Director Carlton Chase has left New York-headquartered Shooting Gallery Productions and is set to join bicoastal Morton Jankel Zander….Vienna-based co-directing team rad-ish, comprised of Moritz Friedel and Christophe Chruidmak, is about to join bicoastal Go Film….Director Noam Murro and executive producer Shawn Lacy Tessaro plan to start their own production company, Biscuit filmworks. New digs for the shop are currently under construction in Hollywood and should be finished towards the end of the year….Director Rent Sidon, formerly of Los Angeles-headquartered A Band Apart Commercials, has signed with bicoastal Shelter Films….Directors Sanji and Jayson Moyer have come aboard bicoastal Believe Media….The husband-and-wife directing team of Nick Brooks and Laura Kelly, a.k.a. Honey, has joined Los Angeles-based Squeak Pictures for spot representation….Animation house Olive Jar Studios, Boston and Los Angeles, has secured director Bruce Alcock and his Vancouver, B.C.-based studio, Global Mechanic, for exclusive U.S. representation. Alcock earlier served as creative director/co-founder of now defunct animation firm Tricky Pictures….Actor/director Blair Underwood has signed with Hollywood-based Blacktop Films for exclusive representation as a spot helmer….Director Brad Steward has joined Circle Productions, Vancouver, B.C, and Toronto….James Zolliecoffer has come aboard Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Torrance, Calif., as a multimedia specialist. Previously, he worked as a freelance editor and Henry artist in Southern California….Executive producer/head of production Adam Tronick has exited Los Angeles-based Event Horizon/Cronenweth Films…. New York-based editorial house Final Cut has added editor Carlos Arias….Editorial house Billy Williams Enterprises, New York, is changing its name to moondog edit….
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