We recently had the chance to chat over the phone with Aussie filmmaker-actress Jennifer Kent, the director of the acclaimed new horror movie The Babadook

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In our rave review , we called The Babadook "a macabre masterpiece" and "a brilliantly made, elegant horror film, with real psychological depth. It's also a celebration of a school of horror that's been dormant for much too long."Here's what Jennifer Kent had to say about making the film, its themes, and why there will never be a sequel.Be advised: this interview containsYeah, I'm really intrigued by early horror because, well, it's very artful. It's creepy, but it's also a moving work of art -- really, in many of those silent films. So that was my influential core. I also think that those early films are very closely related to fairy tales. That's what I'm going for in The Babadook. And I think there are a lot of films along the way that have embraced that similar kind of style, everything from Jean Cocteau films and then right through to John Carpenter's The Thing and Halloween and all the classic films. even David Lynch. I think they're all in the same kind of tradition. Those are films that I really love and was inspired by for The Babadook.It's interesting. Someone brought that up for the first time to me just before, and I think that's true. I don't think there are that many film that explore the mother/son relationship, so I couldn't mention any favorites. It's something I'd really have to wrack my brain for, to think about. But yeah, I never questioned if that would be a little girl. For me, the character was always going to be a boy. It just seemed right somehow -- balancing the masculine and feminine in the story. It's not just a story about women. It's important for men as well, and I'm really thrilled that so many men have responded to it.Yeah, it was really important to me -- really important -- that it was about that. And I have enormous empathy for anyone in that situation. I've suffered loss but not the loss at such a young age of losing a father or a partner, but my heart goes out to people in that situation. I think it's very difficult in the modern world to grieve. It's very difficult for people to allow themselves to, but I think largely that's because we don't allow it as a culture. There are other cultures that allow grieving; they allow it to be out and present, and then it's integrated. But for some reason, in Anglo-Saxon culture and the culture I come from, is very much about depression and very difficult feelings. And I feel that it takes its toll. It takes its toll not only on the person grieving but on everyone around them. So it was very important for me to explore that as honestly as I could -- far more important than exploring horror. Because to me the horror is a byproduct of that situation. The most moving thing for me is for people to open up and say to me, "That was an experience." Not that the horror was an experience, but that they felt -- I mean, one boy lost both of his parents and communicated to us that he felt it was an accurate portrayal of grief. And I've had similar feedback, which is very moving to me and makes the whole process worthwhile.It is funny. It's that old thing, which is so common and cliche now, people being so outright: you can kill a child, but please don't kill the dog! Look, I'm a vegan; I'm a pacifist -- I won't kill a cockroach. So I was shocked when we put the final cut together and we had everything there in that moment, because it really hit me. But it wasn't gratuitous to me. I wasn't interested in gratuitous violence. What I was trying to say was that she couldn't connect with her child, but she could connect with that dog. And if she can kill that one thing that she connected to? My God, what is she going to do to that child? That was about creating an environment of terror, at that point in the film. She means business, and she's going to do what she says she's going to do. Also, she's going to do what the book says she's going to do. And we know what comes next in those pages of the book.Well, it was better, you know? I mean, it was close to what was in my head, due to the brilliance of the team I had around me, everything was better that it was in my head, which was amazing, really. Often films can be far off from what you imagined. So yeah, I'm very happy with the final product. I think the way it operated, the way it moved, everything related back to Amelia's loss and grief and depression. Everything was in that experience. It was like something that sprung from the depths of everything she was trying to hold back on. It was also a culmination of things that appealed to me but also repulsed me... So yeah, it was a Frankenstein of things from my mind, I guess.[vimeo clip_id="39042148"]Well, the good news is, I had the foresight to make sure that my producer and I owned the rights to any sequels. The reason for that is I will never allow any sequel to be made, because it's not that kind of film. I don't care how much I'm offered, it's just not going to happen. [Laughs][Laughs] It's just not what the film's about. It would destroy the integrity of everything we worked so hard to protect. So we are publishing a version of the book, and really that's not about merchandising; it's about creating a standalone, beautiful piece of art that goes with the film -- a companion piece. But that's as far as we're going in the sense of sidelines or sequels.I was, for the record, never asked -- Warner Brothers did fly me to America, actually, and I can say that -- but they never asked about Wonder Woman. And that's fine by me. But they did ask me about a lot of other projects, which I'm now slowly reading through. I'm very, very open to it. But again, I've got two films that I'm writing -- I'm a writer-director; I can generate my own material -- but I'm open to stories that move me, that suck me in. I'm looking to find writers to collaborate with on stories that I could direct, for sure. And I'm not opposed to directing films in America. I don't see myself in the tentpole arena; maybe that's disappointing to genre-makers, but you know, I'm open. It just really has to be an idea that grabs me like The Babadook grabbed me -- then I'll follow it to the ends of the Earth.