The Babadook film
The Babadook film was produced in 2014 by the Australian based movie director Jenifer Kent. This is a movie that combines both thriller and drama scenes all through the film. The Babadook film is about a mother, Amelia, and her son Sam who are living in fear of a monster that lurks under their bed and their closet. This happened after the death of the father on the day that Sam was born. The father was driving Amelia to the hospital to deliver Sam before a fatal accident occurred that led to her husband’s loss. Since they realized that the monster was lurking in their house, Amelia has been taking the initiative of assuring Sam about how ridiculous the monster though is. However, Sam is totally convinced that the existence of that monster is real in the house. The single mother and her son started experiencing monster in their house after Sam read a book called “Mister Babadook” (The Babadook, 2014). Amelia used to read books to his son, but one day she decided to let the son choose the book by himself. Sam got tortured by the book he chose to read, and her mother regarded the book as a curse. Sam used to wail all over and believed that the monster in the house was real. This paper will discuss various aspects of this film by analyzing scenes and their meaning with their purpose in the film.
The book is clear about the demands made by the monster to the family of two. The Babadook confronted them and demanded entry in their house so that it can reveal its real intentions of haunting them. However, the book missed the last pages. Amelia tore the book apart to avoid his son from suffering. Reading of this book got Sam tortured a lot. Amelia discarded the book to avoid her son getting tortured further. Moreover, things got even worse. In one of the days after she tore the book, Amelia heard a knock at the door. When she opened the door, she found the book containing the missing pages. Amelia decided to burn the book. This act made the situation even worse.
This film was one of the most-watched movies in 2014. The film is depressing and sad as it depicts the worst side of Amelia’s life and her mental illness. The suffering of her family of two after losing her husband is one of the worst experiences (Lambie, 2014). The movie shows the grief, depression, suffering, and sadness that happens to someone after losing their spouse in life. Moreover, the film tries to answer the question about whether the monster exists or does not. Amelia is driven by the curiosity to answer the question regarding the existence of the monster or not. However, Amelia does not believe in the existence of monsters in her, while on the other hand, Sam is convinced that monsters exist. This stimulates the whole movie and makes it even more attractive to the viewers. The big question is whether monsters exist, or it was Amelia’s mental creation that monsters do not exist.
The Babadook film was advertised on various platforms in 2014. The cost of making this movie was about USD 2.3 Million. Moreover, the movie generated more than USD 10 Million on BOX Office. This made the film one of the most-watched films at the time (Barone, 2014). This was interesting because the move even won an award. The advertising of the movie was done on various channels across the world. This included TV Shows and on the internet on various platforms. Other advertising companies were also involved in advertising the film. This was important in ensuring that everyone watched the film from every corner of the world.
The cultural reception of The Babadook film was positive. This is the reason that makes this movie of the watched films of the time. There is a lot that is covered in this film that makes it get accepted across cultures in the world. The movie represents the sufferings that some people go through after losing their loved ones. Amelia lost her husband on an accident that made it impossible for the family to continue living happily. There is a lot of tension in the family as to whether there was a monster lurking in the house or not. Although it does not well know about the monster’s existence in the film, Amelia is mentally ill (The Babadook, 2014). Although her belief is that monsters fictions, she is mentally ill. The existence of the monster is only in her mind and not real. This is worsening the situation to the family of two. The movie was accepted worldwide, and across culture, because of the lessons, people can learn from the movie. The movie basically represents the life of a spouse after losing their loved one. There is a lot of suffering depicted by the movie regarding the spouse that is left by their partner. Raising a child as a single mum has a lot of suffering all through.
There are various incidents in the film that makes the film a horror movie. Firstly, the movie has shown various incidents that it was indeed a horror movie. There wailing of Amelia’s son, Sam was as a result of her reading the book. The book made Sam believe there was a monster lurking in the room. Moreover, although Amelia did not believe it that there was a monster in the house, there a feeling that the book made her son believe there was one no wonder she burnt the book. The knocking on the door where she found the book with all the other pages is one of the incidents that made it the film horror movie. The Babadook film even won an Empire Award for Best Horror. This is a clear indication that it was indeed a horror movie. The indents show that it was a horror movie.
Lighting in The Babadook has also played a major role in the movie. There is a lot of use of low-key and high-key lighting in the film. The high lighting is used differently from the low-key lighting. For instance, high-key lighting was used in the scene where the lady walked down the stairs to hug the husband. High-key lighting continues as the two continue to embrace one another in that scene. The high-key lighting is therefore used to depict happiness and love between the two. Moreover, since the movie was a horror movie, low-key lighting was used in most of the scenes in the film (Ingram, 2016). These scenes were used to instill fear among the viewers. The low key lighting is used to create various emotions in viewers. Shadows have also been used in various scenes in the film to create fear and make various scenes in the film achieve their purpose in the film. There a lot that was needed to be done to achieve the objectives of the horror film. This is important to ensure that the director has the right choice of filming. Sound has also played a lot of significance in the making of the film. This is important because the sound is used to drive fear among the viewer in different scenes. Most of the movie’s scenes, the sound used are meant to make the viewer fear so that they can achieve the objective of the movie. This is important since the movie had to meet the purpose of the movie. The film t can be remembered as
The horror movie also depicted a cultural aspect of the current world. The fact that the monster in the movie changed into a gay had a lot of impact on the cultural aspect and the film’s making. This is important in ensuring that the movie captures all the people’s cultural aspects across the world (Ingram, 2016). This was the first time in a movie where a monster turned into a gay. There a lot of importance to have this captured in the film to ensure that it balanced the gender in the film. This film will be remembered in horror movies’ history as one of the first films in the history where LGBT people were considered in a horror movie. This was important since it represented a different world where people can change to anything they want to be provided; it is allowed by the law.
In conclusion, there is a lot that is has been covered in the paper regarding The Babadook. The Babadook film is about a mother, Amelia, and her son Sam who are living in fear of a monster that lurks under their bed and their closet. This happened after the death of the father on the day that Sam was born. The father was driving Amelia to the hospital to deliver Sam before a fatal accident occurred that led to her husband’s loss. There is a lot that has been discussed in the paper regarding the film. Babadook was one of the most-watched films in history. The film shows the suffering people go through after losing their loved ones in marriage. However, the monster in the movie only exists in her mind. She is mentally ill, as suggested by her actions throughout the film. Lighting and sound have also played a significant role in the making of the film. The high lighting is used differently from the low-key lighting. For instance, high-key lighting was used when the lady walked down the stairs to hug the husband. High-key lighting continues as the two continue to embrace one another in that scene. The high-key lighting is therefore used to depict happiness and love between the two.
References
Ingram, Kaleigh. “Come See What’s Underneath”: Monstrous Interiority in The Babadook.” ENGL 4384: Senior Seminar Student Anthology. 2016.
Lambie, Ryan. “Jennifer Kent Interview: Directing the Babadook.”Den of Geek, 2014, www.denofgeek.com/movies/jennifer-kent-interview-directing-the-babadook.
Barone, Matt. “The Year’s Best Horror Movie? It’s This Australian Creepshow, Hands Down.”Complex, 20 Apr. 2020, www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/11/interview-the-babadook-jennifer-kent.
“The Babadook (2014).” IMDb, 2020, www.imdb.com/title/tt2321549/plotsummary