The Babadook

In the film, The Babadook, directed by Jennifer Kent there are many connections that can be made between the film and David Skal’s article, “It’s Alive, I’m Afraid”. Throughout the film, horror is depicted through the presence of a monster. “All monsters are expressions or symbols of some kind of birth process, however distorted or bizarre”. In The Babadook, the monster represents Amelia’s dark emotions brought on by being a single mother.

Skal’s article says how “pent-up rage can be physically externalized”. This is exactly what the audience witnesses throughout the film. Amelia is a widowed mother and has a son named Samuel. Samuel constantly causes Amelia to become overwhelmed. Amelia’s grief about the loss of her husband and the stress of being a single parent becomes too much for her to handle. “Parents go through the motions of caring for the thing, but cannot cope”. This inability to cope brings about Mister Babadook.

The Babadook torments both Amelia and her son. This torment causes Amelia to constantly comfort Samuel and reassure him that he’s safe from the Babadook. Causing Amelia to become restless and paranoid, which begins to negatively affect her mental health. The audience watches as Amelia begins to unravel. She begins to constantly have visions of the Babadook, which eventually leads to her bizarre and violent behavior.

Amelia becomes possessed by the Babadook and acts out violently towards Samuel. While attempting to strangle Samuel, Amelia is touched by Samuel’s compassion. Causing her to cast out the Babadook and to confront her dark emotions. The Babadook was more of a personal demon rather than a demonic being. The Babadook was subconsciously created by Amelia’s emotions as an outlet for the stress and grief caused by the tragic death of her husband. Once she realized she was the one in control, she was able to banish the Babadook to the shadows. Allowing herself to finally cope with the stress and grief caused by being a single mother. Amelia finally being able to cope with her emotions, allowed her and Samuel to be a happy family. Despite having a monster lurking right in their basement.

Reading Summary:

In the article “It’s Alive, I’m Afraid”, by David Skal, he says how “All monsters are expressions or symbols of some kind of birth process, however distorted or bizarre”. Skal explains the correlation between sexual reproduction and monster movies. He mentions how the “sexual revolution” during the sixties and seventies caused a sense of horror. Chemical birth control lead to a “safe” medication, called Thalidomide. Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women for the treatment of morning sickness. Soon resulting in the most horrific birth defects “modern medicine has ever seen”. Images of these horrific birth defects “jolted awake America’s deep-seated fascination with freaks”.  By the late sixties “a new monster myth would develop”. Causing books and films like Rosemary’s Baby to become popular in the media. Making “the reader-viewer uneasy about the prospect of parenthood”.  These monstrous children became a popular subject for horror films throughout the seventies and eighties.