I have always been too scared to watch this movie, so this is the first time I’ve even seen parts of it. My read is that the Babadook is the manifestation of grief. For seven years this little family lived in a bit of suspended animation, avoiding and ignoring the swelling grief, and now is when it came to a head. And that’s why she has to feed it at the end - grief never goes away, in my experience, but it has to be acknowledged. The only way past it is through it. After she controlled the grief, and found a place for it where it wouldn’t hurt Samuel any more, she has to occasionally go acknowledge it, sit with it. And it can be scary and difficult as depicted. But when she came back and Samuel asked her how it was today she told him it was quiet, and I think that’s not a lie, it’s a comparison to how it was before.
Spot on. I don't think people who have not experienced extreme grief can fully appreciate the insight of films like this. You do have to eventually stop treating it like a monster, realize it is the healing process, and incorporate it without giving up on living.
Yes, absolutely!! When I was editing it that ending scene where she visits and has that final encounter with the babadook hit completely different and really made so much sense in that context of grief and loss. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Yes, this! It’s interesting to keep in mind how she couldn’t expel it by defying it, but she could start to claim her motherhood and connection to her child again by doing that rather than ignoring it. Then she had to fully accept it. As for it being scary, I love this movie, but waited until daytime to watch this reaction lol.
I think the babadook is a physical representation of the mom's grief, depression, trauma. When it goes down into the basement, I think that was the mom pushing that grief deep down inside herself. When she goes to feed it at the end I think that means that sometimes she visits those feelings but she has a better grasp on it and can contain it, she keeps it locked away but it's never really gone. Like anyone dealing with trauma or depression or grief, sometimes those feelings resurface but as long as she acknowledges it (keep it fed), she can control it. IDK that's just my interpretation.
In my opinion, the Babadook is the mother's grief. She was pushing it down all those years, refusing to talk about it or move on, letting it grow stronger and stronger, and then she broke. Once she finally faced it and accepted it for what it was, fought it back so she could love her son fully, she could finally tame it and allow herself to live again and move forward. Like grief, the Babadook will never go away, but it can be quiet, and it can be controlled. We keep our grief locked up, but we HAVE to go back regularly and look at it, face it, accept it, and tell ourselves "It's okay." She must feel her grief to keep it under control, but now she can compartmentalize and keep it from her son until he is old enough to understand and share it with her. On his birthday, she finally hosted him a party, but of COURSE that anniversary will always be traumatic, so she kept it together for him and excused herself to the basement where the Babadook resides to feed and quell her grief and sorrow. And, once it was sated and she had breathed through the pain of the past, she was able to return and be with her son in the present. It's a surprisingly beautiful message for a horror film!!!
Spot on analysis, Chris! But that's been pointed out several times here already. However: Can we talk about the acting? As clever as the allegorical approach to the scriptwriting is, the film wouldn't have had the same impact without Essie Davis acting like her life depended on it.
I don't watch much horror, but this is one of my favourites, right up there with the original Japanese "Ring" (also highly recommend if you haven't seen it, it's much better than the American remake in my opinion). I agree with the common interpretation that the Babadook is a manifestation of grief/trauma. The line "the more you deny, the stronger I get" completely fits with that, as does the fact that "you can't get rid of the Babadook". Grief isn't something that every stops existing. You need accept it, and you need to keep accepting it, in order to heal. Glad to hear your appreciation for the sound design in this film, it's spectacular. (The Babadook saying "ba-ba-dook-dook-doooook" will never not give me chills.) As is the music, or more accurately the knowledge of when NOT to use music. I think the final confrontation with the Babadook would be so much *less* scary if there was scary music playing.
The sound is something I keyed into even more when editing this because I realized how truly quiet the quiet parts were at times and it really was so effective!
@@CasualNerdReactions The movie The Woman in Black could have benefited from this so much. It's a very scary movie, but there are whole segments where the music is so overpowering that it actually detracts from the creepiness of the story and visuals. I don't need all this string music going "oooh! 🎵 This is scary! 🎶 Do you feel scared? 🎵 SO SCARY!" when some silence and wind and creaky floorboards would have done a much better job.
