When I watched the babadook for the first time, I was scared of the babadook and annoyed with the kid. After my father’s passing, I re-watched and the movie wasn’t scary anymore. And I saw myself in that kid, all the anger, the sadness he felt while screaming, I felt it too. This movie is just so powerful.
@@Darth-Claw-Killflexfamily members die all the time, 1 thats a weird thing to lie about 2, you act like its such an uncommon impossible thing? kick rocks kiddo, clearly lacking common sense & intellect
Hey babes, when Samuel screams 'do you want to die??' it's not him threatening his mother. It's him scared for both of their lives because he sees & truly fears the Babadook. He understands their lives are in danger. He's trying to protect them in the only way he knows how (through magic & fairytales, because those are his way of understanding the world he's in). He's saying if you don't take the Babadook seriously, we'll both die.
I mean I get that was a mean thing to do and I don't necessarily blame Sam for reacting the way he did, but I also don't condone violence regardless of how rude someone's words are. Resorting to physical violence doesn't make anything better.
@@Treeeee2008 I wouldn't condone it, but what did she expect? That Sam would just take it or cry? Children should be educated about consequences like these far better than the schools would.
This moive was heavy on the psychological perspective thing the child was only copying and repeating the behaviors she's seen her parents do she doesn't filly understand the gravity just as much as the boy doesn't fully understand his anger and the consequences that came with it.
I always thought that Amelia's hands being dirty was a hint that she was the one that made the Babadook book in the first place, and she is also the one that repaired it...all without realizing it.
Ok but i think you missed a very important part when she brings the bowl of worms, she COMFORTS the babadook, which in terms of trauma and being that its a representation of her grief, the most important part is her showing kindness and comfort
Something I love about this movie is that it doesn't say you should fully suppress your grief or fully confront it. Instead, it shows that there's a delicate balance between facing it when it's appropriate and just sucking it up when you can't. Mental health is so fucked these days partly because people think they need to do things one way or the other instead of just doing what feels right. It's good to face your grief to learn about and overcome it, but if it's all you think about it will consume you.
My mom suffered from depression and had manic episodes since I could remember. She and my father would constantly fight and I think she was just unable to be her best self for me and now that I am older I can understand her a little better. This movie had brought back that stomach turning feeling and feeling small again. My heart goes out to any child in fear because of an adult dealing with mental health problems. It truly does feel like a scary movie or nightmare you can’t escape from.
I might have not experienced quite the same thing, but I understand what it's like to be afraid of your parent, my mom has anxiety and whenever she had an attack, she'd often yell scream and blame us (us being me and my two sisters) this often made me afraid of her, but I grew and started to understand why she did those things. (Probably could've used better word choices but I'm tired)
To me it also always felt like a analogy on her inability to love her son, partly of course due to her grief and partly due to holding her son responsible for not having her husband anymore. The movie is in both regards very deep - and i really love it for that.
call me judgemental but someone who kills their dog and has to be convinced to love their own children should be in friday the 13th films and not have a redempton arch. I specifically say this in the context of you reasoning that her inability to love her son is not a manifestation of her grief.
@@markbasilejr9808 i did not say that - i said imo its partly due to the grief (and im that of course following the Argumentation of the Video) - but i think there are other factors aswell. And forgiveness - in this case herself just as much as her son - is a key factor. She is often portraied projecting her lack of Joy onto her son. Especially in the masturbation scene, when he "denies" her the climax. The haunting/ posession by the Babadook takes All of this into very extreme Situations. But like i said: i would never go as far as to say grief had not a at least similarly big Part in all of this. Also: her son came into her life as a trade-off for her husband who she obviously REALLY loved. And then to get a kid, that is arguably hard to love due to its ADHD Tendencies and Borderline annoying behavior, is also a factor in how it could be neccessary to learn to love this child. Especially when you hold him involuntarily responsible for what happened. But thats just my way of reading this.
She does love her son, but she also resents him because in her mind, he's the reason her husband died. Those emotions are not mutually exclusive; grief is messy and complex. @@markbasilejr9808
@@markbasilejr9808I feel like she definitely does not deserve a redemption but I think in the context of this movie where we are trying to see her recover it makes sense. She can't fully recover or make up for past mistakes she just has to learn to live with them knowing they happened the way they did
@@markbasilejr9808 damn bro you really going to undermine the entire message of the movie and the literal horror ramifications of the movie to take a moral highground here? first of all the entire movie was meant to show that your grief can make you do horrible things that you will regret and that you HAVE to face it or it will drive you insane second of all its a horror movie with a monster that can take over peoples minds and actions. did you ignore EVERYTHING to take this shite opinion or are you just stupid? also you really going to undermine everything to reduce her to just "someone who kills their dog and has to be convinced to love their son"? weak shit man, truly pathetic
The Babadook is a good analogy for grief, depression, & that little disparaging voice in the back of your mind. The point isn’t to get rid of it or change it, but to learn how to live with it. Make room for it, & use it to be better. Personally, I’ve given the little mean voice a new job. Instead of tearing me down, it now tears down the bad thoughts before they can grow. I can’t get rid of it, nor change it, but I can give it a new purpose.
Oh gosh, this sounds similar to what I learned to do with my trauma/PTSD. I will make the past fight the new... I've convinced myself it weakens the issue and it makes it more bearable for me to handle. Basically, nothing will ever beat the horrors of my past. If I can survive that then I can survive this new thing. Its worked really well for me.
@@vixxxenfoxxx3660 I hear you. The past won’t go away, but it can be put to work on offense. It’s helpful in many ways. Basically, if nothing could ever be worse, then you can conquer anything.
I really loved this movie. The Babadook was a great representation of depression and how it can drive people insane. I also love how it showed at the end of the movie that depression cant always be vanquished but it can be controlled ❤️
Yes. I loved that she found a way to satiate the babadook. Because in real life, you can't always get rid of depression or grief and I connected with that way more.
My mom hates this film I thought it was a masterpiece I love the representation of grief of thought Essie Davis was excellent & though I wanted to shake Samuel til he stopped I thought he acted to perfection
Just a short remark: It's not that the kid becomes "the man in the house", it's actually the reversal of child-parent-roles often happening with (a) dysfunctional parent(s).
