Rewatching The Babadook

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Rewatching The Babadook, it feels viscerally real, as if I've lived it.

It's the story of single mum Amelia and her son Samuel. Samuel's father died the night he was born and the family that remains is hopelessly haunted by this loss.

That loss eventually manifests through a mysterious children's book about an alarming character called the Babadook.

I'm sure there are plenty of families out there that have nothing particularly unmanageable in the cellar. But many do - I believe mine did - and this film is for us.

Often the short film that inspires a horror feature is actually better - Mama I'm looking at you. 

But the short film Monster that preceeded The Babadook shows how an archetypal scenario - which evokes little more than a powerful mood - can become more potent with the addition of specifics.

So potent that although the exact details of The Babadook don't apply to me, I still feel it's about me.

Anyone else?