While I have a lot of horror
films in my collection, the ones I consider to be “great” films are those
that tend toward the psychological rather than those involving excess gore,
violence, and cheap “scares” that are telegraphed a mile away. “Psychological”
horror films tend to be better regarded than slasher films; it is more
“artistic” to create “horror” in what is unknown or unseen. The 1961 classic The Innocents, starring Deborah Kerr
(based on the novella The Turn of the
Screw by Henry James), is a film those unfamiliar with its source do not initially
view as “horror” until the end; but then again the “horror” has more to do with the mental
state of the Kerr character, when even at the end of the film the boy asks
“Where?” is the ghost that she insists is there.
The 2014 film The Babadook, directed by Jennifer Kent, also reaches for horror “art” through psychological terror. While it does end-up going for a few cheap “thrills,” the film leaves us in suspense as to what exactly is the nature of the horror, since we never see what is behind the “mask.” The Babadook certainly impressed the critics, with a 98 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 243 reviews. Even its only negative review from a “top critic” praised its “lofty” intention for “classy” psychological horror. However, some audience responses clearly did not understand the film—28 percent of them didn’t “like” it, or at least didn’t “understand” it as well.
Most people viewing the film seem to have an incorrect evaluation of it, making the boy the “villain,” torturing his mother. But as the film goes on it seems that the mother is the one in denial, and he is the one who “sees.” But “sees” what, exactly? Is there a “creature,” and what exactly is it—unless, of course, it is all in the “imagination”? The film leaves us with these questions; despite all expectations being turned on their heads, the ending still has a certain “logic” despite resort to needless horror movie tropes. Viewing this film again provides the same "reward" as another film, 2013’s The Lone Ranger, which has received some “revisionist” reviews in the past few years; after the spectacular 15-minute finale the “tied all the pieces together,” viewers wondered what they “missed” the first time—and thus all the “confusion” that came before it becomes more “clear.”
The Babadook starts out with Amelia (Essie Davis) having a nightmare, apparently a vision of a car accident:
However, there is also a certain creepiness about that suggests that there is something being hidden from the viewer, something that is “real” that we are not allowed to know about for the moment. Amelia is awakened by her young son Samuel (Noah Wiseman), who also claims to have had a "dream," and more to prove to him that there is no "monster" in the house, they go in search if it:
Amelia then reads a "bedtime" story for him...
...that if it is meant to "reassure" him and encourage sleep, it is plainly not working...
...as he sleeps in his mother's bed for the night. We are then shown several interiors of what apparently is a large house with lots of room for a creepy thing to hide. While the house looks mostly clean, everything still looks old and empty, and we will learn that it has been this way for many years for a reason:
Samuel is already awake, and he has been busy setting up booby traps in his bedroom and constructing a some kind of automated sling device which he has attached to his back:
Whatever he thinks is in the house, it has a "reality" for him that his mother is running out of patience with, especially after a projectile is accidentally launched through a window:
We then see Samuel's collection of "creepy" bugs and his fascination with magic tricks. This poster suggests that his imagination is getting the better of him, if he isn't just plain "crazy":
And we are not even five minutes into this film. A weary Amelia tolerates his magic act; this kid appears to be hyperactive and over-imaginative:
After dropping Samuel off at school, we see Amelia at work, an attendant at an old folks home:
A co-worker, Robbie (Daniel Henshall), resembles the man seen during Amelia's dream; he seems to have an interest in her, although Amelia doesn't appear ready for a relationship:
Helping an old woman down the hallway, she is informed by another coworker that her son's school called:
Samuel apparently brought one of his weapons against the spook with him to school...