Yeah that was pretty blatant sarcasm, but I agree with your comment, it also would've been also nice for CZ to mention Minuchin's theory of parentification which is especially prevalent in single-parent households. It fits the story of the Babadook so perfectly, with the kid having a better understanding of grief+having to calm and parent their own mother because she's dysregulated etc., I wonder what Minuchin thinks about Babadook haha
I genuinely think this film is an underrated masterpiece, one of the most effective films at producing slow building tension I've ever seen in my life, and that monochrome dark fairy-tale vibe is just to die for
I feel the same way, I got defensive when he made the comparisons to all the other super schlocky films that have the same tropes but.. he's not entirely wrong. I just thing that the core conceit of the film is so strong and the actual filmmaking so good i never once judged it for aping those horror tropes. plus the music is brilliant and the performances of the mom and son are absolutely phenomenal. everything about the films design is incredible and it's so scary. Even just some of the faces Essie Davis makes when she's fully gone mad are pure nightmare fuel.
I seem to recall Emelia mentioning that she used to work in publishing or as an illustrator or something along those lines. I took that as an indication that she had created the book.
Yes, during the birthday party with all the other moms you can hear them talk about how she used to be an illustrator. It's subtle but if you listen closely you can catch it.
I remember watching this movie for the first time and realizing the reason everyone hated the kid was because he was acting like an actual child. I’ve noticed most of the time hated kid characters in movie and shows just behave like an actual child would and that’s what makes everyone mad. Personally I adore the kid he just need help
I will never stop being baffled at the advanced levels of emotional maturity that adults demand from children. Emotional regulation that is developmentally impossible for them even if the adults around them are setting good examples (which is too often not the case). Seriously, where do these expectations come from?? 😢
Yeah but I also don't think you should be expected to like kids then. Yeah it's normal behaviour and not their fault, but I just don't like it and don't want kids, which nobody should be blamed for either.
When the kid says "Do you wanna die?" I think he meant that he wouldn't be able to protect his mom without the weapons, and she would die. I don't think he was threatening her
The Babadook somewhat reminds me of the book/movie Beloved. The main character's grief was so powerful that it manifested/incarcerated as a grown version of her deceased infant and it wreaks absolute havoc on her and her surviving family until it drains her physically, mentally and emotionally just like Amelia. There is also extensive harm done to the family's dog at the hands of the angry entity.
Sometimes I think about that time when Netflix accidentally put the Babadook under the LGBTQ+ section for like a week and Tumblr lost its mind. Good times. We love Ally Babadook.
Just wanna point out the Kubler-Ross model was developed while studying terminally ill patients (and their close loved ones) about their processing their impending death. It doesn't always cover grief *after* the fact
The way I see it, after watching this movie a few times. Even though the Babadook is the embodiment of grief and depression: the kid, though annoying, really loves his mother and is trying to save her from the "babadook" because he wants his mother to be happy and not get consumed by the "babadook." The neighbor was the main loving one that actually cared about Amelia and Samuel and tried to give her support and is a grandmotherly figure. The more you dive into it, it's actually really sad. And little Ruby and Claire... Ruby deserved that broken nose as she was a little shit
The grief cycle does not happen in any particular order, nor is it linear because you can go back and forth between stages. After I lost my dad my psychiatrist explained that thinking the stages go in order is a common misconception.
Same. I found that out myself after the sudden loss of my mother. When I thought I had finally accepted it (keyword; thought), I would dream she was alive again and if I wanted to make sure she didn't go back to being gone I could never say, imply or even think "wait, you're gone" cause then it would make it true. Yeah, very much like the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, but I guess that's my subconsciousness stuck in bargaining, mixed with depression forming guilt. I don't think I've had that dream for a while now, but in my waking life I still feel like I'm picking up the pieces.
This is not where I expected to see someone explain that the Kubler-Ross Grief Model isn’t linear… but I’m glad that was added in. For anyone grieving, please look into the Tasks of Mourning. That’s the more prominent model used nowadays, and be kind to yourself!
There is an incredible amount of relatability to the grief, anger and desperation. It adds so much depth to the characters. As you said there are familiar filmmaking techniques but I think the characters make this one special. I really love all your horror histories as I find them so fascinating and you present them with such personality. This one though was particularly good.
I swear to God I remember watching this movie so badly when I was a kid growing up and I never understood the monster the child or the story of the rifle how this all happened but thanks to you were going to know it all
I myself very much love the babadook and , after losing my mom, even more so because it’s so very true . The grief never goes away. Some days are better and it seems to hide away and other days it just looms over you .
Just as a personal breakdown for the ending, the Babadook representing grief and still giving it food since it isn’t truly defeated, is how we deal with grief. If we let it fester and grow and never confront it it gets worse but even after we face it and get control, we are still mourning. We don’t forget the sadness or the pain, we just learn to live with it, and tend to it from time to time when we need to.
Yikes…I’m going to be honest never saw this film and looking at my situation, I wasn’t ready. Tia breakdown, what the director did…..I am now facing (and properly mourning) the loss of my marriage. When tings appended I did go to therapy but this (the film ) was right up my alley. Being a single parent is not easy, at all, and I encourage anyone going though this to just talk to someone. Grief is…..hard. You can do this.
Loved the Whang shoutout! Dunno why, but it always makes me happy to find out creators that I like are in contact (or at least know of) each other. Another great video! Such a good movie. My CZsWorld shirt will be delivered in a couple days!
Loved this video. A lot of people seem to misinterpret the fact that there’s subtext and metaphors as the events not taking place or just being a hallucination, but everything shown in the film right up to the ending indicates otherwise. Everything from the ending with the works to the book’s very existence shows that this monster is tangible and real, hell, even on a metaphorical level it makes sense for it to be real- why make a horror movie representation of real problems if the problems aren’t even physically present in the film’s world? It sort of undermines the entire subtext when you think about it. The series of events did happen, the movie was just made with the intention of it also serving as a representation of grief.
Hmmm yeah, filling in that metaphorical void in her mind and putting the memory of her husband to rest. It's even in the basement of the house... where she's "buried" the reminders of him too. Plenty of symbolism there
The ending is realistic. We may take our problems and circumstances with us to the grave. But attitude and perspective CAN make a difference. It won't absolutely get rid of our problems---but we have something our problems don't have: The Ability to Adapt, to come back from the darkness stronger than ever!
man i've never once watched the full movie, i always get like 30 minutes in and cant because its so damn spoopy, i dont understand how someone can be so good at writing, because it hits me on both an intellectual level and in my feelers
I also think the scene where they're at the cousin's birthday party shows that she's not taking care of herself. Her grief and depression is causing her to not value self-care which is very common. It doesn't just show that she doesn't have time but that she doesn't value her own self worth. It's not just the makeup but the way she dresses and puts her hair up is very low effort attire because it's what's easiest.
