Abstract
This chapter discusses Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook as an example of contemporary art-horror. It considers the film in relation to the historically complex and contested cultural space accorded to art cinema, focusing on how its designation in the global marketplace as both art and horror helped to shape its distribution and reception history, as well as its critical and box office success. This chapter also examines how The Babadook’s narrative, thematic and aesthetic characteristics can be understood in relation to contemporary international art-horror trends, whilst achieving Kent’s objective of using the horror genre to explore dark aspects of parenthood. The Babadook’s success as art-horror is an example of the ‘international turn’ in Australian film production during the twenty-first century.
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Howell, A. (2017). Haunted Art House: The Babadook and International Art Cinema Horror. In: Ryan, M., Goldsmith, B. (eds) Australian Screen in the 2000s. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48299-6_6
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