The Babadook

I could tell, just a couple minutes into this film that it was going to creep me out way more than the past couple films we have watched. I focused more on the readings in the discussion post, so here I thought I could talk more about the film. I found most aspects of The Babadook to be extremely unsettling straight from the beginning of the film. The house they lived in was especially uncomfortable in the consistently dim lighting and very monochromatic emptiness it seemed to have. I also found the sound (or lack of) to be something that created intense suspense. Because of the concept that the characters hear the Babadook around them through the "dook dook dook" sounds in the walls of their house, the music or ambient sounds (radio or television) stop in order for the audience to hear it more clearly. This happens multiple times in this film, and every time I got the chills. I feel like the absence of sound in these scenes is almost loudly telling the viewer that there is something else present. The silence almost insinuates that something important is about to happen and builds so much tension. I find this fascinating because of how simple it is to make a scene eerily quiet while being extremely effective in putting the viewer on the edge of their seat.

Another thing I found intriguing about this film is how quickly my feelings changed surrounding the mother, Amelia. Throughout the first half of the film, I felt a lot of pity for her situation as she just seemed so desperate for things to get easier with her son. It was such a hard situation for her, and she was trying the best she could. I hate to admit it, but because of the empathy I felt for her, I started to resent her son (and jokingly telling Karin and Rita this film is a wonderful reminder for why I do not want to have children) for the stress he was unknowingly putting his mother through. It was such an interesting switch for me when the babadook had started to possess her more and more, and Samuel realized that his mother was no longer in control. I started to identify much more with Samuel's character, and was getting very excited that he was outsmarting his possessed mother. I really did not expect to be so supportive of Samuel's actions by the end of the film, and I think that was one of the reasons this film hurt my brain so much. Not only was it difficult to watch (why...Why did the dog have to be the only one that died), but it was so hard to back and forth with these characters because of how turbulent my perceptions of them were.