On top of your great analysis of many horror movie characters, you also have a great sense of humor. I was not expecting the “welcome to the kill count” clip, classic horror comedy imo
The Babodook was the first film that both terrified me and made me cry. The babadook was the personification of her grief at the gruesome, visceral death of her husband sitting right next to her in a car crash. Repressing the pain was killing her and splitting her personality. Her son could see it changing her and was scared of her "other" self. She began to resent her son because she reminded her of his dad so her "other" self wrote the children's book to bring him into her nightmare. But eventually she beat it and confined it someplace manageable so she could move on and be happy again. The babadook is such a perfect metaphor for unbearable pain and grief. The message is that it can't be killed or repressed, only confronted and contained. That's so sad and so true.
Why does this remind me of the game, “The Man From The Window.”? They both have books that summon them, which show what to do about them, and the protagonist’s are both mothers and sons. The antagonists also knock three times except, the babadook knocks in a unknown location whilst the man from the window knocks on obviously, the window.
@deadmeat and the golden chainsaw for the best kill goes to… 😂😂 love both you and deadmeat so so so much!!! So much entertainment and education all rolled into one!
the 1st time i watched the babadook i didnt make it past the scene where she losses her shit bc I too had been in that dark of a place and lost that kind of control. i didnt hurt anyone other than myself but seeing that transition taking place broke me down infront of my roommate at the time who immediately stopped the movie and just held me while i cried my eyes out for a good hour and 1/2. a couple of years later i rewatched the movie from start to finish and was proud of myself bc i had been going to therapy for a couple years to help me just deal with my childhood, my dad dying in my arms, loosing my son the following year of my dads passing in healthier way instead of how i had been dealing with everything. it is a really good movie that helps highlight grief and how dealing with things that cause trauma can be hard and a movie i suggest to for ppl to watch now a days
Found your channel by chance and am ADDICTED 😂 I love horror, and you're very humorous and eloquent during your videos 🖤🖤 thank you for your time and efforts!
Wow! Very interesting video! It made me want to revisit The Babadook. The Babadook was one of the first movies that motivated me to explore the horror genre more.
I took the bowl of worms as a means to keep the babadook (her grief) small in size as worms eat away at dead things…this is her accepting her husband is gone 🤷♂️ love your channel man, one of the best horror channels on the youtubes! 🤘
If I’ve said it before, I’ve said it a million times, but Horror History is the best content online. The research and effort he puts into his work is fantastic! Thank you Zac! You’re the best! 😂❤
I watched this film back when it first came out with a good friend of mine who also enjoys analyzing movies. We talked a bit about it, and about what we noticed with some of the more surface level allusions to the Babadook as an analogy for grief, but I don't think we really fully understood what the film was doing. This video does a pretty good job at capturing a lot of the stuff we missed back then. I haven't watched it since it came out, but I've been going through some stresses in life, and I think my biggest takeaway from this essay is the moral of the story - which I missed all those years ago: you can't get rid of it. You can only deal with it, acknowledge it, manage it, and hope. And when it rears its ugly head once again, as it's bound to, you need to be honest with yourself about your feelings and work on it. Ignoring it or trying to get rid of it doesn't solve the problem. And I think this is because unlike some mental illness, grief, anxiety, depression, and the like are natural parts of our body's healing process. A therapist I once saw told me something that stuck with me: Feeling is healing. Acknowledging and accepting your feelings are the first step toward overcoming them.
I really loved the colour pallette of the film, a real drab kind of blue everywhere especially their house, that represents how depression now strengthened by the grief has percolated into every environment the mother finds herself in.
Amelia abuses her son and kills his dog and gets a redemption arc, meanwhile, Jack is possessed by demons and fueled with the stress of protecting his son and he freezes to death?
Yeah there's some common tropes but the emotional storyline with characters we cared about, the deterioration and terror watching the mother slowly fall, it's something a lot of horror movies just haven't done, they haven't made us care about anyone with one dimension characters etc. This and Hereditary are awesome in my opinion
i feel like the babadook isn't the antagonist in this movie (yes i haven't watched it we're having renovations done to the apartament i don't have time to), sure, the babadook is terorizimg amilia but it is just a manifestation of her grief, it's essencial goal is to force amilia (correct me if i mispelled the name) to recognize her issues and grief, it's mainly her, in her stubborness that causes the problems
The son didn't say "Do you wanna die" to his mom as if to punk her. He said it like he can't protect her from the Babadook if she takes his homemade weapons. 😊
Yo man I just wanted to say I really love this channel for real you given all the history tours horror Flix I really hope that you make more Horror history in time
I've lived with depression for almost 14 years. I think I was finally starting to come to terms with the death of my Nan. Then the neighbours dog attacked my 14 year old cat. She didn't survive in March 7 2020. It was a week before my semester at uni. I was a wreck and went back to feeling numb and lost all motivation to do my assignmernts. I had trouble before that but had always been able to force myself to do. It become all the harder after Clare died. The deadline of an assignment almost wasn't enough to get me to do my assignments. Thankfully I never stopped writing but in October/November of 2020 I found I legitmately couldn't start writing an assignment for histroy. A subject I love. I decided to take a break for a little while. After Claire died I would have a bunny (stotry idea) pop into my head every now and then with a vivid idea. A girl in bed being woken by meowing a the door, she opens the door to find a ghost cat, the cat comes in and jumps onto the kitchen counte. It was the same idea again and again but I couldn't write it down. I wasn't ready to write it down yet. The idea kept popping into my head every now and then at random. Then last year I watched Sell Your Haunted House, true I had to use a review site to understand what was going on in the episode (and got gutpunched twice by an episode, first when I watched it and half understood what was going on. Then again after reading the episode review). It was a little painful and I got scared when my toothbrush started buzzing despite the battery being dead. I kept watching, the lights in my apartment turned on and the curtains to the balcony closed. I felt like I needed to continue watching it. I ended up crying, it one of the few shows that can make me more than tear up. I felt better after that and could finally write the Ghost Cat story around two years later after her death. I've written the start but haven't written anything else. I'll still miss her. She was the last little bit of my childhood. She walked into my life in December of 2007 (I was 8), Mum said I could keep her if she was still there when we got back from our family trip, and walked back out in March 2020. I moved out of home three months later on June 15th at 21. I'm glad I moved out when I did. I needed to move out. I'll always miss her. I've lived with my Babadook for a long time. Writing is my way of dealing with it.
