Gire: 'Babadook' filmmaker: 'I love horror movies'

Australian director Jennifer Kent was nominated as "Most Promising Filmmaker" by the Chicago Film Critics for her debut movie, the horror tale "The Babadook." I talked to the filmmaker from her Sydney home.

Q. Your movie has made top 10 lists in America and won all sorts of recognition. Does this surprise you?

A. I'm totally taken aback. I made this movie for myself. I made a movie I cared about and wanted to share. I thought only a few people would get it. It's really surprising to all of us involved in the film to see this response. It's been amazing.

Q. How did you wind up using the artwork of American Alexander Juhász as the basis for the Babadook?

A. I didn't want something created by Photoshop. I wanted it drawn by hand and I wanted the pop-ups to be made by hand. I was using Alex's work as an inspiration. Finally I asked the producer, why can't we just ask Alex to do this, to come to Australia and help with this movie? He's a young guy and he said sure. So, six months before we started shooting, we sat down and created that all-important look before anything else happened.

Q. Women aren't all that plentiful in the horror movie field. How long have you been interested in that?

A. Since I was 6 or 7. When everyone else was watching Disney, I remember seeing a film which I shouldn't have been watching from behind the sofa. Mom and Dad were watching an old Frankenstein film. I was shocked, but also thrilled by this monster, this creature. I see the fascination with darkness as being an important part of life. For me, it's not a negative thing. It's really positive.

Q. You studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art with your star, Essie Davis. How was it to work with your former classmate?

A. For me, she was always a standout. I knew what she was capable of. I was a little scared to work with her because of the actor/director relationship. We were friends, and I wondered if she would take my direction. She was phenomenal and really trusted me to help get her to that really tough place that her character goes to in the film.

Her performance is Oscar-worthy for me, and I'm so glad that more than a few critics have said that. She's a powerhouse. I just stayed out of her way.

Q. What's wrong with most American horror movies? They pale in comparison to your movie.

A. I think a lot of filmmakers don't get it. Or they're making films for reasons that aren't all that - I hesitate to use the word - honorable. I think that because the genre can contain the worst of the worst, it's a miracle when something comes along that actually has a story and complex characters with something to say.

We're talking about a genre that can deal with taboos, the frailties of human nature, and can deal with less-than-perfect people as characters. And this for me makes this the most extraordinary genre, and allows it to be something special.

I think a lot of horror films, not just American ones, tend to ignore those opportunities in favor of making a movie that's more for everyone. If you look at the best of horror throughout the last century, it was always made by the independent mind. It was made to say something. to be subversive, and you don't get those things when you try to appeal to everyone in the general public.

Q. What scares the poop out of you?

A. I just moved into a new house and it's a lovely house, but it has a family of spiders living in it. I don't know if you know anything about Australian spiders, but although they're not poisonous - which is a plus - they still bite you and they run so fast! I had one run at me in the lounge room the other day. These things are as big as your hand! So I have to admit that I scream like a little girl when spiders run at me.

<b>'Christmas Story' actors at Palms theater</b>

Actors Ian "Randy" Petrella, Zack "Scut Farkus" Ward and Scotty "Flick" Schwartz will appear Friday through Sunday, Dec. 19-21, at the Hollywood Palms theater in Naperville to introduce and discuss their holiday movie classic, "A Christmas Story." Go to atriptothemovies.com.

<i>Dann Gire's Reel Life column runs Fridays in Time out!</i>