MOVIE REVIEW
"THE BABADOOK"
Opened 25 September 2014

As I sat down at the start of this psychological horror movie, I couldn't help noticing that the theatre was half-empty. For a movie that had just started its run three days before, this was surprising given the rave reviews and the critical acclaim it had garnered from audiences elsewhere.

At the end of the show, the audience seemed to be taken aback by its rather unexpected and abrupt ending. I detected a whiff of disappointment in the air. Perhaps, our local audiences had been conditioned to expect horror movies to proceed in a certain way: some shocking moments, some realistic CGIs, some sudden sound effects, some blood and gore and climaxing in a prolonged adrenaline-filled final fight scene when the evil would be finally defeated. Strangely, none of these played any part in this movie.

The story centers around a widow, Amelia, and her six year- old misbehaving and hyperactive son, Samuel. The sexually-repressed Amelia leads a depressing life of constantly having recurring dreams of the car accident which took her husband's life, of working as a carer of dementia patients, of keeping her son out of trouble, of  boringly channel-surfing late night TV reruns, of having an almost non-existent social life and worst of all, of being totally consumed by her inability to get over her husband's death.

Like most 6 year-olds, Samuel, believes in the existence of monsters. He spends much of his time making weapons to fight  these imaginary monsters. Having dropped out of school, he has plenty of time to make his mother's life even more miserable by constantly asking for attention and making a nuisance of himself.

One fateful night, Samuel insists that his mother read him a frightening story about a monster called Babadook from a book he found lying mysteriously in his book shelf. From that moment on, his obsession with monsters has a new name.

The odd thing is, as time goes on, instead of reassuring his son, Amelia appears to increasingly believe in the Babadook herself and starts to hear voices and loud knocks on the door. She went back to read the book and discovered that it tells the story of impending tragic events of her own life; of being possessed by the Babadook, of her killing her dog, then her son and finally of slitting her own throat with the kitchen knife.

She is horrified but the more she dreads the events becoming true the more she hears and sees evidence of the Babadook. It culminated in her actually seeing the monster dressed in disguise in a dark cloak and a top hat with piercing eyes, razor teeth and black bristles for hands. When the monster finally leaps from the ceiling into her screaming mouth, Amelia knows that she is being possessed.

Amelia begins to speak in a deep voice and act violently, refusing to care about her son, hurling vulgarities at him, kicking down a door and chasing him with the knife. At the crucial moment when she is at the point of suffocating her son, she suddenly let go and vomits black goo. Has she finally got rid of the monster? No, as her gasping son says, "you can't get rid of the Babadook!".

And so the monster comes for one final confrontation with Amelia with Samuel safely tucked behind his mother's back. Instead of Samuel going against his possessed mother, it is now the love of the mother and son against the monster. When all seem lost in this battle of wills, in her desperation, Amelia repeatedly and loudly denies the Monster's reality. And ... it works!

The monster suddenly collapses into a whimpering pile of clothes. As his mother approaches it to lift the clothes, the boy protests "no, no, mummy, no". Remember, the book says: "and once you see what's underneath ... you're going to wish you were dead"! But his mother lifted it anyway!

The truth is finally out. If we pay close attention to the scariest scene when the mother read out the lines in the pop-up  children's book, we can see all the clues to the whole story:

"If it's in a word or if it's in a look"
"You can't get rid of the Babadook!".
(Interpretation: The monster is in your thoughts and imagination.)

"A rumbling sound,
Then 3 sharp knocks.
That's when you know he's around.
You'll see him if you look.
The Babadook, dook, dook!"
(Interpretation: He'll appear when you want him to.)

"This is what he wears on top.
He's funny, don't you think?
See him in your room at night,
And you won't sleep a wink."
(Interpretation: He's not quite what he appears, but you can't get him out of your mind.)

"A friend of you and me."
(Interpretation: The Babadook is a creature that arose from the relationship between mother and child.)

"Take heed of what you've read.
I'll soon take off my funny disguise,
... and once you see what's underneath ... you're going to wish you were dead"
(Interpretation: This is a warning that the truth behind the Babadook is quite unpalatable.)

So, what's underneath the Babadook is actually Amelia herself. Amelia IS the monster.

Apparently, six years ago, her husband was killed in a road traffic accident while sending her to hospital to deliver Samuel. Since the accident, Amelia has associated Samuel's birth with her husband's death. Perhaps unjustifiably, she blames her son for taking away her beloved husband and harbors a secret wish to end her whole miserable existence by killing everyone. Yet, Amelia cannot face the fact that she is having such an unacceptable thought and feels compelled to create an external monster as a bogeyman to assume responsibility for her guilt. Being previously a writer of children's books, she is likely to have made the pop-up book herself detailing her plans.

The Babadook that Samuel knows is slightly different. To him, the monster represents the thing that prevents his mother from loving him. At his age, he doesn't quite understand his mother's behavior towards him, but he knows it is related to his father's death on his birthday. That's why Samuel's birthday was never celebrated.

In the last scene, the pair is shown digging for worms in the garden, putting them onto a plate and offering them to the monster now still hiding in the basement room. Mother and son seem to get along much better, but the monster never dies.

Director and writer Jennifer Kent has offered this final scene as the key to the whole story. Her powerful message is that there is a Babadook in each of us, in every household and in every relationship, representing an unspeakable horror that we are too cowardly to face. It is the presence of a Babadook that depresses us and makes us miserable. So, in order to to make peace with ourselves and find the road to happiness, it is essential to at least acknowledge, if not to confront, our monsters bravely.

That is the lesson that we should all learn. Thanks to this great movie!