@@chaos_is_my_guilty_pleasure Some days are better than other. Sometimes I dont have the energy to get anything done or have the motivation to get thing done. The motivation thing is very much effecting me.
@@yamiatemyugi I understand. There can be days when you feel almost you again and others when you can barely force yourself off the bed. But it does get better. For me, I just distract my turbulent feelings with things I like to do. It's not exactly the healthiest coping mechanism, but it works.
I know you probably won't see this but please update the history of John Kramer when the new saw movie comes out and please make things you missed for it. My birthday is the 21st and it comes out the 29th so I'm kinda looking at it as a late birthday present to me. Lol I'm a huge saw fan. My fiance is kinda freaked out about how much I know about saw. But what can I say??? I'm OBSESSED!!!
How could you miss a video on The Haunting in Connecticut. Like you are the best creator I have came across! Love you, but please make a video on The Haunting in Connecticut
"Nobody's Mind is gonna be blown" 1:10 Sir... I didn't know what the Babadook represented. You underestimated how mind blowing this would be. Gotta go watch the movie again.
I appreciate the little rant on the Possession movie tropes. As someone who consumes horror movies like candy I've seen more than my fair share of moving furniture, doors opening and closing, and the Air-Yeeting. It's all incredibly tired. I've come to just accept it and I tell myself that this is just the constraints of what these ghosts/demons can do (even though often it's logically not) so I don't lose my mind. I try my best to ignore it and just look for a good story.
i don't think this movie reinvented the genre, it just did its familiar themes with skill and care and the story was pretty well written even though it was predictable.
Honestly I don't care about predictability at this point because it's such an easy nitpick, what truly matters is how well you tell the story, not how *surprising* it is.
Thank you so much for your content. I am too scared to watch horror films myself and I don't like jumpscares and graphic scenes. However i am fascinated by the stories, I used to read the summaries on the wikipedia pages. Your channel with the detailed summaries mixed with jokes to make it lighter is perfect for me to enjoy those stories.
![ร้อยพ่อพันแม่ - WanMai [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XY2pNYASEbg/mqdefault.jpg)
When I watched the babadook for the first time, I was scared of the babadook and annoyed with the kid. After my father’s passing, I re-watched and the movie wasn’t scary anymore. And I saw myself in that kid, all the anger, the sadness he felt while screaming, I felt it too. This movie is just so powerful.
I’m so sorry for your loss ❤️😔
I lost my dad too 🫂
I think you made all of that up for attention.
@@Darth-Claw-KillflexYour comment is for attention 🙄
@@Darth-Claw-Killflexfamily members die all the time,
1 thats a weird thing to lie about
2, you act like its such an uncommon impossible thing?
kick rocks kiddo, clearly lacking common sense & intellect
Hey babes, when Samuel screams 'do you want to die??' it's not him threatening his mother. It's him scared for both of their lives because he sees & truly fears the Babadook. He understands their lives are in danger. He's trying to protect them in the only way he knows how (through magic & fairytales, because those are his way of understanding the world he's in). He's saying if you don't take the Babadook seriously, we'll both die.
Bro who are you calling babe?
Only the babes bro, you don't have to worry
@@aroha9090 Uh huh....
I rlly hope ppl understood how he said it lol
@SirDankleberry it's not weird bro 😎👍
Truth be told the cousin kinda deserved what she got. Making fun of someone's grief is just cruel. Besides it could have ended a lot worse.
I mean I get that was a mean thing to do and I don't necessarily blame Sam for reacting the way he did, but I also don't condone violence regardless of how rude someone's words are. Resorting to physical violence doesn't make anything better.
@@Treeeee2008 I wouldn't condone it, but what did she expect? That Sam would just take it or cry? Children should be educated about consequences like these far better than the schools would.
I Lowkey Agree
This moive was heavy on the psychological perspective thing the child was only copying and repeating the behaviors she's seen her parents do she doesn't filly understand the gravity just as much as the boy doesn't fully understand his anger and the consequences that came with it.
@@kayay101 Fully, not filly. And I know.
I always thought that Amelia's hands being dirty was a hint that she was the one that made the Babadook book in the first place, and she is also the one that repaired it...all without realizing it.
Yes, exactly. She mentions to those women at Ruby's party that she used to write children's stories.
How many of these Stages you Had
You can also see the art supplies on a table in the background.
Wow...I never thought of that.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Now I have to go back and rewatch the movie.
Posthumous birth is one thing. Posthumous conception is something else
Ok but i think you missed a very important part when she brings the bowl of worms, she COMFORTS the babadook, which in terms of trauma and being that its a representation of her grief, the most important part is her showing kindness and comfort
Something I love about this movie is that it doesn't say you should fully suppress your grief or fully confront it. Instead, it shows that there's a delicate balance between facing it when it's appropriate and just sucking it up when you can't. Mental health is so fucked these days partly because people think they need to do things one way or the other instead of just doing what feels right. It's good to face your grief to learn about and overcome it, but if it's all you think about it will consume you.
@@DotKom01that’s what I love about this movie too!
For me that’s the most beautiful part of the movie
My mom suffered from depression and had manic episodes since I could remember. She and my father would constantly fight and I think she was just unable to be her best self for me and now that I am older I can understand her a little better. This movie had brought back that stomach turning feeling and feeling small again. My heart goes out to any child in fear because of an adult dealing with mental health problems. It truly does feel like a scary movie or nightmare you can’t escape from.
That's sad af bro, props to you for dealing with it and pushing through
The fact no one got ur mother the help she needed shows your family is useless
I feel what you say my mom had the same episode same reason, I so feel what you say
Well I hope she's doing better as well as you
I might have not experienced quite the same thing, but I understand what it's like to be afraid of your parent, my mom has anxiety and whenever she had an attack, she'd often yell scream and blame us (us being me and my two sisters) this often made me afraid of her, but I grew and started to understand why she did those things. (Probably could've used better word choices but I'm tired)
To me it also always felt like a analogy on her inability to love her son, partly of course due to her grief and partly due to holding her son responsible for not having her husband anymore. The movie is in both regards very deep - and i really love it for that.
call me judgemental but someone who kills their dog and has to be convinced to love their own children should be in friday the 13th films and not have a redempton arch. I specifically say this in the context of you reasoning that her inability to love her son is not a manifestation of her grief.
