The Babadook (2014)
Horror movies as of late all seem to be lacking the same thing: scares. They’re cliché and wholly unoriginal, and the characters are so unremarkable that you feel the same amount of emotional heft when an extra dies as you do one of the main characters. It takes a lot for me to impressed by horror movies, because I have a high tolerance for the supernatural, but I can safely say that The Babadook surpassed my expectations.
I’d argue that it’s one of the best horror movies of the past decade, namely because it delivers where every other recent release does not. For starters, its plot is unique: a book called The Babadook mysteriously appears on a young boy’s bookshelf, and once he and his mother read the bedtime story, it is impossible for them to rid themselves of the titular ghoul. It is certainly not the scariest movie I’ve ever seen, but its characters are well developed and its suspenseful sequences keep you on the edge of your seat.
And honestly, there’s really not much more you can ask for from a modern day horror film.