The BabadookSome have said that the bravest of all professions is that of a mother, let alone a widowed mother. One must be brave to face down the terror that comes with such a mammoth responsibility as rearing a child, especially when their overactive imaginations lead to embarrassing--even harmful--outcomes. It takes courage; but courage is the strength to face your fears even under the threat of failure. A mother suffers in the raising of a child, and does not need the added burden of supernatural forces keeping her from sleep and twisting her up inside. Or is "The Babadook" merely a manifestation of madness, nothing more?
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The Babadook is a "supernatural" horror story, not unlike that of other films like The Ring, where a single mother struggles to cope with her son, endowed with heightened powers of perception with regards to dark forces. Nightmares; The Babadook begins with nightmares...those of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her son, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). Amelia recalls the tragic car crash which claimed the life of her husband as he drove her to the hospital to give birth to her son. Sam's birthday is the anniversary of the loss of the love of Amelia's life, and this repressed resentment is manifested in subtle ways at first. Notice how when Sam crawls into Amelia's bed following one of many nightmares, she turns away from him, not wanting to cradle her own son. Sam is a trouble child in school, even though he is portrayed as rather amiable and gentle, having the unfortunate poor judgment to bring in a home-fashioned mini-crossbow, one of his many implements he's crafted to defend himself and his mother from the forces of darkness. Although not violent, Sam is provoked by his bratty cousin, Ruby (Chloe Hurn), into pushing her out of a low-rising tree house, breaking her nose in the process. Speaking from experience, bullies like Ruby are well-versed in playing the pity card, so that Sam looks like he is unable to conceal violent tendencies following this episode. Would that these moments made up the worst of Amelia's already harried upbringing of Sam, it would be no more different of a trial than millions of mothers face every day across the world. But Amelia's real horror swells when Sam invites her to read from an unfamiliar bedtime story found curiously among the others, titled "Mister Babadook", branded with a clawed figure in black adorned with a top hat on the cover. The mere presence of the tome feels arcane, and shortly upon beginning to read from the book, Amelia is instinctively aware that something is wrong, between the disturbing presentation and the unnerving imagery resembling a cross between the works of Edward Gorey and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" (with the original illustrations by Stephen Gammell). Shortly after discovering the book, events in the bleak house gradually turn unpleasant, between creeping shadows, Amelia's losing battle with insomnia, and her deteriorating mood, the presence of the Babadook is felt like an infection, poisoning the blood, and corrupting Amelia's relationship with Samuel.
In The Babadook, there always seems to be some kind of presence of a monster. Even before the shadowy specter is mentioned, Sam prepares his weapons for an inevitable defense against some evil threatening his beloved mother. He surrounds himself with images of monsters, and keeps creepy-crawly bugs in resin. Amelia and Sam both check under the bed for creatures, as though it were to reassure them both, for they are both haunted in their own ways. Their home is one where the shadows are deep, where light fades to darkness, and all color and joy is washed away. They survive on a spare diet, including gruel, and it is apparent that Amelia is struggling to keep afloat, another point of contention which frustrates her when she is forced to endure Claire (Hayley McElhinney)--Ruby's mother--and her friends discuss their comparably insignificant problems while condescending to Amelia. The truth is that Amelia has it very hard, and the nigh seven years of raising Sam alone have ground her down. No one sets out to become a "bad mother", but everyone has their breaking point; after sleep deprivation, compounded with stressor after stressor, Amelia begins to lash out at her loved ones...just as the "evil book" predicted. Which raises another question: is the book real? When the "book" is read to Sam, there is a moment shortly thereafter, where Amelia is reading a different story to Sam, him in tears and upset. The scene is framed to suggest that she is trying to calm him down by reading a different story, but the cutaway is so rapid, that it suggests that she might have never been reading this book at all, and she merely hallucinated it, or even subconsciously convinced herself she read this book to justify her initial rationale for "punishing" Sam. So