The Babadook (2014) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 7

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They call me MISTER Babadook!

The Babadook is a genuinely scary film which works as both a horror film and an insight into the psychology of depression and trauma.

Before Viewing

The trailer for this film involves a mother and her young son who is terrified by a monster story he read, The Babadook. The mother tries to convince him that there’s no real monster, but as the preview goes on she becomes more harrowed and less sure of her statement. It appears that something is truly haunting them, but why? And how dangerous is it? It’s best not to answer your door when The Babadook comes knocking!

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

Amelia (Essie Davis) is a widowed health care worker and mother of a rambunctious 6 year old, Samuel (Noah Wiseman). She has dreams about a car accident that killed her husband as they were on the way to hospital to give birth. Sam is a handful. He has fears of monsters and often sleeps in his mother’s bed. Amelia gets little or no sleep due to his teeth grinding, clenching and kicking while he sleeps. One day she is called to his school to speak with the principal. He has brought a small crossbow and dart to school to protect himself from the Monster.

The school says that he will need a special monitor to supervise him one-on-one. Amelia says that she will find another school that will treat him as a person and not a “problem to be gotten rid of.” At the park, Claire (Hayley McElhinney)–Amelia’s sister, informs her that her daughter Ruby (Chloe Hurn) doesn’t want a joint birthday party again this year. That evening, after the nightly ritual of checking under the bed and in the closet for monsters, Sam is allowed to pick a book to read. The book is called “Mister Babadook,” and contains no copyright or author information of any kind. Amelia is puzzled where such a book came from. It’s a disturbing story about a creature called Babadook that wants to be let into the house of a little boy. His coming is presaged by three knocks and the sounds “ba-ba-ba Dook Dook Dook!”

After putting Sam to bed Amelia tries to zone out, and gets out a personal massager, but is disturbed by Sam who is frightened, leading to another sleepless night for Amelia. Her lack of alone time and sleep is affecting her job. She discovers broken shards of glass in her soup, to which Sam claims it was the Babadook. Amelia tears up the book and puts it in the trash. At Ruby’s party, Claire admits she can’t stand being around Sam. Ruby teases Sam for not having a father, and Sam pushes her from the treehouse causing her to break her nose. Amelia loses her patience and screams at Sam, “why can’t you just be normal?”

Sam has a seizure in the car, believing the Babadook is out to get him. Amelia speaks to his pediatrician and gets some sedatives to help Sam sleep. The book reappears, taped back together, now with more pages showing the Babadook growing under the mother’s skin as she kills a dog, her son, and herself. Amelia burns the book and reports a stalker to the police, but after seeing the coat and hat of the Babadook hanging in the back of the police station, she leaves abruptly. After a visit from the Community Service people, who question why Sam has been out of school, Amelia becomes possessed by the Babadook.

She has an accident with the car, becoming even more depressed, and cuts the phone line with a knife when Sam tries to call the next door neighbor Mrs. Roach (Barbara West) for help. She threatens Sam with the knife unknowingly before breaking the neck of their dog, Bugsy. She sees a vision of her dead husband, Oskar (Ben Winspear), in the basement asking her to bring him the boy. She comes for Sam, but he uses the monster traps and weapons he’s been building and forces her to fall down the basement stairs.

Sam ties her up, pledging to stay with her and protect her from the Babadook. She breaks free and tries to strangle Sam, before vomiting black goo onto the floor. Amelia feels better, but the Babadook pulls Sam into her bedroom upstairs, tossing the bed around like a toy. She stands up to the beast, screaming at it to leave them alone. It retreats back into the basement, and she holds Sam close. Sam gets his own birthday party the next day, on his actual birthday. Together, the two of them collect worms in the garden. Amelia takes the bowl into the basement. The Babadook comes for her, but she calms it and gives it the bowl of worms, which it takes back into the dark corners of the basement. Sam shows her a magic trick he’s been perfecting and she holds him, happy for the first time in many years.