...and his teacher and the principal say that this has been part of an ongoing behavioral issue and he must be separated from the other children and monitored:
Amelia says she will talk to him, but is told told that this will not do. She tells them they are not treating him like a human being (they keep referring to him as "the boy") and will take him out of their school:
Out of school, Amelia take Samuel to a park, where his aunt and her daughter will join them. Amelia tells him not tell his aunt why he isn't in school:
In a grocery store, Samuel demonstrates a "talent" for plain talk, telling a woman that his father is in a cemetery, killed in a car accident on the way to the hospital for his mother to have him; this is why she doesn't want him talking to his aunt. At the park with her sister Claire (Hayley McElhinney)...
...more evidence of Amelia being alone with her "problem" arises when Claire informs her that daughter Ruby doesn't want to "share" her birthday with Samuel. Amelia takes this personally, and insists that they don't have to come to her Ruby's party if they are not wanted...
...but then they both react in horror...
...by another one of Samuel's disturbing "stunts":
Amelia driving him home, by now exhausted by his behavior she cannot control no matter how "understanding" she tries to be:
They are greeted by a widow, Mrs. Roach (Barbara West), who seems to know something we don't yet know:
We then see the dog scratching at the cellar door, as if it senses some presence beyond:
After checking under the bed and in the closet for any spooks, Samuel brings his mother a "bedtime story to read, a book he claims was just sitting on the shelf, entitled "Mister Babadook":
Mr. Babadook doesn't seem to be a pleasant character. He warns that he'll never go away. You can make friends with him if you want...
...but you'll have to wait until he "knocks"...
...but if you see him, you won't sleep a wink...
...and once you see what's behind his disguise, you'll wish you were dead. This story doesn't put Samuel to sleep, so Amelia tries another story without much luck:
When he is finally asleep, Amelia looks through the book and its bizarre imagery...
...and strangely has many empty pages. She decides to hide it some place where Samuel won't find it:
After watching some television, Amelia goes to bed, utilizing a sex toy to masturbate:
But Samuel has been awakened by something he hears from the closet, and he interrupts her reverie to tell her he doesn't want to sleep alone:
The next morning Amelia wakes up late for work, excusing it by claiming that Samuel is very sick. She is taking him to Aunt Claire's house, and reminds him not to talk about monsters, or "Babadook":
At the old folks home, Amelia is drawing numbers for bingo, but she seems to be becoming bored with it and jokingly calls out "5 billion"...
...which draws the attention of her supervisor. Robbie sees that she is exhausted and worried, and offers to cover her shift in the afternoon, which she accepts with gratitude:
She takes some "me time" at the mall...
...but in the meantime, trouble is brewing. While she looks on wistfully at a couple necking in a car, she notices for the first time that someone has been trying to call her, repeatedly. It is her sister, who says Samuel scared the hell out of Ruby, and keeps talking to something called Babadook. He needs "help":
On the way home, Amelia tries to convince him the Babadook is not real, since you cannot see him. Samuel insists that it is real, that it tries to scare you first before it lets you see him:
While washing dishes, Amelia observes Mrs. Roach watching television, a scene we will see later in a different context...
...while Samuel is in the basement wearing his magician's outfit. He tells "Dad" not to worry, he will protect "mommy":
After he lights a firecracker, Amelia scolds him he because he isn't allowed in the basement. At that moment Robbie arrives with flowers for Amelia and a model airplane for Samuel. No, Samuel isn't sick, he just a bad boy who was kicked out of school. Samuel angrily accuses his mother of not letting have his own birthday or having a "Dad":
Afterwards, Amelia sees the mess that Samuel made in the basement, and then is surprised to see a coat and hat hanging on the wall; we will again see this later in a different context:
They are then eating a meal of soup, and Samuel says there is something in his bowl; Amelia finds what appears to be a piece of glass in hers. She suspects that Samuel did it, but he says the Babadook is responsible:
Amelia tells him to go watch a DVD, and finds him watching one by a teaching video by a magician, which seems to indicate that Samuel insists on living in a world of "illusion":
Amelia goes up to her bedroom, where she finds a photograph of herself with her deceased husband grotesquely defaced:
She confronts Samuel, who insists that the Babadook is responsible, and he retrieves his little catapult, which Amelia wrestles away from him as he cries out "Do you want to die?"