then, it may be that the reason that Amelia "doesn't sleep a wink" following this episode is less that she is being targeted by supernatural forces, but that she suffers from the guilt of her shortcomings as a mother. In this, The Babadook resembles another classic "ghost story" novella, "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, notable for remaining distinctly ambiguous as to whether the house is haunted or whether the caretaker of the children merely hallucinates the manifestations of a ghost. No one can really see the thin edge of sanity, much less when they have crossed it. As Amelia breaks down, scenes are composed in such a way as to draw parallels between the monster and the mother. Amelia's escalating rage and terrifying shrieking at Samuel make her the most devastating manifestation of horror in the eyes of her child. The Babadook cleverly uses the ghost story to mirror the living nightmare which overtakes a child when forced to cope with a caretaker whom they have trusted implicitly suddenly turn into their greatest fear. When the "curse" of the Babadook is excised, it appears as an inky black ooze; would that the psychological scars in the wake of abusive parenting were absolved so easily in real life.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychologically-challenging horror story, with relatable fears about ineffectual--even harmful--parenting, fears which no doubt gnaw at the minds of struggling parents everywhere. The creepy monster is an effective metaphor for the terrors which can grip an impressionable child in these harrowing circumstances.
In The Babadook, there always seems to be some kind of presence of a monster. Even before the shadowy specter is mentioned, Sam prepares his weapons for an inevitable defense against some evil threatening his beloved mother. He surrounds himself with images of monsters, and keeps creepy-crawly bugs in resin. Amelia and Sam both check under the bed for creatures, as though it were to reassure them both, for they are both haunted in their own ways. Their home is one where the shadows are deep, where light fades to darkness, and all color and joy is washed away. They survive on a spare diet, including gruel, and it is apparent that Amelia is struggling to keep afloat, another point of contention which frustrates her when she is forced to endure Claire (Hayley McElhinney)--Ruby's mother--and her friends discuss their comparably insignificant problems while condescending to Amelia. The truth is that Amelia has it very hard, and the nigh seven years of raising Sam alone have ground her down. No one sets out to become a "bad mother", but everyone has their breaking point; after sleep deprivation, compounded with stressor after stressor, Amelia begins to lash out at her loved ones...just as the "evil book" predicted. Which raises another question: is the book real? When the "book" is read to Sam, there is a moment shortly thereafter, where Amelia is reading a different story to Sam, him in tears and upset. The scene is framed to suggest that she is trying to calm him down by reading a different story, but the cutaway is so rapid, that it suggests that she might have never been reading this book at all, and she merely hallucinated it, or even subconsciously convinced herself she read this book to justify her initial rationale for "punishing" Sam. So then, it may be that the reason that Amelia "doesn't sleep a wink" following this episode is less that she is being targeted by supernatural forces, but that she suffers from the guilt of her shortcomings as a mother. In this, The Babadook resembles another classic "ghost story" novella, "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James, notable for remaining distinctly ambiguous as to whether the house is haunted or whether the caretaker of the children merely hallucinates the manifestations of a ghost. No one can really see the thin edge of sanity, much less when they have crossed it. As Amelia breaks down, scenes are composed in such a way as to draw parallels between the monster and the mother. Amelia's escalating rage and terrifying shrieking at Samuel make her the most devastating manifestation of horror in the eyes of her child. The Babadook cleverly uses the ghost story to mirror the living nightmare which overtakes a child when forced to cope with a caretaker whom they have trusted implicitly suddenly turn into their greatest fear. When the "curse" of the Babadook is excised, it appears as an inky black ooze; would that the psychological scars in the wake of abusive parenting were absolved so easily in real life.
Recommended for: Fans of a psychologically-challenging horror story, with relatable fears about ineffectual--even harmful--parenting, fears which no doubt gnaw at the minds of struggling parents everywhere. The creepy monster is an effective metaphor for the terrors which can grip an impressionable child in these harrowing circumstances.