We are commemorating the 10th anniversary (birthday?) of The Babadook, which is one of the finest examples of modern horror ever created. A movie that is absolutely disturbing and outright terrifying in all the best ways if you just take it on the surface. If, however, you dig deeper; you find a movie that has a profound human story at the center. In fact, the Babadook has become kind of a symbol for a lot of different things since it crept its way into theaters 10 years ago.
What is The Babadook About?
The movie, on its surface, is pretty simple. A woman loses her husband in a terrible car accident while she is pregnant. We pick up the story now, with her young son, who is (to say the least) a handful. Because he is convinced that he and his mother will have to defend themselves at all times, he loves to create traps and weird weapons. The poor woman has not really had a chance to mourn the loss of her husband since she immediately had a baby to care for.
Her son, one day, asks her to read a book to him. It’s a pop-up book featuring the titular monster. The Babadook is a top-hat, all black wearing demonic creature that comes out of the shadows. It has a terrifying white face, wide eyes and rows of teeth. The main thrust of the book is that, once you let the Babadook in, it never truly leaves.
As the mother becomes more and more sleep deprived, and her son becomes constantly obsessed with the Babadook, she starts to hallucinate things that appear to be encouraging her to kill their dog and then her son.
I don’t want to spoil the ending, if you have not seen it, but it is not like your typical horror movie. It will leave you chilled to the bone and, at the moments before you fall asleep, hearing the Babadook’s voice saying, “Bah-Bah- Dook - Dook - Dook.”
The Underlying Messages
Now, what this movie is actually about (or at least one interpretation) is about depression. I can relate to it, since I suffer from depression. It is a profound darkness that is always, always there, lurking in the corners and in the shadows. When something (like say, a layoff from a company you loved working for...ahem) happens it pounces and you become ... changed. Suddenly the little voices in your head whisper to you: “You’re worthless. Kill yourself. You’re better off dead. You’re worth more to your wife dead than alive.”
You cannot ever truly get rid of it. Ever. You just learn to appease it, keep it chained up in the basement of your brain, and try to get on with life as best you can.
It can also be seen as a symbol for dealing with profound sadness and mourning. I lost my grandmothers, father, mother, mother-in-law and a beloved uncle, not to mention several friends within the last 10 years. You will be, say, watching The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and then burst into tears because you remember watching it with your parents (my parents were big Clint fans) when you were younger. It is always there. Always. It never goes away for those who are left behind. You eventually have to deal with it, accept it, learn to live with it, or it will tear you apart.
I have also heard justifications for the Babadook being a symbol of gay pride, or single parenthood. Something that is always there, has to be dealt with and lived with, and if you aren’t careful can tear a person apart.
That is why the movie works, though. At the center of it, is a human story. A woman has been forced into this life by suffering a profound loss, and now this thing is there trying to tell her how to make it better, but doing so in a terrifying way.
What the Babadook Means to Me
For me the character of the Babadook is a perfect representation of depression. Even though people have talked about depression over and over again, a lot of people still don’t understand it. There are those who think it’s just being sad, but it’s not. Your own brain turns against you, and the entire world seems gray no matter how bright it is. Plus, there are those pleasant voices that have told me things like, “Your niece is so young, if you kill yourself now, she won’t even remember you.”
Yeah. Fun.
I sucks the life out of you, just like the mother in the film. It leaves you feeling constantly exhausted. It also inflicts physical pain that seems all encompassing. Headaches, body aches, and so much more come with depression.
So, for me, this movie captures all of that. However, I can also see how it might also be symbolic for someone dealing with substance abuse, or dealing with a death, or so many other things that lurk in our darkest corners of our minds and have to be dealt with, or lived with, just to go on.
10 Years Later
The Babadook is going back into theaters this year. There is a scene where something bad happens to an animal (sorry to say), but it is a stellar horror movie. Essie Davis turns in an amazing (award worthy) performance as the mother. Daniel Henshall is the son and some people find him annoying, but I found him to be a typical kid dealing with some heavy stuff.
If you haven’t seen it, you should. This is the kind of horror that should be seen, encouraged, and appreciated.
My Amazon store has all of my works of horror in all formats including paperback, Kindle and audiobook formats. Short stories, novellas, collection and novels are all there.
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