Also I can now see why Samuel got mad when his mom said that she wasn’t scared of The Babadook, even though her reaction is understandable. It’s often the opposite of helpful when someone says they’re not scared of something you’re terrified of and that’s why you shouldn’t be. Since you aren’t them, and you just feel more alone and afraid. And the kid was right about the presence of the Babadook or something like it that he acknowledged which his mother didn’t.
Thanks for the therepy session. I mean REALLY. Thank you. I've been dealing with some messed up things for years, but I've gotten help. Sometimes though, they resurface, suddenly and for NO reason. I would deal with them again and again, as the need arises. But, I never dealt with what their resurgence did to me. How they made me feel. I didn't even know they did anything at all until your "therepy session". It REALLY resonated with what I had NO idea I was dealing with. And it REALLY helped, so, thank you.
If you've got to watch something scary this is a great choice. I think you have a very good grasp on what the movie is about. The mother is not processing the grief she feels over her husband's death. On top of that she resents her son, at least subconsciously, and is also mad at herself for feeling that way. Even though she loves her son she's so bogged down by that grief that for 6 years he hasn't even had a normal life. So now he's seeing his mom struggling and his kid brain sees her grief as a monster and he tries to protect her from it. Unfortunately that gets him in trouble and this all adds to her stress and she's thinking how unfair it is that her husband is gone and she now has this child that is constantly needing her attention and will for at least twelve more years. She's just spiraling. So either the Babadook is a representation of her unprocessed grief or it's a monster that feeds on said grief. The only way to defeat it is to process her emotions. But as anyone who has lost someone can tell you the grief never fully goes away. You can never get rid of it. You can only learn to live with it and move forward with your life. I always wondered why you would feed your grief but I guess this is part of living with it. If you don't deal with it (in this case feed it) it can overwhelm you. At least, that's my take.
Little fun fact: The producer released a limited number of replicas of the completed and signed version of the book. The book ends by saying this: “Whether adult or child, best you give me a home. Put the welcome mat out with a room of my own. And accept that I’m here and from you I have grown. Keep me smaller in size. I might leave you alone. …I only said might. 😈”
I liked your talk at the end! It was encouraging. 😊 This time I was struck by how the mother was choosing her son over her (deceased) husband and dëáth. In a way it’s understandable to “love” him more than one’s newborn, at least initially or in a different way. Because she had so many memories with him, he was able to support her, and she knew who he was. But her son certainly sensed this resentment his whole life. I forgot that the kid said “ladies and gentlemen, mom and dad!” sometimes when he did his magic tricks. :(
I took it as a symbol of grief and depression, but that didn’t take anything away from my enjoying it as a horror movie. I thought it was very well done. The scene where the Babadook comes in and takes over the mother still gives me chills.
Also, you should check out and react on here to the 1960s movie “The Haunting”. It’s based on the same novel as the series is, if memory serves. So chilling, classic black and white, no CGI, awesome performances.
Some people also watched it after seeing the show and found that interesting. I haven’t watched the show or even read the book, so I can’t say for sure. Just thought it was an interesting perspective because it sounds like the series took a lot of inspiration from the shorter work(s?) and expanded on them. I thought The Haunting was a scary movie when I was a kid, but rewatching it as an adult… it still is chilling lol. It’s also more wryly funny than I remembered, though.
Scary, but a pretty well written piece. 'The Haunting of Hill House' is good, you definitely will enjoy it. A good horror film with Kevin Bacon is 'Stir of Echoes' that also doesn't step over the line (like the movie 'Rec' does). And when you get back to comedy you really should check out 'Hannah and her Sisters'. Brilliant!