@@markbasilejr9808 i did not say that - i said imo its partly due to the grief (and im that of course following the Argumentation of the Video) - but i think there are other factors aswell.
And forgiveness - in this case herself just as much as her son - is a key factor. She is often portraied projecting her lack of Joy onto her son. Especially in the masturbation scene, when he "denies" her the climax.
The haunting/ posession by the Babadook takes All of this into very extreme Situations. But like i said: i would never go as far as to say grief had not a at least similarly big Part in all of this.
Also: her son came into her life as a trade-off for her husband who she obviously REALLY loved. And then to get a kid, that is arguably hard to love due to its ADHD Tendencies and Borderline annoying behavior, is also a factor in how it could be neccessary to learn to love this child. Especially when you hold him involuntarily responsible for what happened.
But thats just my way of reading this.
She does love her son, but she also resents him because in her mind, he's the reason her husband died. Those emotions are not mutually exclusive; grief is messy and complex. @@markbasilejr9808
@@markbasilejr9808I feel like she definitely does not deserve a redemption but I think in the context of this movie where we are trying to see her recover it makes sense. She can't fully recover or make up for past mistakes she just has to learn to live with them knowing they happened the way they did
@@markbasilejr9808 damn bro you really going to undermine the entire message of the movie and the literal horror ramifications of the movie to take a moral highground here?
first of all the entire movie was meant to show that your grief can make you do horrible things that you will regret and that you HAVE to face it or it will drive you insane
second of all its a horror movie with a monster that can take over peoples minds and actions.
did you ignore EVERYTHING to take this shite opinion or are you just stupid?
also you really going to undermine everything to reduce her to just "someone who kills their dog and has to be convinced to love their son"? weak shit man, truly pathetic
You know what no one’s talking about? This man’s wearing a polo with a tie. That’s a bold move.
A tie with the pattern of the carpet in the Overlook Hotel from The Shining no less!
That's real terror and grief
dear lord. a polo with a tie !? what a mad man
Emo Abe is a trend setter leave him alone
its casual saturday!
The Babadook is a good analogy for grief, depression, & that little disparaging voice in the back of your mind. The point isn’t to get rid of it or change it, but to learn how to live with it. Make room for it, & use it to be better.
Personally, I’ve given the little mean voice a new job. Instead of tearing me down, it now tears down the bad thoughts before they can grow. I can’t get rid of it, nor change it, but I can give it a new purpose.
Oh gosh, this sounds similar to what I learned to do with my trauma/PTSD. I will make the past fight the new... I've convinced myself it weakens the issue and it makes it more bearable for me to handle. Basically, nothing will ever beat the horrors of my past. If I can survive that then I can survive this new thing.
Its worked really well for me.
@@vixxxenfoxxx3660 I hear you. The past won’t go away, but it can be put to work on offense. It’s helpful in many ways. Basically, if nothing could ever be worse, then you can conquer anything.
Reading this meant a lot to me. Thank you
@@julianyc422 ❤️
That is a badass way to look at it....thanks forever for that! :D
I really loved this movie. The Babadook was a great representation of depression and how it can drive people insane. I also love how it showed at the end of the movie that depression cant always be vanquished but it can be controlled ❤️
Psychotherapist here, great representacion of trauma too :)
Yes. I loved that she found a way to satiate the babadook. Because in real life, you can't always get rid of depression or grief and I connected with that way more.
@@bigpapapaycheck if a patient killed their dog you would have to report that crime though yeah?
@@markbasilejr9808 no, strangely enough. Dogs dont get the same consideratiom as humans
My mom hates this film I thought it was a masterpiece I love the representation of grief of thought Essie Davis was excellent & though I wanted to shake Samuel til he stopped I thought he acted to perfection
Just a short remark: It's not that the kid becomes "the man in the house", it's actually the reversal of child-parent-roles often happening with (a) dysfunctional parent(s).
I think he knows that he was being sarcastic💀
I'm pretty sure it's sarcasm. There's no way someone in 2023 would unironically say that haha (publicly, at least)
Yeah that was pretty blatant sarcasm, but I agree with your comment, it also would've been also nice for CZ to mention Minuchin's theory of parentification which is especially prevalent in single-parent households. It fits the story of the Babadook so perfectly, with the kid having a better understanding of grief+having to calm and parent their own mother because she's dysregulated etc., I wonder what Minuchin thinks about Babadook haha
lol pointless take
I genuinely think this film is an underrated masterpiece, one of the most effective films at producing slow building tension I've ever seen in my life, and that monochrome dark fairy-tale vibe is just to die for
I feel the same way, I got defensive when he made the comparisons to all the other super schlocky films that have the same tropes but.. he's not entirely wrong. I just thing that the core conceit of the film is so strong and the actual filmmaking so good i never once judged it for aping those horror tropes. plus the music is brilliant and the performances of the mom and son are absolutely phenomenal. everything about the films design is incredible and it's so scary. Even just some of the faces Essie Davis makes when she's fully gone mad are pure nightmare fuel.
I seem to recall Emelia mentioning that she used to work in publishing or as an illustrator or something along those lines.
I took that as an indication that she had created the book.
Yes, during the birthday party with all the other moms you can hear them talk about how she used to be an illustrator. It's subtle but if you listen closely you can catch it.
@EveryonesHiro88 Yes, that's it! thanks. been a while since I watched this movie.
It's a hard watch for many of the same reasons it's effective.
Amelia screaming “why can’t you just be normal?!” will always live in my head rent free lmao
(Amazing new horror history though! :))
LOL SAME HERE
It's not in your head
That's just your family talking to you
Great meme too
@@aliasfakename3159’why can’t you just be normal?!’ *bird shrieking*
Babadook: because I make u BABASHOOK.
