Jennifer Kent – One of the Most Promising Directors of the Decade

Jennifer Kent, writer and director of The Babadook, shows the kind of promise not seen in the horror realm for quite some time and rarely by a woman. I would rank her film among the greatest horror movies ever made, from The Exorcist, The Haunting, Carrie, The Shining – this film is that good.

For some reason, The Babadook did not qualify for the Oscars, which is a shame. If the people in our business of covering film paid any attention to her whatsoever, the way they have ushered in her male counterparts, like Guillermo Del Toro for instance, she’d be much more well known than she is. Lucky for you, you’re about to find out about her now.

Kent’s long history of acting is probably why her horror film, like all of the best horror films, starts with character building and focuses heavily on the lead actress, giving her an array of emotions and directions. The lead performance in The Babadook, Essie Davis, is the performance of the year. It is not eligible for the Oscars but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it is, quite simply and without any shred of doubt, the best performance by anyone, male or female.

Kent’s visionary, unpredictable work in this film would launch her immediately into the Best Directors race, though to be perfectly honest if Gone Girl and Birdman are “too much” for the Academy, The Babadook would shrivel their toes and turn their hair gray instantly. They would flee from the theaters and would have to then spend their remaining days trying to speak a simple sentence.

It’s a shame that the Academy has become so soft, yet soft they remain. And we can’t lay blame on the Academy, since the entire industry matches in their choices of the year’s best. We know what kinds of movies those are and The Babadook ain’t one of them.

Kent talks to Film Comment about her style:

There are a lot of references to old films, especially to Georges Méliès. He was a magician, and magic is a huge part of the film. He’s referenced many times, and the effects themselves are very simple illusions.

I’m a big lover of Méliès, and what he did for early cinema was incredible. I think that over the years we’ve lost that simple in-camera connection. I really wanted everything to be in front of the camera with very little post-production work done on it. I wanted to give the film a different feeling without resorting quickly to CGI. The energy of his films is very childlike and simple, yet a lot of his stuff is quite sinister by default, so that was very inspiring for The Babadook.

In many horror movies now, you see a lot of docudrama-style camera work. You chose a more still, yet very fluid, style.

I could never see this world in a contemporary way. To have a lot of loose movement simply didn’t suit me, nor did it match the psychological energy of that character. I’ve created a world in which there isn’t a resemblance to a lot of horror at the moment, which is good.

It’s refreshing. You wear your influences proudly, and that’s something a lot of filmmakers can be self-conscious about.

It can be a challenge to be inspired, and to let those inspirations show while owning the film. I felt very confident with the story, and I knew how I wanted to tell the story visually. It’s certainly an interpretation of those influences. I had a wonderful Polish director of photography, Radoslaw Ladcsuk, and we found our own language together. We created something unique to that world.

Take a look at Kent’s short film – and if you can stand it, try to watch The Babadook, one of the most frightening films I’ve ever seen. It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Direct-TV.

Here’s the short Monster, which is a precurser to The Babadook:

Kent was immediately pounced on by several agencies and has signed with WME.