I really like this movie. As Adam Sandler movies are the bottom feeders for comedy, jump scare "horror" movies are the same for horror. This movie goes out of his way to NOT jump scare People :)
I just realized babadook, can anagram out to (a bad book) . To be fair the movie is titled The Babadook so.... Just interesting. Haven't tried (the) in that anagram. PS, just realized the book is named Mister Babadook. Hmmm
This movie shows, to an uncomfortable degree, what otherwise decent humans can become if they do not process their grief, trauma, wounds of all kinds. It shows just how dark things can get for an overwhelmed mother (& therefore for her children), while somehow keeping the mom a sympathetic character. It shows how annoying & difficult a child can be, while still making it clear he is nothing more than an innocent at the mercy of the adults around him. And yeah, the darkness never fully goes away. One must remain mindful of it, and feed it a bowl of dirt once & awhile.
That’s so weird. I was honestly just typing how you’d LOVE The Haunting of Hill House. And as I typed the name… you said it aloud. Far and away the best horror series ever made. Creepy as all hell, tons of atmosphere and jaw dropping performances from every single member of the cast. Somber and emotional, buckle up! Oh… it’s also got the single best jump scare in cinematic history lol. So that’ll be fun to watch you 💩💩yourself 😂
most of the time you can't get rid of the depression, so you can lock him away and still live a normal life. sometimes depressing things feed it, like annoying children lol. i enjoyed the monster but for a change the child actor was so good at being annoying I never watched the movie a 2nd time. You overthink away! I don't think you overthought it at all, but that's what we're here for, to hear your thoughts on the movies and shows :)
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 80 | คู่เอก "รักษ์ vs ยอดนำชัย"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ckLMRorsMeY/mqdefault.jpg)
I have always been too scared to watch this movie, so this is the first time I’ve even seen parts of it. My read is that the Babadook is the manifestation of grief. For seven years this little family lived in a bit of suspended animation, avoiding and ignoring the swelling grief, and now is when it came to a head. And that’s why she has to feed it at the end - grief never goes away, in my experience, but it has to be acknowledged. The only way past it is through it. After she controlled the grief, and found a place for it where it wouldn’t hurt Samuel any more, she has to occasionally go acknowledge it, sit with it. And it can be scary and difficult as depicted. But when she came back and Samuel asked her how it was today she told him it was quiet, and I think that’s not a lie, it’s a comparison to how it was before.
Spot on. I don't think people who have not experienced extreme grief can fully appreciate the insight of films like this.
You do have to eventually stop treating it like a monster, realize it is the healing process, and incorporate it without giving up on living.
Yes, absolutely!! When I was editing it that ending scene where she visits and has that final encounter with the babadook hit completely different and really made so much sense in that context of grief and loss. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Yes, this! It’s interesting to keep in mind how she couldn’t expel it by defying it, but she could start to claim her motherhood and connection to her child again by doing that rather than ignoring it. Then she had to fully accept it.
As for it being scary, I love this movie, but waited until daytime to watch this reaction lol.
I think the babadook is a physical representation of the mom's grief, depression, trauma. When it goes down into the basement, I think that was the mom pushing that grief deep down inside herself. When she goes to feed it at the end I think that means that sometimes she visits those feelings but she has a better grasp on it and can contain it, she keeps it locked away but it's never really gone. Like anyone dealing with trauma or depression or grief, sometimes those feelings resurface but as long as she acknowledges it (keep it fed), she can control it. IDK that's just my interpretation.
Yes, plus she kept all the thing of her husband down in the basement, making it the perfect nest to grief.
In my opinion, the Babadook is the mother's grief. She was pushing it down all those years, refusing to talk about it or move on, letting it grow stronger and stronger, and then she broke. Once she finally faced it and accepted it for what it was, fought it back so she could love her son fully, she could finally tame it and allow herself to live again and move forward.
Like grief, the Babadook will never go away, but it can be quiet, and it can be controlled. We keep our grief locked up, but we HAVE to go back regularly and look at it, face it, accept it, and tell ourselves "It's okay." She must feel her grief to keep it under control, but now she can compartmentalize and keep it from her son until he is old enough to understand and share it with her.