Amelia: (more bird noises)
I remember watching this movie for the first time and realizing the reason everyone hated the kid was because he was acting like an actual child. I’ve noticed most of the time hated kid characters in movie and shows just behave like an actual child would and that’s what makes everyone mad. Personally I adore the kid he just need help
I will never stop being baffled at the advanced levels of emotional maturity that adults demand from children. Emotional regulation that is developmentally impossible for them even if the adults around them are setting good examples (which is too often not the case). Seriously, where do these expectations come from?? 😢
Yeah but I also don't think you should be expected to like kids then. Yeah it's normal behaviour and not their fault, but I just don't like it and don't want kids, which nobody should be blamed for either.
i think that's exactly why I dislike the character so much XD I can't stand children
@@axemaster8331 that’s not a good thing my dude
@@Fairy_Teeth how so? It’s not like I’m planning on having any. I don’t see the problem with not liking children
Literally just now dawned on me that reversing the first few consonants gives you "Dada book"
Oh my gosh-
Yikes
When the kid says "Do you wanna die?" I think he meant that he wouldn't be able to protect his mom without the weapons, and she would die. I don't think he was threatening her
I find this movie really interesting and I loved the ending where basically it’s like the monster isn’t vanquished, but you learn to live with it.
Not gonna lie, the “well that’s the end of the internet” line was our favorite part of an always good movie.
The Babadook somewhat reminds me of the book/movie Beloved. The main character's grief was so powerful that it manifested/incarcerated as a grown version of her deceased infant and it wreaks absolute havoc on her and her surviving family until it drains her physically, mentally and emotionally just like Amelia. There is also extensive harm done to the family's dog at the hands of the angry entity.
To the horror film industry: we will all be FINE if you quit writing characters who kill their dogs! 😭
I loved the Babadook! I enjoyed that the Babadook never goes away. Depression doesn’t go away, you just learn to manage it.
Man I been waiting for you to cover the Babadook and you finally did! Thank you CZ 🙏🏻
Sometimes I think about that time when Netflix accidentally put the Babadook under the LGBTQ+ section for like a week and Tumblr lost its mind. Good times. We love Ally Babadook.
tumblr shipping Babadook and Pennywise was a crazy time on that site
LMAO
@@sigsomethingWHAT
BabaSHOOK
@@sigsomethingNawrr 💀
Just wanna point out the Kubler-Ross model was developed while studying terminally ill patients (and their close loved ones) about their processing their impending death. It doesn't always cover grief *after* the fact
Grief doesn't have to wait until after the fact to start.
It can start at the moment of perceiving the betrayal
The way I see it, after watching this movie a few times. Even though the Babadook is the embodiment of grief and depression: the kid, though annoying, really loves his mother and is trying to save her from the "babadook" because he wants his mother to be happy and not get consumed by the "babadook."
The neighbor was the main loving one that actually cared about Amelia and Samuel and tried to give her support and is a grandmotherly figure.
The more you dive into it, it's actually really sad. And little Ruby and Claire... Ruby deserved that broken nose as she was a little shit
The grief cycle does not happen in any particular order, nor is it linear because you can go back and forth between stages. After I lost my dad my psychiatrist explained that thinking the stages go in order is a common misconception.
Same. I found that out myself after the sudden loss of my mother. When I thought I had finally accepted it (keyword; thought), I would dream she was alive again and if I wanted to make sure she didn't go back to being gone I could never say, imply or even think "wait, you're gone" cause then it would make it true.
Yeah, very much like the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, but I guess that's my subconsciousness stuck in bargaining, mixed with depression forming guilt.
I don't think I've had that dream for a while now, but in my waking life I still feel like I'm picking up the pieces.
This is not where I expected to see someone explain that the Kubler-Ross Grief Model isn’t linear… but I’m glad that was added in. For anyone grieving, please look into the Tasks of Mourning. That’s the more prominent model used nowadays, and be kind to yourself!
At the start, I hated Sam, but after hearing "Why can't you just be normal?!" I started to feel for him
There is an incredible amount of relatability to the grief, anger and desperation. It adds so much depth to the characters. As you said there are familiar filmmaking techniques but I think the characters make this one special. I really love all your horror histories as I find them so fascinating and you present them with such personality. This one though was particularly good.
I swear to God I remember watching this movie so badly when I was a kid growing up and I never understood the monster the child or the story of the rifle how this all happened but thanks to you were going to know it all
The tie is a stroke of genius (reference to The Shining). Can CZ’s world get any better? Excellent on every level and definitely eye candy as well
Australia is proving itself to be a country that pumps out top tier horror cinema. This film, Wolf Creek 1 and 2 and Talk to Me are awesome.
Don’t forget Lake Mungo based on one of the most haunting books ever House of Leaves
I myself very much love the babadook and , after losing my mom, even more so because it’s so very true . The grief never goes away. Some days are better and it seems to hide away and other days it just looms over you .
This movie does excellent portrayal of depression and its consequences that will haunt humanity for eternity
Shut up bot
Just as a personal breakdown for the ending, the Babadook representing grief and still giving it food since it isn’t truly defeated, is how we deal with grief.
If we let it fester and grow and never confront it it gets worse but even after we face it and get control, we are still mourning. We don’t forget the sadness or the pain, we just learn to live with it, and tend to it from time to time when we need to.
Yikes…I’m going to be honest never saw this film and looking at my situation, I wasn’t ready. Tia breakdown, what the director did…..I am now facing (and properly mourning) the loss of my marriage. When tings appended I did go to therapy but this (the film ) was right up my alley. Being a single parent is not easy, at all, and I encourage anyone going though this to just talk to someone. Grief is…..hard. You can do this.
"Welcome to the kill count" fr made me laugh.
Loved the Whang shoutout! Dunno why, but it always makes me happy to find out creators that I like are in contact (or at least know of) each other.
Another great video! Such a good movie. My CZsWorld shirt will be delivered in a couple days!
Loved this video. A lot of people seem to misinterpret the fact that there’s subtext and metaphors as the events not taking place or just being a hallucination, but everything shown in the film right up to the ending indicates otherwise. Everything from the ending with the works to the book’s very existence shows that this monster is tangible and real, hell, even on a metaphorical level it makes sense for it to be real- why make a horror movie representation of real problems if the problems aren’t even physically present in the film’s world? It sort of undermines the entire subtext when you think about it. The series of events did happen, the movie was just made with the intention of it also serving as a representation of grief.
I think the dirt and worms also symbolize her accepting her husband is dead. She gives dirt and worms to her monster much like adding dirt to a grave.
Hmmm yeah, filling in that metaphorical void in her mind and putting the memory of her husband to rest. It's even in the basement of the house... where she's "buried" the reminders of him too.
