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)