First actual post! (Analysis of The Babadook)

 

Welcome back to my blog: It’s All in Your Head. This post will be semi-short and sweet, warming up for what is to be posted in the future. Think of it as…a practice post, getting my typing skills up to ramble longer to everyone in the posts following this one. 

Anyways, the topic at hand today is a favorite horror film of mine that I was basically raised on. The Babadook (2014), now a brief summary of the movie is as follows: Amelia a widowed mother and her son Samuel are adjusting to their dreary lives after the unfortunate passing of both a father and husband to their family. The mother and son are in a shared space but distanced from one another both mentally and willingly physically for the most part, Samuel wishes for a mother he had before the grieving process and Amelia wishes for a son with less mental challenges. 

In comes a book with the same unsettling title as the movie, this book is something which oddly comforts Samuel before he sleeps- or seems as though it would because its appearance was rather sudden and unexpected. Amelia now reads Samuel this book, its contents strange and unnerving- the book speaks about a creature called “The Babadook” who makes himself known as soon as the book is read aloud, and its name is spoken. As some of you might’ve already guessed, this invites said creature into this dysfunctional family's home and causes problems for both the mother and son.

I bring this movie up to not only encourage my readers to watch it, but to also appreciate the acting of these unpopular actors. Now, normally I would be judgmental of this film- for some reason before watching it I just automatically assumed that the movie was low budget. And while low budget movies CAN be good, I just didn’t expect as much from this one.

Being raised without a stable mother figure in my life makes me admire this movie even more and its accurate depiction of a strained mother and child relationship, and how an overactive imagination is usually caused by something the child is going through. In my opinion, the creature called The Babadook is just a metaphor for the grief they were feeling about the father’s death. A physical embodiment of the hurt, the stress, anxiety, and sleepless nights I’m sure they experienced following his passing. This would explain the behavior and effects the Babadook had on both of the main characters of the movie, grief changes people and going through the grieving process you feel like everything is changing around you and you are staying stagnant- holding onto all of the negative emotions you wish you could move on from. 

To come to a conclusion, this film is one of many of the great examples on the psychological aspects of horror and how much deeper a movie can be without immediately coming off that way. Movies like this one can secretly explore the depths of emotional strain right under your nose, and it won’t be discovered until you take a moment to realize it.