Brent Novick of Novick & Associates, San Rafael, Calif., has been named to handle West Coast sales for Industrial Light+ Magic Commercial Productions, San Rafael and Los Angeles….Holly Ross of Red Representation, Los Angeles, has resigned from her West Coast repping duties for Los Angeles-headquartered Palomar Pictures. She had been handling Palomar for nearly a decade….Santa Monica-based V12 has retained FinnSaxon, Los Angeles and San Francisco, for representation on the West Coast….Rep Adam Fine’s West Los Angeles-based LittleRedHen Entertainment has been named to cover the West Coast and Texas for bicoastal Treat, a recently launched spot production division of bicoastal Dogmatic (SHOOT, 9/14, p. 7)….SoundeluxDMG, Hollywood, has signed Santa Monica-based independent rep Barbara Boster to handle sales on the West Coast and in Texas….Cool Beans Digital Audio, New York, has hired Marni Alper as director of sales and marketing….Danielle Milland has joined Rhinoceros Editorial and Rhinoceros Post, New York, as senior account executive….Mills/James Productions, Columbus, Ohio, has hired Nick Smeloff as national business development account executive….
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More