Essie Davis in The Babadook (IFC Midnight)

One of a mother’s greatest fears is that she won’t love her child. For widow Amelia (Essie Davis), it’s an oppressive reality. She has never quite forgiven her son, Samuel, for being the very indirect cause of her husband’s death, who died in a car accident while driving Amelia to give birth to Sam,

Seven years on, she is still tormented to such an extent that she never allows Sam to celebrate his birthday on the actual day, since it would also be the anniversary of the accident. Physically exhausted from her job as an elder-caregiver, Amelia’s patience is thinned evermore by Sam’s hyper-paranoid antics. His fear of monsters and boogey men has escalated to an obsession, and he spends his spare time building elaborate weapons to protect himself and his mother from such foes should they arrive.

The appearance of a strange picture book entitled Mister Babadook is the catalyst for Sam’s increasingly odd behavior, which turns menacing: he gets expelled from school for his violent behavior and pushes his cousin out of a tree fort. However, despite his disturbing behavior, it is not Sam who will undergo a psychological shift.

While The Babadook would certainly be classified as a horror film, it incorporates aspects of a psychological thriller to the extent that the viewer isn’t sure if the terrible events are physically occurring or are merely creations of the characters’ imaginations. As the cloaked and razor-nailed Babadook extends his influence from the page to the personal lives of Amelia and Sam, the two become more isolated from the outside world. Sleep-deprived and flustered, Amelia’s behavior shifts from maternal to monstrous.

The film’s ability to be truly frightening is impressive. With the surplus of horror flicks that fill the screen every year with little more than gore and teen sex, it’s refreshing to sit through a thoughtful film that deals with real-life problems as well as the supernatural. Davis’s Amelia is a lonely, overworked mother with a difficult child. Her descent into madness is the stuff of horror films, but also front-page news. What is so frightening about her situation is the reminder that given the worst circumstances, we could all devolve into our most morbid fear.

The film is creative in its manifestations of the central villain, namely that he infiltrates the minds of the main characters, creating an internal as opposed to external threat. At the end of the day, it is Amelia who becomes her own monster. As Sam, Noah Wiseman is adequately creepy and deviant, but also sympathetic. Sam is at times portrayed a bit too agile and strong for a seven-year-old, but this is a minor quibble.

The Babadook is certainly worth a watch. Just don’t expect anything groundbreaking. Yet with its psychological twists, it’s a nice reprieve from franchise horror films, though it could have been more daring in its conclusion, which borders on the timid given the buildup.