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The Babadook (2014)

Betweenyouandme

By Betweenyouandme
in Movies

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Ceindreadh

Ceindreadh

Who has been lucky enough to see this movie? Has it lived up to reviews? I'm hoping on my trip to Manhattan I can see this, but it's not available where I live. I love horror, especially inventive horror. Is it unique?

 

I saw it a few months back.  Went to see it solely because of Essie Davis (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries) and I wasn't disappointed. 

Horror wise, I've seen scarier movies but the Babadook was pretty damn unsettling (and I was glad I'd gone to an early showing so I wasn't going home in the dark.

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Betweenyouandme

Betweenyouandme

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Finally got to see this at the IFC Center tonight. Perfect setting. The movie is a lot more adult than I thought. I kept thinking it would seem like a PG horror, but it has difficult subject matter! Also really off beat, which I love. The ending was unexpected to me.

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Princess Sparkle

Princess Sparkle

I finally got around to seeing this, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed.  I sort of wish I'd seen it without reading/hearing a lot of articles calling this "the scariest movie in years" because I didn't feel that way at all.  I thought it was a little slow to start, and that it didn't really get suspenseful until about 45 minutes in.  The second half was excellent suspense-wise (though, I thought the final ending was a bit of a cop-out), but dang, that first half was so slow to me.  I know the kid being annoying and difficult to manage was the point, since it had to show her unraveling, but my god, I would've told that kid to eat shit too.  I almost turned it off because his constant shrieks were annoying the hell out of me - which, again, I know is the point, but it doesn't really make for an enjoyable movie watching experience.      

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bmoore4026

bmoore4026

I've watched it, mostly with my hand before my eyes.  Still can't walk around my dark bedroom without thinking that thing might pop up with that horrible, screechy "Babadook-dook-doooooooooooooook" voice.

 

Why Essie Davis didn't get an Oscar nomination for this movie is beyond me.  The little boy, too.

 

Also, I can't help but think that it must now be a bitch to do a load of laundry now that that thing lives in their basement.

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jcin617

jcin617

(edited)

Finally got around to watching this and I enjoyed it (inasmuch as being spooked is enjoyable) - I found the Babadook's voice to be the creepiest thing.   I didn't quite understand the ending though...

So she "defeated" it just by standing up to it? And it... retreated to the basement? I recall the kid saying "You can't ever get rid of the Babadook" so I guess it just lives down in the basement eating worms... it just seems a bit random.  And I felt awful about their poor dog.

Edited by jcin617
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Ronin Jackson

Ronin Jackson

My interpretation is that The Babadook is a metaphor for the inner demon/lower self/the "bad wolf" from the old cherokee tale (Though ironically, she keeps it tamed by feeding it). It's always there, inside of us... the cellar is often used as a metaphor for that aspect of the psyche. So she can never truly defeat it... she has to keep it under control for the rest of her life. At any moment she can lose control. This is much more akin to how people must overcome their inner struggle than it would be if she'd defeated it once and lived happily ever after.

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Slovenly Muse

Slovenly Muse

Just saw this movie and absolutely loved it. I never really get scared by horror movies, but this one really got to me. I think because it became so clear so fast that the Babadook wasn't really a monster come in from the outside, it was a darkness inside Amelia herself that made her a danger to her own child. No wonder the kid was such a hellion; he's been watching this monster grow inside his mother for his entire life and waiting for it to take her over and destroy them both! That was the scary part, really. Knowing that the monster was inside her, and that the thing she was trying to protect her son from was really herself, and he would never be safe until she acknowledged it. The Babadook was REAL, not in the way that monsters are real in movies, but in the way that they are real in the world. That's what makes the movie truly scary - once you understand what the Babadook is, you can't retreat from the horror behind the usual "it's just a movie, it's not real." It was a psychological terror, rather than a supernatural one, and man, it got me good!

 

That's why it ended up in the basement, with all of her husband's things. The Babadook wasn't a creature, really, it was a symbol of her grief and pain and bitterness over losing her husband. It was never going away. That's why "you can't get rid of the Babadook." She let it in, and until that point, it had been slowly growing and influencing her to resent her son to the point of (potentially) homicidal mania. (Which is why he was acting out so much - he could see it happening and was terrified of losing his mother to it. He was afraid both for her and of her, from minute one of the movie.) The only way to defeat it was to accept it, face it down, and refuse to let it be in control. It was never going away (that kind of grief never really does), but at least it could be locked away where it couldn't cause them any more pain. And once it lost its influence over her, she was able to really love her son for the first time. I found it very moving, and extremely well-balanced between the spine-tingling of the supernatural and the inescapable gut-punch of the psychological.

 

And the kid who played Samuel was absolutely brilliant! He had exactly the right kind of alert wildness for a kid in Sam's situation, reading every minute clue of his mother's body language to shift his energy on a dime from protective to defensive and back again, depending on her moods. Not many child actors are up to that task. Essie Davis was fantastic. The writing and direction were superb. LOTS of people deserve awards for this movie.

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MiseryIndex

MiseryIndex

Hype or not. It was a solid low budget horror movie without jump scares. Torture. Or gore. Or even makeup and monsters. Nothing wrong with a psychological thriller. Showing what grief and sleep deprivation can do to. Person. Acting was great all around.

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raven

raven

 

Maybe I would have liked this better had I seen it without first being exposed to all the hype.

Yeah, I had high hopes for this and was disappointed.  It was OK, not terrible (I thought the kid was awful).  Any scene that has someone's body crashing around supernaturally makes me laugh; The Conjuring was another one.  Babadook only had one of those scenes, but it was enough to take me out of it.

 

So meh for me.  I liked It Follows better and didn't think I would.

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Bastet

Bastet

On 3/2/2015 at 1:33 PM, Princess Sparkle said:

I know the kid being annoying and difficult to manage was the point, since it had to show her unraveling, but my god, I would've told that kid to eat shit too.  I almost turned it off because his constant shrieks were annoying the hell out of me

I finally got around to watching this, and I was the same way -- I nearly turned if off because I was starting to wonder if I could truly stand to hear him do his "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" routine one more time.  Of course I felt sorry for him as she started turning truly mean, but I also freely admit I laughed when she asked him with a growl why he was always talking.  Because, yeah, that kid never shuts up.  I was also annoyed at her flouncing out of the school with him, like it's unreasonable that teachers and administrators have had it up to here with an uncontrolled kid who's a physical danger to his classmates (and a mother who ineffectually admonishes him she told him not to play with weapons).

I ultimately found it an interesting film, where the monster is not vanquished in the end, because the monster is grief and trauma, which can't be eliminated, only controlled.  And the danger, to her and especially to her son (and poor dog), it posed finally got so great she was able to summon up the will to fight back.  I liked the honesty, especially of her sister's exhaustion with her; she wants to remain sympathetic and supportive, but it's been seven years and it doesn't seem to her Amelia is making any effort to cope.  I love the sister telling her she doesn't come over anymore because she can't stand being around the kid, and when the mom acts shocked, the sister immediately reminds Amelia she can't stand to be around him, either. 

But, ooh, that kid makes the first half a bit of a slog (I have a very low tolerance for kids).

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