Amelia seems to be at the end of her tether...
...while Samuel searches for the Babadook...
...then he "finds" him. Rushing to find out what the commotion is, Amelia finds Samuel in an almost catatonic state, and is warned "Don't let him in":
Perhaps believing destroying the book will "kill" the creature, Amelia tears up its pages...
....and throws it in the trash outside. The next day at Ruby's birthday party, she complains that she already has the doll that Amelia bought her as a gift, and Samuel seems uninterested in joining the festivities:
He finally is persuaded to run off, and Claire and her friends obviously think he is a little "off":
Amelia is a writer? Well, she admits to once writing magazine articles and "kid's stuff." Then one of the women talks about how she has no time to go to the gym anymore because of the "kids," and noting how the group doesn't have much to do except talk, Amelia blurts out "what a tragedy" that is, how do you cope?:
Meanwhile, Samuel is hiding in Ruby's tree house. She is actually a nasty little girl, and she tells him to get out, and belittles him about nobody likes him...
...while Claire lectures Amelia about getting on with life, since its been seven years since Oskar was killed...
...to which Amelia retorts that Claire never comes to her house anymore, which Claire claims is because she can't stand being around her son. Ruby is continuing to taunt Samuel, telling him he isn't good enough to have a Dad, his own mother doesn't want him, that nobody wants him. Samuel pushes Ruby out of the tree house, where she suffers a bloody nose:
On the way home with Samuel crying out "mommy, mommy," Amelia stops the car, shouting "Why can't you be normal"?
He responds to this by "seeing" something in the car, and crying out "Get out!"
Amelia because even more disturbed by this behavior...
...when he seems to be possessed by some kind of demon:
Amelia takes Samuel to a doctor for some tests. There doesn't seem to be anything physically wrong with him, and advises that he see a psychiatrist:
Amelia insists on a prescription of sleep medication for Samuel, although her appearance...
...seems to leave the doctor with the impression that she is in more need of medication:
But he agrees to prescribe sedatives for a limited period. She manages to get Samuel to take the pills and she has a restful sleep...
...but unfortunately this respite doesn't last. She hears a knock on the door, and the Babadook book is sitting on the porch:
The torn pages have been pasted back together...
...and the imagery seems to be only more disturbing in second viewing...
....and now the previously blank pages have new, much more disturbing material accompanied by the warning "The more you deny, the stronger I get"...and that the Babadook will come inside her, and do even worse:
She burns the book, and then goes to the police station, but when she is asked for the book as proof; but she doesn't have it, and she is made to feel like some kind of kook:
Things start to unravel quickly for Amelia. Mrs. Roach notes that Samuel speaks his mind like Oskar, and sees things as they are. This seems to upset Amelia. Then the dog barks at her and runs away. She discovers a hole behind the refrigerator where roaches suddenly pore out of:
Believing there is a "natural" explanation for this, she scrubs the kitchen:
Then there is a visit from a couple of people from the community services department to check on Samuel:
There is some suspicion about how the living conditions when he admits he is tired from being on "drugs"--the sleeping pills:
When Amelia explains all the food from the refrigerator is on the kitchen table because of the "infestation" of roaches from the wall, there is no hole to be seen:
We now suspect that it is now Amelia who is "seeing things" that are not there. Now her own mind is infected as was Samuel's. Or is the same? Remember that Samuel fought to keep "it" out; Amelia didn't believe, and as warned in the book, in was not only getting "stronger" but threatened to take over her very being.
The community service people leave without taking Samuel away, but they'll be back. Amelia washes dishes again, looking through window wearily at Mrs. Roach...
....and this time is shocked to see what appears to be the figure of the Babadook:
Samuel enters the kitchen; he's tired and wants to go to bed. A second glance into Mrs. Roach's house and the Babadook is gone. This time Amelia is afraid to go to sleep, and persuades Samuel to watch television with her, and reads a story until he falls asleep. She stares at the shadows in the wall; is there something there?
