What is The Babadook about?
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
It leaves the ending open to interpretation.
A mother and son's grief turns to chilling paranoia when a sinister children's book comes to life.
Bleak and suspenseful. A full-attention watch that takes its time. Emotionally it is devastating.
Streaming on AMC+, Kanopy (free), The Roku Channel (free), Pluto TV (free) and Plex (free).
The Babadook parents guide
There is no US rating to lean on, so here is what we tagged: real scares, several jump scares, and moderate sex and nudity.
- Scare
- Properly scary
- Frightening, not just tense.
- Jump scares
- Several
- More than a couple of sudden jolts.
- Gore
- Light gore
- Some blood or injury, briefly.
- Violence
- Some violence
- Some fighting or peril.
- Sex and nudity
- Moderate
- Checked by hand. Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
- Language
- Moderate
- Some strong profanity, a few f-words.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- Is The Babadook scary?
- Yes, properly. The Babadook is the real thing without being an endurance test.
- How gory is The Babadook?
- Light gore and some violence.
Cast and crew
Directed byJennifer Kent
StarringEssie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall, Barbara West, Ben Winspear
More like The Babadook
The Exorcist (1973)Terrifying · graphic gore · strong violence · emotionally devastatingA mother's desperate fight for her possessed daughter unfolds with bleak, gritty suspense.
Rosemary's Baby (1968)Properly scary · no gore · emotionally devastating · a slow burnA young woman's dream of starting a family curdles into a chilling, slow-burn nightmare of urban dread.
The Shining (1980)Terrifying · graphic gore · brutal violence · emotionally devastatingA family's isolated winter retreat becomes a slow-burn descent into chilling, surreal madness.
Shutter Island (2010)Suspenseful · light gore · strong violence · emotionally devastatingA marshal's investigation into a missing patient unravels amidst chilling visions and a pervasive sense of dread.
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)Properly scary · light gore · emotionally devastating · a slow burnA fractured family confronts their old, chilling home, where melancholy memories and terrifying events slowly unravel.
Black Swan (2010)Properly scary · light gore · emotionally devastating · measuredA ballerina's pursuit of perfection unravels her mind in a bleak and darkly comic descent.
The Pianist (2002)Bleak · full attention · strong violence · emotionally devastatingA gifted pianist navigates the bleak, war-torn ruins of Warsaw, fighting for survival and dignity.
There Will Be Blood (2007)Gritty · full attention · strong violence · emotionally devastatingA ruthless prospector's ambition fuels a slow-burn feud with a preacher in bleak, oil-rich California.
The Babadook is on our AMC+, Horror on AMC+, Drama on AMC+, Horror on Pluto TV and Drama on Pluto TV lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers; and Scary, not gory.
Five more like The Babadook
Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.
Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.