I mean, I guess I have to give it some credit. It certainly scared me at some parts, and definitely made me uneasy, which means it likely accomplished its goal as a horror film.
I watched it because I had seen screens of the book itself (the full version of it was printed for retail) and it was very startling and unnerving. “Wow! What a creepy looking monster. I bet he’s even creepier in the film,” I thought, assuming to be a monster flick what was actually a psychological thriller slash supernatural slash monster-ish thing. I don’t even know.
The movie was all over the place. The premise was cute, but they didn’t really go far enough in one particular direction. Like, 3/4ths of the movie is spent leading you to believe the Babadook is some psychological projection from the mother failing to properly cope from the loss of her husband, but the kid can also see the book and hear the Babadook? But then the movie finishes with the Babadook literally living in their basement. Like, “Oh I’m the Babadook. I’m a real living thing who’s invisible and eats worms,” which made me laugh at the end.
Also (CW for sex, body horror) like fifteen minutes into the film the mother starts masturbating? It served no purpose other than to make me uncomfortable, which doesn’t mean shit. Also she pulls out a tooth near the end of the film, thus checking off several boxes on my “extremely uncomfortable” list.
i feel bad for hating the kid, and even worse considering the fact that he was being haunted and all, but every time he started those screams i wanted the monster to win
He suddenly starts trying to save the mom and be the Good Guy and I’m supposed to care, but in reality I was just hoping that one or both of them would die and leave the movie with a stark ending. It totally ruined the tension every time he screamed or acted like a brat. I couldn’t focus on the atmosphere because all I would think is how much I hate children.
I don’t actually hate children but just in the context of the movie there was not a single good child in it. There was the mom’s son who screamed for most of his screen time, and his shitty cousin who was like “haha your dad’s dead.”
And yeah, the mother had actual physical wounds, it lead me to assume that the Babadook at least had some sort of physical form. It’s kind of hard for me to be like “yeah all this shit is being flung around Poltergeist-style and the kid is also there to witness it” and think it’s just all in her head
No, I mean you’re right. The line was pretty intentionally blurry. Like the cockroaches not really existing. But when she pulled out her tooth my thought was, “Oh shit, she’s pulling her tooth out.”
My inclination is to think the gore is taken at face value, but I might be wrong here. It’s just that if the kid was there as a witness then I’m to believe that it’s real, because it’s not just in the woman’s head. I drew the line at “the kid’s not sedated because he didn’t actually take he pill, so there’s a good chance his brain is in working order and everything he sees is supernatural and not psychological”
yeah it was cool having the accents and the old houses. the old house i’m living in is only one story but it’s about as dark and dingy and just being here bums me out tbh
saw this at an all-night horror marathon after coming in halfway through The Loved Ones which def primed me for further terror