On his birthday, she finally hosted him a party, but of COURSE that anniversary will always be traumatic, so she kept it together for him and excused herself to the basement where the Babadook resides to feed and quell her grief and sorrow. And, once it was sated and she had breathed through the pain of the past, she was able to return and be with her son in the present.
It's a surprisingly beautiful message for a horror film!!!
You're right. Babadook is basically a metaphor for grief. You can't ever totally get rid of it. That's why it keeps on living in their basement.
"The stare of looking" xD Haha that was unexpectedly funny
Spot on analysis, Chris! But that's been pointed out several times here already. However: Can we talk about the acting? As clever as the allegorical approach to the scriptwriting is, the film wouldn't have had the same impact without Essie Davis acting like her life depended on it.
I don't watch much horror, but this is one of my favourites, right up there with the original Japanese "Ring" (also highly recommend if you haven't seen it, it's much better than the American remake in my opinion). I agree with the common interpretation that the Babadook is a manifestation of grief/trauma. The line "the more you deny, the stronger I get" completely fits with that, as does the fact that "you can't get rid of the Babadook". Grief isn't something that every stops existing. You need accept it, and you need to keep accepting it, in order to heal.
Glad to hear your appreciation for the sound design in this film, it's spectacular. (The Babadook saying "ba-ba-dook-dook-doooook" will never not give me chills.) As is the music, or more accurately the knowledge of when NOT to use music. I think the final confrontation with the Babadook would be so much *less* scary if there was scary music playing.
The sound is something I keyed into even more when editing this because I realized how truly quiet the quiet parts were at times and it really was so effective!
@@CasualNerdReactions The movie The Woman in Black could have benefited from this so much. It's a very scary movie, but there are whole segments where the music is so overpowering that it actually detracts from the creepiness of the story and visuals. I don't need all this string music going "oooh! 🎵 This is scary! 🎶 Do you feel scared? 🎵 SO SCARY!" when some silence and wind and creaky floorboards would have done a much better job.
Also I can now see why Samuel got mad when his mom said that she wasn’t scared of The Babadook, even though her reaction is understandable. It’s often the opposite of helpful when someone says they’re not scared of something you’re terrified of and that’s why you shouldn’t be. Since you aren’t them, and you just feel more alone and afraid. And the kid was right about the presence of the Babadook or something like it that he acknowledged which his mother didn’t.
Thanks for the therepy session. I mean REALLY. Thank you. I've been dealing with some messed up things for years, but I've gotten help. Sometimes though, they resurface, suddenly and for NO reason. I would deal with them again and again, as the need arises. But, I never dealt with what their resurgence did to me. How they made me feel. I didn't even know they did anything at all until your "therepy session". It REALLY resonated with what I had NO idea I was dealing with. And it REALLY helped, so, thank you.
this is traumatizing. The actors are freaking amazing.
If you've got to watch something scary this is a great choice. I think you have a very good grasp on what the movie is about.
The mother is not processing the grief she feels over her husband's death. On top of that she resents her son, at least subconsciously, and is also mad at herself for feeling that way. Even though she loves her son she's so bogged down by that grief that for 6 years he hasn't even had a normal life. So now he's seeing his mom struggling and his kid brain sees her grief as a monster and he tries to protect her from it. Unfortunately that gets him in trouble and this all adds to her stress and she's thinking how unfair it is that her husband is gone and she now has this child that is constantly needing her attention and will for at least twelve more years. She's just spiraling. So either the Babadook is a representation of her unprocessed grief or it's a monster that feeds on said grief. The only way to defeat it is to process her emotions.
But as anyone who has lost someone can tell you the grief never fully goes away. You can never get rid of it. You can only learn to live with it and move forward with your life.
I always wondered why you would feed your grief but I guess this is part of living with it. If you don't deal with it (in this case feed it) it can overwhelm you.
At least, that's my take.
Little fun fact: The producer released a limited number of replicas of the completed and signed version of the book. The book ends by saying this:
“Whether adult or child, best you give me a home.
Put the welcome mat out with a room of my own.
