Women's Pictures - Jennifer Kent's The Babadook
Thursday, October 29, 2015 at 8:15AM Happy early Halloween, everyone!
In the comments section of last week's post on A Girl Walked Home Alone At Night, a brief but lively discussion sprung up over whether folks prefer the Iranian-American vampire flick, or Jennifer Kent's inaugural feature film, The Babadook. Rather than pit the two films against each other, let's just take a moment to appreciate the fact that in 2014, we got two really good, buzzed-about horror films from two new female directors. This, as much as any other reason, is why I hope 2014 will be remembered in the future as one of those Great Years of Film.
Anyway, it could be argued that whether you prefer A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night or The Babadook is partially determined by whether you prefer indie swagger to conventional horror. But to call the film "conventional" would be to sell The Babadook incredibly short. At first glance, The Babadook looks like a stylish example of a supernatural thriller, but the genre tropes hide a dangerous film about the subconscious strife between parent and child. [More...]
Surprisingly for a monster movie, the titular villain doesn't make his appearance until midway through the film. Jennifer Kent instead focuses the first half of the film on introducing the audience to a story that's both familiar and alien. Against an unreal, ethereal backdrop of looming blue walls and gray shadows, Kent introduces two common characters: Amelia (Essie Davis), an overworked, overstressed single mother, and Samuel (Noah Wiseman) her hyperactive son. Samuel is what's sometimes called a "problem child;" curious, sensitive, smart, and wild. After his violent episode at school and increasingly paranoid babblings about a creature from his storybook called the Babadook, Amelia starts to worry that Samuel might be mentally ill as well. But as the Babadook starts making increasing intrusions on their lives - through the book, through coercion, through manifestation, through possession - the tension between the quotidian and the queer rises. What is the Babadook? Samuel's delusion, or Amelia's? Or could it be something worse?
Horror movies love mommy issues. Everything from The Omen to The Exorcist to The Shining and Pet Sematary has dealt with the subconscious ill will that parents and children occasionally bear for each other. If mommy blogs are to be believed, parenting is supposed to be a magical, fulfilling time when the reward always merits the struggle. But that's not always the case. Having children changes your life, and not all of the changes are positive.
While plenty of horror movies have explored the unspoken animosity before, they weaken the blow through easy oppositions: posessed parent vs innocent offspring, satanic son vs put-upon progenitor. Even while being horrified, audiences of these films can take comfort in the knowledge that this behavior is supernaturally influenced, an occult cathartic release of fratricide ultimately governed by moral rules about good and evil. The Babadook offers no such consolation. Even before the monster appears, Amelia is at her wits end. Samuel is not an easy innocent, he's an angry, fatherless kid in a stressful environment. The Babadook, then, is a physical manifestation of both Amelia and Samuel's rage at their situation and each other. Remove the monster and the mise en scene, and you still have an emotionally true story about the devastation that a parent's death can cause for both partner and child.
The open ending reflects this turn towards thematic realism as well. As Noel Murray noted in a recent article, "On The Babadook, It Follows, and the new age of unbeatable horror," the ending of Jennifer Kent's film represents a departure from the typical jump scare of the last 30 years of horror. When Amelia goes to the basement to feed the chained up monster, it's an acknowledgement that her feelings of resentment and anger aren't going away. Amelia and Samuel must learn to live with them, subdued for now, but always ready to escape.
I hope you've all enjoyed Women's Pictures Horror Month! Next month, join us to celebrate Mira Nair!
11/5 Salaam Bombay (1988) - Mira Nair's Academy Award-nominated rags to riches story kicks us off with a bang. (Amazon disc)
11/12 Monsoon Wedding (2001) - Nair's second BAFTA award nomination came for this comedy about Indian arranged marriage. (Amazon Instant Video)
11/19 Vanity Fair (2004) - At first glance, an English satire of mannered society doesn't seem like Mira Nair's wheelhouse. Thena again, nothing about this visually sumptuous melodrama is what it seems. (Amazon Instant Video)
11/26 Amelia (2009) - Thanksgiving seems like a perfect time to talk about this absolute turkey, starring Hilary Swank as the American aviatrix Amelia Earhart. (Amazon Instant Video)
Reader Comments (10)
I love what you have to say about what the Babadook represents in this film and your interpretation of the ending. I really enjoyed this film for its atmosphere, Davis' and Wiseman's ferociously committed performances, lack of easy jump scares (although there are a few effective ones), and focus on emotion and character.
With other recent horror films like "Mama" and "Goodnight Mommy," this genre is really exploring the mother/child relationship incredibly well.
I've been looking forward to this piece all month! Wonderful analysis. I know it's an unjust world we live in, but the fact that Essie Davis got so little awards attention for this performance still rankles.
Saw this a couple of weeks ago and was duly impressed by practically everything about it. Samuel is such an annoying kid that I was totally on Amelia's side when she lashed out at him, but even then I never wished him harm, exactly. His characterization veered wildly back and forth, but then, kids are like that quite often. Everything about the film felt true in ways that horror films usually mess up.
I did not get the fuss and fell asleep in the cinema.
I can only echo what has already been said, this film is a truly remarkable debut of director/writer Jennifer Kent. Babadook is very well written, with the tension and suspense slowly rising. Kent not only uses the camera wisely but who can forget the sound of the
BAB-A-DOOK, DOOK, DOOK.?? One year later and I haven't forgotten.
Essie Davis is fantastic, and not only deserved awards attention, but attention for future parts. She was indelible to this film in the same way Sissy Spacek & Mia Farrow were in their respective horror films.(And I do not make that claim lightly)
Fans of Essie Davis can see her in the 3rd season of Miss Fisher, and in the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. She may have been robbed when it comes to certain trophies but let's hope casting people can make up for that deficiency.
i love this movie. so memorable and what you said about it working as two separate movies... even if you remove the monster it's still a compelling family drama. The best horror classics (rosemary's baby, carrie, exorcist, psycho, etcetera) understood that you have to have more than just scares but weirdly despite their collective influence it's the non-horror parts of great horror -- the kind that make you invested beyond jumping, both intellectually and emotionally -- that horror films tend to be weak in.
I admire the distinction you draw between The Babadook and The Omen, etc. Explicitly supernatural evil, even evil as overwhelmingly powerful as Satan himself, takes the conflict out of the human realm and thus makes a horror film feel "safer" for the audience. What makes The Babadook so terrifying is that it keeps the conflict rooted in a human psychological struggle, finding horror in the ordinary rather than the extraordinary. The Babadook takes its place in the same class of horror films that The Shining and Carrie belong to, in which the supernatural is either a metaphor for a psychological struggle (Carrie) or perhaps not truly supernatural at all but a psychological projection instead (The Shining). The Shining and The Babadook are both eerily vague about the true source of their monsters. The Babadook, therefore, explores a taboo that The Omen sidesteps, since Amelia is simply Amelia and Samuel, Samuel.
Such a perfect movie. The sound of it was so terrifying, and I can't remember the last time I was so invested in the characters in a scary movie.
Margaret & LadyEdith - The difficulty with 600 words is that I got exactly no space to discuss how much I love Essie Davis in this. Great googly moogly, is she fantastic. I honestly did not recognize her from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. HOW is that the same actress?
Now if you all don't mind, I'm going to sleep with the lights on for the next two weeks...
Really liked your insight/analysis on this one. Great review!