PRESS RELEASE
Umbrella Entertainment is excited to announce that THE BABADOOK will screen in Australian cinemas from 22 May 2014.
Fresh from its world premiere buzz at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, THE BABADOOK received a flood of enthusiastic reviews and sell out sessions.
The film was subsequently picked up by Wild Bunch for France, Germany and Switzerland in one of the Festival's most high profile deals.
Shot in Adelaide, THE BABADOOK is writer / director, Jennifer Kent's debut feature film that recently thrilled and delighted audiences at the Sundance Film Festival.
Film industry website Indiewire said, "an unknown filmmaker makes her debut with a flat-out masterpiece…The Babadook establishes first-time writer-director Jennifer Kent "as a major voice in the field".
THE BABADOOK is a genre-busting psychological thriller centered one Amelia (Essie Davis – Australia, The Matrix sequels and Girl With A Pearl Earing) and her son, Samuel (played by newcomer, Noah Wiseman). The widowed mother is forced to deal with her son's deep-rooted fear of monsters, and a supernatural presence that emerges in the house.
Jerome Rougier of Wild Bunch said, "Incredibly scary of course but also very smart and stylish, Jennifer Kent's film easily matches recent outstanding horror films like The Orphanage or Insidious and we couldn't be more excited to release it."
Richard Moore, Theatrical Manager at Umbrella Entertainment says, "Sundance has been a successful launching pad for other recent Aussie titles like Snowtown and Animal Kingdom over the past couple of years. We are following in these footsteps, in the knowledge that THE BABADOOK is the hottest piece of Australian film property out there at the moment and that you should all see it on the big screen! "
What the Sundance critics said about THE BABADOOK:
"Meticulously designed and directed… accomplished and imaginative" Variety "This is an extraordinary debut feature from a brilliant Australian filmmaker named Jennifer Kent who has crafted the perfect classic horror film. We were blown away by the two lead performances in the film, and we believe that people will see this film and realize that Jennifer Kent has arrived as one of the great new horror filmmakers," Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films
"THE BABADOOK joins the ranks of the select few movies that well and truly scared me. It's also genuinely upsetting and intense." Movie Mezzanine
"Motherhood as demonic curse. A masterwork of darkness and shadow. Essie Davis is a force of mad nature." Film Experience