Plenty of symbolism there
The ending is realistic. We may take our problems and circumstances with us to the grave. But attitude and perspective CAN make a difference. It won't absolutely get rid of our problems---but we have something our problems don't have: The Ability to Adapt, to come back from the darkness stronger than ever!
man i've never once watched the full movie, i always get like 30 minutes in and cant because its so damn spoopy, i dont understand how someone can be so good at writing, because it hits me on both an intellectual level and in my feelers
I loved the “okay byeee, the internet is over now” bit. It was too good 😂
I also think the scene where they're at the cousin's birthday party shows that she's not taking care of herself. Her grief and depression is causing her to not value self-care which is very common. It doesn't just show that she doesn't have time but that she doesn't value her own self worth. It's not just the makeup but the way she dresses and puts her hair up is very low effort attire because it's what's easiest.
On top of your great analysis of many horror movie characters, you also have a great sense of humor. I was not expecting the “welcome to the kill count” clip, classic horror comedy imo
I think he sneak in James in his videos couple of times, but I agree this one was so well timed joke.
The Babodook was the first film that both terrified me and made me cry. The babadook was the personification of her grief at the gruesome, visceral death of her husband sitting right next to her in a car crash. Repressing the pain was killing her and splitting her personality. Her son could see it changing her and was scared of her "other" self. She began to resent her son because she reminded her of his dad so her "other" self wrote the children's book to bring him into her nightmare. But eventually she beat it and confined it someplace manageable so she could move on and be happy again. The babadook is such a perfect metaphor for unbearable pain and grief. The message is that it can't be killed or repressed, only confronted and contained. That's so sad and so true.
this is crazy. i was going to comment on your next recent video about your lack of coverage of Babadook. very nice timing.
Why does this remind me of the game, “The Man From The Window.”? They both have books that summon them, which show what to do about them, and the protagonist’s are both mothers and sons. The antagonists also knock three times except, the babadook knocks in a unknown location whilst the man from the window knocks on obviously, the window.
@deadmeat and the golden chainsaw for the best kill goes to… 😂😂 love both you and deadmeat so so so much!!! So much entertainment and education all rolled into one!
WAIT BABAROGA SOUNDS SO MUCH COOLER. WHY DIDNT THEY KEEP THAT?
It's a popular story parents use to scare kids here in the Balkans. I had nightmares about that thing lol.
the 1st time i watched the babadook i didnt make it past the scene where she losses her shit bc I too had been in that dark of a place and lost that kind of control. i didnt hurt anyone other than myself but seeing that transition taking place broke me down infront of my roommate at the time who immediately stopped the movie and just held me while i cried my eyes out for a good hour and 1/2. a couple of years later i rewatched the movie from start to finish and was proud of myself bc i had been going to therapy for a couple years to help me just deal with my childhood, my dad dying in my arms, loosing my son the following year of my dads passing in healthier way instead of how i had been dealing with everything. it is a really good movie that helps highlight grief and how dealing with things that cause trauma can be hard and a movie i suggest to for ppl to watch now a days
Sam is 3½ ft of pure Based Gigachad energy, he skips stuffed animals and goes straight to homemade crossbows
Found your channel by chance and am ADDICTED 😂 I love horror, and you're very humorous and eloquent during your videos 🖤🖤 thank you for your time and efforts!
Wow! Very interesting video! It made me want to revisit The Babadook.
The Babadook was one of the first movies that motivated me to explore the horror genre more.
I took the bowl of worms as a means to keep the babadook (her grief) small in size as worms eat away at dead things…this is her accepting her husband is gone 🤷♂️ love your channel man, one of the best horror channels on the youtubes! 🤘
The fact that when Samuel, dressed as the babadook (mostly) at 4:25 ish in the movie says it only works if your looking is so spine chilling 😀
If I’ve said it before, I’ve said it a million times, but Horror History is the best content online. The research and effort he puts into his work is fantastic! Thank you Zac! You’re the best! 😂❤
I watched this film back when it first came out with a good friend of mine who also enjoys analyzing movies. We talked a bit about it, and about what we noticed with some of the more surface level allusions to the Babadook as an analogy for grief, but I don't think we really fully understood what the film was doing. This video does a pretty good job at capturing a lot of the stuff we missed back then. I haven't watched it since it came out, but I've been going through some stresses in life, and I think my biggest takeaway from this essay is the moral of the story - which I missed all those years ago: you can't get rid of it. You can only deal with it, acknowledge it, manage it, and hope. And when it rears its ugly head once again, as it's bound to, you need to be honest with yourself about your feelings and work on it.
Ignoring it or trying to get rid of it doesn't solve the problem. And I think this is because unlike some mental illness, grief, anxiety, depression, and the like are natural parts of our body's healing process. A therapist I once saw told me something that stuck with me: Feeling is healing. Acknowledging and accepting your feelings are the first step toward overcoming them.
Main actress has the best face and mannerisms for unhinged roles; she was Vermeer’s wife in Girl With A Pearl Earring.
I really loved the colour pallette of the film, a real drab kind of blue everywhere especially their house, that represents how depression now strengthened by the grief has percolated into every environment the mother finds herself in.
I literally just finished watching a couple of your other videos cz, THANK YOU I’ve been stuck rewatching
Thank you for keeping the scares alive year round! One of my favorite channels
LOVED the "Kill Count" reference! Love that channel too!
I was literally looking through your channel yesterday for a video about the babadook, perfect timing!
Amelia abuses her son and kills his dog and gets a redemption arc, meanwhile, Jack is possessed by demons and fueled with the stress of protecting his son and he freezes to death?
Yeah there's some common tropes but the emotional storyline with characters we cared about, the deterioration and terror watching the mother slowly fall, it's something a lot of horror movies just haven't done, they haven't made us care about anyone with one dimension characters etc. This and Hereditary are awesome in my opinion
i feel like the babadook isn't the antagonist in this movie (yes i haven't watched it we're having renovations done to the apartament i don't have time to), sure, the babadook is terorizimg amilia but it is just a manifestation of her grief, it's essencial goal is to force amilia (correct me if i mispelled the name) to recognize her issues and grief, it's mainly her, in her stubborness that causes the problems
The giant in Gulliver's Travels wasn't a giant though, it was just Gulliver being pestered by the Lilliputians.