Then the camera draws closer to the cellar door; is there something behind it that explains all of this?:
Amelia lies awake. For some reason the ceiling lamp seems strange all of a sudden:
And then she is startled by a sound that could be something dragging across the floor--or a beast growling:
Amelia is "relieved" to discover it was only the dog trying to get into her room...
...although to the viewer's ears, this is too easy an explanation. That soon proves to be the case, as the sound returns and it is not the dog making those noises. A terrified Amelia watches the door open and for brief moment something appears just barely visible:
Hearing something moving, Amelia covers her head underneath the sheet, and then hears something croaking out "Baba-dook-dook-dook":
Then there is silence. Amelia uncovers her head, and observes something suddenly jumping up and clinging near the ceiling lamp:
Amelia watches the object of indeterminate form jump across the ceiling...
...and then take human form as it falls toward her:
Amelia screams as the Babadook disappears. She awakens Samuel who has been sleeping next to her and is completely oblivious to what has just occurred:
Amelia turns on all the lights downstairs, and tries to stay awake in front of the television...
...which unaccountably begins showing what appears to be clips from George Melies' short silent films from the earliest days of filmmaking. All are fairly disturbing, including this one where the Babadook appears:
It's clear that Amelia is having a waking nightmare, because she is still awake come morning...
...and we can surmise that nothing good is going to come out this. She gets a call from work, and is apparently told that if she keeps missing work she's going to be fired. She goes to bed instead, but Samuel comes in to say that the pills made him sick again (meaning he vomited) and he's hungry, but there is no food in the refrigerator...
Amelia viciously tells him that if he is hungry, then "eat shit":
It is at this point that we get a sense of what was going on before, and the tables have turned. Samuel is now the "sensible" one, and Amelia is the one with severe psychological issues. One way to analyze this is that Samuel's behavior earlier in the film was not evidence of a disturbed child, but one that was fighting and successfully fought off the Babadook from taking control of his soul, while because she did not believe, the Babadook turned toward her as a much easier target; the Babadook was now acting through her.
Samuel runs off, and Amelia eventually rouses herself enough to find him and apologize, finding him hiding behind his bed:
Saying they need to get out of the house, she takes him to a restaurant for ice cream, and then for a drive. On a phone book she sees another large roach...
...this tells us that the Babadook is near, and Amelia sees it in the review mirror:
We hear it intoning "Baba-dook," although it isn't clear that Samuel sees or hears it at this point; he seems more concerned that his mother has lost control the car and is swerving here and there...
...until eventually ramming into another car. Once home, and Amelia gets into a bathtub fully clothed. She lifts Samuel into the tub with her. He says he doesn't want her to go away; she says she isn't going anywhere, perhaps not comprehending what he means, meaning her "soul" from being taken over by the Babadook:
Things get stranger when Amelia finds Oskar's violin and snuggles up with it in bed. Samuel suggests that it is not safe to stay the night in the house and they should call Mrs. Roach to see if they can stay there, but Amelia doesn't want him to call anyone:
After awhile she awakens to the sound of whispering. She is "warned" by some demonic presence that "There is someone in the house"...
...and noticing that Samuel is no longer in the room, she springs into action, and finds him talking on her cell phone with Mrs. Roach:
Amelia takes the phone away and tells Mrs. Roach that nothing is "wrong." She then pulls out a kitchen knife and asks him if she has to use it, perhaps on him:
She takes it to cut the cord from the wall telephone. Samuel repeats that he's trying to stop her letting the Babadook "in," but she is now denying its existence again, because it is already inside of her. She "promises" that she's not going to let anything inside "tonight":
She makes sure all the doors and windows are locked tight. She gives Samuel his sleeping pills, but he only pretends to take them. While watching a cartoon of a wolf in sheep's clothing, Amelia sees a bloody Samuel on the couch...
...it's just a vision, but it frightens her that she is holding the knife again...