“If it’s in a word or it’s in a look; You can’t get rid of the Babadook” – Amelia

The Babadook might seem like a conventional monster film, but it ends up being much more of a psychological drama about trauma and loss. Amelia has a number of unresolved issues surrounding the death of her husband. As the film evolves, the viewer finds out that Oskar died due to a car accident on the way to the hospital for Sam’s birth. Her sister Claire points out that when anyone mentions Oskar, Amelia can’t cope. However, Amelia claims she has moved on–by not talking about him. Ameila evidently has some repressed feelings about this traumatic incident that she has never shared. She chooses not to celebrate Sam’s actual birthday (which would also be the anniversary of the death of her husband), and it is evident that she harbors some blame for the accident towards Sam. This is all exacerbated when the Babadook takes control of her. It becomes difficult to then separate the monster’s possessive attitude from any lingering feelings of hate towards her son. In the end, even though she rids herself of the evil, the Babadook is not something that she can truly remove from her life. She keeps it in the basement, feeding it just enough to placate it, but she also must be wary of it and stay in control. Just like her trauma. They are both things that she cannot get rid of, and must learn to live with.

As with some of the scariest films, like The Exorcist or The Amityville Horror, less is more when it comes to showing monsters and creepy things. Much of the horror in The Babadook comes from the suggestion of the creature, and the haunting sound design and effects. Early on, the film chooses not to show anything, giving the impression that Sam might be making the entire thing up. But as small things begin to happen, like doors mysteriously opening or strange noises occurring, it becomes apparent that there is a mysterious, ghostly force around. Director Jennifer Kent then begins showing deep shadows around the house. The recesses of Sam’s room drop off into a preternatural blackness where almost anything could be waiting. The camera slowly pushes in as strange noises pepper the soundtrack, or worse–silence. Later the viewer is shown a POV of the creature as it zooms towards Amelia, but is never given a good view of it. The closest view comes as it peeks out of the shadows in Mrs. Roach’s closet, when Amelia spies it through the window. The lack of any overt imagery creates the best sort of terror, and allows audiences to fill in the scariest things themselves. There is no lack of goosebumps in this film for sure.

Supporting the filmmakers artful imagery is the stunning performances from Davis and Wiseman. Davis really sells the haggard mother, kept awake by her child’s hyperactivity and absolute belief that a monster is coming to their house. But young Wiseman, who like his character, was only 6 years old at the time of filming, brings another level of realism to the project. Some of the scariest films utilize young children in them in such a way to make the horror seem more genuine. The Omen, Poltergeist, Hereditary, and The Shining are all examples where the young actors lend an extra air of authenticity to the film in the seemingly non-performance. Kent’s direction of Wiseman and the use of editing to place him into the most intense moments is well done. The director assures viewers that her responsibility to preserve his childhood came first, making sure he wasn’t on set for any of the most graphic or horrific moments. Just more filmic fakery to sell the illusion.

All in all The Babadook will sufficiently rattle your cage. It’s one of those films that chills your blood when you’re watching it and sticks with you like a toothache for days afterwards. It’s also one of the few horror films that has no deaths for any of the characters. That is unless you count the family dog (RIP Bugsy). Kent does a great job of capturing the stresses of a single mother raising a willful child on her own, while trying to maintain a job. Certainly many people can identify with Amelia in one form or another. There will never be a sequel to the film either. Depending on how you view the film that may disappoint or please some people. Kent has stated that she never intends to green light any further films with The Babadook. He’ll just keep on dook dook dooking in the basement for the rest of his time.

Assorted Musings

• At the time of the film’s release a limited edition of the Mister Babadook book was made available which included pages seen in the film, as well as other original pages. It retailed for $80 with the first 2,000 copies being hand-numbered and signed by director Jennifer Kent.
• The film started life as a 10-minute short film in 2004, also by Jennifer Kent. She stated that it wouldn’t leave her alone, so she expanded it into the film we have today.