The Babadook

The Babadook is a psychological horror film, the genre directly corresponds to our own movie opening which is why the new movie was of interest to us. It is an Australian produced film, written and directed by first- time film- maker; Jennifer Kent.
On watching the film, the biggest influence comes from the chosen colour palette by Kent. The palette is very mundane, made up of mostly greys and blues, so the entirety of the film is dim and looks as if it was shot in little light. This creates an eery atmosphere and mise- en- scene, which reflects the dark story line of the film.

As a group, we had already discussed darkening our colour palette, hoping to use few colours. We thought this would make our opening more haunting but also make it look as if it was produced years ago. The Babadook, which was released in October 2014, definitely achieves this and looks as if it has been produced decades ago.





“Originally, I wanted to make the film in black and white but decided to limit the colour palette instead. I chose to use blue and burgundy (with touches of blue green) and every shade between black and white. It may not be something that people notice, but when we pull up outside the school, for example, all the cars are black and Amelia’s car is a very pale blue. There are many other examples. This gives the film a very heightened look without being too crazy. It was extremely difficult to achieve but once we saw the completed film, it was worth it.''

-Jennifer Kent