The son didn't say "Do you wanna die" to his mom as if to punk her. He said it like he can't protect her from the Babadook if she takes his homemade weapons. 😊
Yo man I just wanted to say I really love this channel for real you given all the history tours horror Flix I really hope that you make more Horror history in time
I have a copy of the actual physical pop up book and it is BEAUTIFUL
“10:14 and my name is James A Janise and here to count the kills in all of your favorite horror movies”
07:18 Can we please talk about how you hold the fork?! I'm shaming
I saw him do that came to the comments so quick 😂
Damn, CZs has been working out! You can see that bicep vein popping, getting buff, are we? Keep up the good work man, love it as always
I've lived with depression for almost 14 years. I think I was finally starting to come to terms with the death of my Nan. Then the neighbours dog attacked my 14 year old cat. She didn't survive in March 7 2020. It was a week before my semester at uni. I was a wreck and went back to feeling numb and lost all motivation to do my assignmernts. I had trouble before that but had always been able to force myself to do. It become all the harder after Clare died.
The deadline of an assignment almost wasn't enough to get me to do my assignments. Thankfully I never stopped writing but in October/November of 2020 I found I legitmately couldn't start writing an assignment for histroy. A subject I love. I decided to take a break for a little while. After Claire died I would have a bunny (stotry idea) pop into my head every now and then with a vivid idea.
A girl in bed being woken by meowing a the door, she opens the door to find a ghost cat, the cat comes in and jumps onto the kitchen counte.
It was the same idea again and again but I couldn't write it down. I wasn't ready to write it down yet. The idea kept popping into my head every now and then at random. Then last year I watched Sell Your Haunted House, true I had to use a review site to understand what was going on in the episode (and got gutpunched twice by an episode, first when I watched it and half understood what was going on.
Then again after reading the episode review). It was a little painful and I got scared when my toothbrush started buzzing despite the battery being dead. I kept watching, the lights in my apartment turned on and the curtains to the balcony closed. I felt like I needed to continue watching it. I ended up crying, it one of the few shows that can make me more than tear up.
I felt better after that and could finally write the Ghost Cat story around two years later after her death. I've written the start but haven't written anything else. I'll still miss her. She was the last little bit of my childhood. She walked into my life in December of 2007 (I was 8), Mum said I could keep her if she was still there when we got back from our family trip, and walked back out in March 2020. I moved out of home three months later on June 15th at 21.
I'm glad I moved out when I did. I needed to move out. I'll always miss her. I've lived with my Babadook for a long time. Writing is my way of dealing with it.
I don't know you, but I hope you're doing well now. All the best.
@@chaos_is_my_guilty_pleasure Some days are better than other. Sometimes I dont have the energy to get anything done or have the motivation to get thing done. The motivation thing is very much effecting me.
@@yamiatemyugi I understand. There can be days when you feel almost you again and others when you can barely force yourself off the bed. But it does get better. For me, I just distract my turbulent feelings with things I like to do. It's not exactly the healthiest coping mechanism, but it works.
@@yamiatemyugi Anyway, I do hope things get better for you. If it's any comfort, I like to write as well :)
My interpretation for the name "Babadook" has always been "Dadabook" with the D's and B's switched. No particular reason, just, my interpretation.
I know you probably won't see this but please update the history of John Kramer when the new saw movie comes out and please make things you missed for it. My birthday is the 21st and it comes out the 29th so I'm kinda looking at it as a late birthday present to me. Lol I'm a huge saw fan. My fiance is kinda freaked out about how much I know about saw. But what can I say??? I'm OBSESSED!!!
Dude that’s messed up with the kill count clip 😂
It really was........I'm still laughing 😂😂😂
Grieving parents often uses substances to cope. The babadook can be the mom inebriated. That how I took it.
In fact your story. Grieving shouldn’t lead to that kind of behavior and state of psychosis is very common
1:00 “so lets just cut the 🦞 and skip to the conclusion at the end of the video”
James and his “welcome to the kill count” got me dead 😂
How could you miss a video on The Haunting in Connecticut. Like you are the best creator I have came across! Love you, but please make a video on The Haunting in Connecticut
I want a Czsworld and Dead Meat Collab!!!! Is it too much too ask?
Ditto
"Nobody's Mind is gonna be blown" 1:10
Sir... I didn't know what the Babadook represented. You underestimated how mind blowing this would be. Gotta go watch the movie again.
You should definitely do the thing movies explained. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in those movies and it is pretty good
I just watched pennywises video, and this narrator has become so jacked since then
We all have a Babadook in our lives.
It's like Stand By Me (The Body). It's a different kind of horror because it's a very real horror.
I’ve been waiting for this for so long!!♥️ Thank you! 🙌🏽🙌🏽
I appreciate the little rant on the Possession movie tropes. As someone who consumes horror movies like candy I've seen more than my fair share of moving furniture, doors opening and closing, and the Air-Yeeting. It's all incredibly tired. I've come to just accept it and I tell myself that this is just the constraints of what these ghosts/demons can do (even though often it's logically not) so I don't lose my mind. I try my best to ignore it and just look for a good story.
im gonna subscribe to this guy got me rolling out my bed
Loving the tie CZ,
The pattern on the floor of the overlook hotel from ‘the shining’. Classic for a class act. Ace vid by the way, as usual
please do a horror history on Sutter Cane from "In The Mouth of Madness"
This movie made me cry bro, i wasnt scared i just understood how the mother felt
i don't think this movie reinvented the genre, it just did its familiar themes with skill and care and the story was pretty well written even though it was predictable.
Honestly I don't care about predictability at this point because it's such an easy nitpick, what truly matters is how well you tell the story, not how *surprising* it is.
@@Treeeee2008 I agree 100% I wasn't annoyed by it being predictable because it was still well done with its moving parts
I remember hearing about this in a video and i swear i couldn't sleep without checking around
YES ANOTHER VIDEOOO, LETS GOOOO!!!
13:43 another cockroach-like quality the Babadook has is you can't fucking get rid of it.
James: "Welcome to the Kill Count."
Zac: (laughing) "I'm so immature."
Me: Immature? *Pfft!* That was funny as hell. 😀
Thank you so much for your content. I am too scared to watch horror films myself and I don't like jumpscares and graphic scenes. However i am fascinated by the stories, I used to read the summaries on the wikipedia pages.
Your channel with the detailed summaries mixed with jokes to make it lighter is perfect for me to enjoy those stories.