夜色如墨，一辆轿车正驶向医院。车内，即将临盆的艾米莉亚（Essie Davis饰）突然从噩梦中惊醒，而身旁的丈夫奥斯卡（Benjamin Windspear饰）已在车祸中丧生。这个残酷的开场，为《鬼书》铺陈出贯穿全片的心理阴影——丧夫之痛与育儿困境如何扭曲现实与幻想的边界。
七年过去，艾米莉亚与儿子山姆（Noah Wiseman饰）蜗居在阴郁的老宅里。这个痴迷魔术与自制武器的男孩，总幻想用木剑和弹弓对抗怪物。当他在学校展示"防怪物装备"引发骚乱后，艾米莉亚不得不让他退学。母子二人如同被困在琥珀里的昆虫，被社会孤立与内心创伤双重禁锢。
某夜，山姆翻出一本手工制作的诡异童话书《巴巴杜先生》。当艾米莉亚念出"一旦知道它的存在，它就永远缠上你"时，书页间突然弹出戴着高礼帽、长着利爪的怪物立体画。这个设计精妙的恐怖桥段，让童话书的每一页翻动都像打开潘多拉魔盒。山姆的尖叫声中，导演詹妮弗·肯特用跳动的剪纸动画，将观众拽入心理恐怖的漩涡。
超自然现象开始渗透现实：冰箱后的墙洞涌出蟑螂、电话里传来"巴巴-杜克"的嘶吼、被焚毁的童话书自动复原。最令人毛骨悚然的是，新出现的书页竟预言艾米莉亚会掐死山姆。这些细节构成精妙的心理暗示——当社工质疑她的育儿方式时，观众已分不清究竟是怪物作祟，还是单身母亲的精神崩溃。
在表妹露比生日派对的冲突后，电影迎来惊人转折。癫痫发作的山姆被送医，而艾米莉亚在电视机里看见自己手持尖刀的倒影。这个希区柯克式的悬念设计，将母亲对孩子的潜在暴力倾向具象化。当她对着空气嘶吼"吃屎去吧"时，观众能清晰感受到被压抑的怨气正在吞噬母爱。
高潮段落堪称现代恐怖片的典范。被附身的艾米莉亚扭断宠物狗脖子，用非人的嗓音拍打儿童房门喊"让我进去"。山姆用自制陷阱对抗母亲的场景，既是对传统恐怖片套戏的解构，又暗喻问题儿童用幻想武器对抗现实困境。当黑胆汁从艾米莉亚口中喷涌而出时，具象化的心魔终于被驱逐。
结局充满耐人寻味的隐喻。地下室豢养的怪物定期食用虫饵，暗示创伤记忆无法消除但可被驯服。阳光下野餐的母子与地窖里的黑影形成鲜明对照，正如导演所说："当你否认痛苦的存在，它就会变成怪物。但若承认并接纳它，就能学会共处。"
这部澳大利亚心理恐怖片用哥特童话的叙事外壳，包裹着关于育儿焦虑与丧亲之痛的深刻探讨。暗调摄影与非常规音效构建出令人窒息的氛围，而埃茜·戴维斯神经质般的表演，让观众在90分钟内持续处于心理过山车状态。当片尾字幕升起时，那个关于"如何与心魔共处"的命题，仍会在观众脑海中久久回荡。
---Under the ink-black night sky, a car speeds toward the hospital. Inside, Amelia (Essie Davis) jolts awake from a nightmare to find her husband Oskar (Benjamin Windspear) dead from the crash. This brutal opening sets the psychological foundation for The Babadook - exploring how grief and parenting stress can distort the line between reality and delusion.
Seven years later, Amelia lives in a gloomy old house with her son Sam (Noah Wiseman). Obsessed with magic and homemade weapons, the boy constantly imagines fighting monsters with wooden swords. When his "anti-monster gear" causes chaos at school, Amelia is forced to withdraw him. Like insects trapped in amber, they become prisoners of both social isolation and inner trauma.
One night, Sam discovers a handcrafted storybook titled "Mister Babadook." As Amelia reads aloud "Once you know of its existence, it will haunt you forever," a pop-up illustration reveals a top-hatted creature with elongated claws. This masterfully crafted horror sequence makes every page turn feel like opening Pandora's box. With Sam's screams, director Jennifer Kent uses flickering paper animations to drag viewers into a vortex of psychological terror.
The supernatural begins bleeding into reality: cockroaches swarm from a wall cavity, the phone screeches "Ba-ba-ba DOOK," and the burnt storybook miraculously repairs itself. Most chillingly, new pages graphically depict Amelia strangling Sam. These details create brilliant psychological ambiguity - when social workers question her parenting, viewers can't discern whether it's supernatural horror or a single mother's mental collapse.
After a violent incident at cousin Ruby's birthday party, the film takes a shocking turn. Sam suffers a seizure while Amelia sees her knife-wielding reflection on television. This Hitchcockian suspense technique externalizes maternal aggression. When she snarls "Eat shit" at empty air, the audience viscerally feels how repressed resentment is consuming maternal love.
The climax redefines modern horror. Possessed Amelia breaks the dog's neck while howling "LET ME IN" outside Sam's bedroom. The boy's makeshift traps against his mother serve as both a deconstruction of horror tropes and metaphor for troubled children combating real-world demons. When black bile erupts from Amelia's mouth, the psychological monster is finally exorcised.
The ending brims with provocative symbolism. The basement-caged creature fed with worms suggests trauma can't be erased but can be domesticated. The sunlit picnic contrasts sharply with the shadowy cellar, echoing the director's words: "When you deny pain, it becomes a monster. Acknowledge it, and you learn coexistence."
This Australian psychological horror uses Gothic fairy tale aesthetics to explore parenting anxiety and grief. Chiaroscuro cinematography and discordant sound design create suffocating tension, while Essie Davis's neurotic performance keeps viewers on a 90-minute psychological rollercoaster. Long after credits roll, its central question about "living with inner demons" continues haunting the audience.