And accept that I’m here and from you I have grown.
Keep me smaller in size. I might leave you alone.
…I only said might. 😈”
I liked your talk at the end! It was encouraging. 😊
This time I was struck by how the mother was choosing her son over her (deceased) husband and dëáth. In a way it’s understandable to “love” him more than one’s newborn, at least initially or in a different way. Because she had so many memories with him, he was able to support her, and she knew who he was. But her son certainly sensed this resentment his whole life.
I forgot that the kid said “ladies and gentlemen, mom and dad!” sometimes when he did his magic tricks. :(
I took it as a symbol of grief and depression, but that didn’t take anything away from my enjoying it as a horror movie. I thought it was very well done. The scene where the Babadook comes in and takes over the mother still gives me chills.
I recommend 3 black and white movies; The Magnetic Monster, The Monolith Monsters, and The Giant Claw.
Lmao auntieAnne’s pretzels. I’ve worked at Auntie Anne’s for 10 years, and I could make those pretzels in my sleep
Also, you should check out and react on here to the 1960s movie “The Haunting”. It’s based on the same novel as the series is, if memory serves. So chilling, classic black and white, no CGI, awesome performances.
Some people also watched it after seeing the show and found that interesting. I haven’t watched the show or even read the book, so I can’t say for sure. Just thought it was an interesting perspective because it sounds like the series took a lot of inspiration from the shorter work(s?) and expanded on them.
I thought The Haunting was a scary movie when I was a kid, but rewatching it as an adult… it still is chilling lol. It’s also more wryly funny than I remembered, though.
Ah, the amazing Essie Davis❤
Bring back Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries!!!
I watched this movie recently and it’s really good
Scary, but a pretty well written piece. 'The Haunting of Hill House' is good, you definitely will enjoy it. A good horror film with Kevin Bacon is 'Stir of Echoes' that also doesn't step over the line (like the movie 'Rec' does). And when you get back to comedy you really should check out 'Hannah and her Sisters'. Brilliant!
Huh, I don't remember seeing this even in my subscriber feed, love this movie.
I really like this movie.
As Adam Sandler movies are the bottom feeders for comedy, jump scare "horror" movies are the same for horror.
This movie goes out of his way to NOT jump scare People :)
I just realized babadook, can anagram out to (a bad book) . To be fair the movie is titled The Babadook so.... Just interesting. Haven't tried (the) in that anagram.
PS, just realized the book is named Mister Babadook. Hmmm
This movie shows, to an uncomfortable degree, what otherwise decent humans can become if they do not process their grief, trauma, wounds of all kinds. It shows just how dark things can get for an overwhelmed mother (& therefore for her children), while somehow keeping the mom a sympathetic character. It shows how annoying & difficult a child can be, while still making it clear he is nothing more than an innocent at the mercy of the adults around him.
And yeah, the darkness never fully goes away. One must remain mindful of it, and feed it a bowl of dirt once & awhile.
That’s so weird. I was honestly just typing how you’d LOVE The Haunting of Hill House. And as I typed the name… you said it aloud.
Far and away the best horror series ever made. Creepy as all hell, tons of atmosphere and jaw dropping performances from every single member of the cast. Somber and emotional, buckle up!
Oh… it’s also got the single best jump scare in cinematic history lol. So that’ll be fun to watch you 💩💩yourself 😂
In retrospect this movie was perfect to watch in conjunction with Hill House. Excited to share those reactions!
Pretty terrifying. You try to figure out if it's real or in her mind or in her son's mind. But the dog....Wow. At least it was only the dog.
Nice to see some south australia representstion 😎
She pulled the tooth out because she had a toothache throughout the film. So one less problem
most of the time you can't get rid of the depression, so you can lock him away and still live a normal life. sometimes depressing things feed it, like annoying children lol. i enjoyed the monster but for a change the child actor was so good at being annoying I never watched the movie a 2nd time. You overthink away! I don't think you overthought it at all, but that's what we're here for, to hear your thoughts on the movies and shows :)