Review of The Babadook (2014) by Denise L — 18 Aug 2016

It's a story about coming to terms with the death of a loved one. After my recent second viewing of the movie, I really do love this film. It's not so much a horror movie where you're going to come out frightened, it's the fact that the actual monster represents something that is actually meaningful, and not just there for cheap scares.

The Babadook is an obvious representation of her husbands death. Throughout the whole movie Amelia is stuck in the mourning of her husband, she hasn't moved on, and in a way sees Samuel as a mishap and even a cause of her husband being dead.

The Babadook terrorizes the family throughout the film, and a ruins every relationship Amelia has had with family or friends. She just hasn't moved on yet. We see the Babadook in the physical form of the husband visit her through out the film, we see her say "I thought you were dead".

Again, this gives more insight into the fact that she hasn't truly accepted her husband being gone. At the end of the film she finally confronts the Babadook, and right before this we actually see the husband getting killed and now she has to accept that he is really dead.

I believe that the house in a way represents her. We see at the end that she says "this is my house, you are trespassing", but this isn't why I drew this conclusion. At the very end we see her and Sam enjoying the day, since she has allowed this burden to not take control over her they are finally happy.

But we then see that she goes to the basement where she has now locked the monster, and she must feed it. This is why I feel the house represents her. During the whole movie the Babadook was all over the house, it was in TOTAL control.

At the end it is in the basement, this burden is still a big part that sits in her and from time to time she must "feed" her mourning, but ultimately she is in control. That's personally what I drew from this film and why I think it is so great.

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