Kristy Puchko posted: ‘The Babadook is easily the best horror film of 2014. But bolstered by knockout performances, and a mind-bending narrative beautifully shot and colored, The Babadook is so much more. It’s one of the best films of the year.
Brian Viner from the Daily Mail wrote: ‘The imminence of both half-term and Halloween certainly makes for a varied batch of releases, with The Babadook firmly at the scary end of the spectrum. It is properly chilling.’
As National Post’s Chris Knight: ‘If you go to see The Babadook, be sure to have your wits about you. This movie will scare you out of them.’
The Babadook premiered more than a decade ago and, despite scaring us all silly countless times since then, Jennifer recently poured cold water on any talk of a return to her directorial debut.
In a chat with ComicBook.com, she said: ‘[Producer] Kristina [Ceyton] and I, we could have made millions out of sequels.
‘But Kristina knew that I didn’t want to make a sequel. She knew that when we signed the contracts early on.
‘We were lucky enough to have the rights, which now is really hard for filmmakers. It’s often a trade-off to give away the rights to you or to any future endeavors in order to get the first one made.
‘But with this, I just explored what I wanted to say. It just doesn’t feel like a… You know, it could have been, but I think everyone would be really sick of Mr Babadook by now.’
The Babadook is available to stream on Netflix now.
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