....and returns it to the kitchen. Later she tries to cuddle the dog, but it struggles away from her and starts barking at her. One of the new pages in the Babadook book foretold her killing the dog...
...but that was avoided here. At this point the tone has changed again; is Amelia back to her "old self" again? Amelia again tries to be nice to Samuel by bringing him some ice cream. She seems to have a problem with a toothache, but it is not clear what that means yet. She watches television while Samuel is asleep, There is a news program about a woman who stabbed her young son to death, and was shot after she tried to stab police officers. She notices a face in the window of the woman's apartment--it is her:
She notices that Samuel is no longer sleeping on the couch, and calls after him. He appears, and implies that she was the one asleep. He walks toward the cellar door and disappears:
She follows after him, but sees what appears to be her deceased husband, Oskar:
They embrace...
...but in a voice clearly not his he says they can be together again, but she must send "the boy," which brings Amelia back to her senses that this isn't real. She runs from the cellar, but there is a noise coming up the stairs, and the Babadook appears in the doorway:
Amelia runs to her bedroom and tries to lock herself in, but sitting by the chimney she sees the Babadook's hat falling next to her:
Amelia tries to crawl back to the door, but she is too late; looking up she sees the Babadook falling upon her:
We next see her watching ghoulish images on television, probably imaginary. Samuel and dog peak to see if it is "safe"...
...by the looks of her expression, it appears that the Babadook is in possession of her again:
There is a ghoulish visage again; is it in Amelia mind? A creation of the Babadook? What is it saying to Amelia? Who knows; perhaps the director just wants the viewer to know that Amelia now belongs in a different reality.
Amelia spots the dog, which escaped from Samuel, and she runs after it; after she catches it...
...she does what the Babadook warned her she would do as the dog falls lifeless to the floor:
It was suggested that Amelia had a sore tooth, and proceeds to pull out what we assume to be tooth. Why exactly this has to do with anything is hard to ascertain:
She then hunts down Samuel, who tries to lock himself in his room. Amelia tries to "sweet talk" him into opening the door, but he knows that it is the Babadook talking. Amelia, in a rage, breaks down the door...
... and the now demented Amelia searches the room for him...
...and then director Kent goes for the cheap horror trope by having Amelia drift toward Samuel as on air, which I suppose is meant to signify that the Babadook has completely absorbed her body at this point and has supernatural powers. Samuel wets his pants; Amelia tells him that many times she wished that he was the one who died in the car crash instead of Oskar. Samuel plaintively insists that he just wanted her to be happy...
....and she responds by saying what would maker her "happy" is if she could smash his head against the wall until his brains "pop out":
Samuel says this is not his mother speaking, but this only further enrages "her":
Samuel throws a firecracker at her and runs from the room. Amelia chases him to another room, where he produces his Babadook defense weapons, first firing off a dart into her shoulder...
...which she pulls out without apparent harm, and then Samuel launches a projectile from his miniature catapult, striking her in the head:
Samuel runs from the room and hides in the completely darkened house; the doorbell rings, and it is Mrs. Roach:
She seems to know something is wrong, and tells Amelia that she knows that it is a tough time for her, and if she or Samuel need any help, she is there for them. Amelia tells her that they are "OK" and there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, Samuel sees the dog that Amelia killed and knows he is in danger too. Amelia again tries to fool him into thinking he is safe with her, telling him she knows she is "sick" and they are going to Mrs. Roach's house tonight, which isn't true:
Coming closer to him, Amelia/Babadook gives the game away when she tells Samuel that she wants him to meet his "dad" in a place where he will be "happy"...
...and knowing the Babadook is still in her, Samuel stabs her in the leg with the kitchen knife and runs off; Amelia pulls it out and runs after him into the cellar:
Samuel has booby-trapped the cellar, and she trips over a rope and is knocked out:
When she awakens, Amelia finds herself tied-up on the floor...
...her face and eyes betraying demonic possession:
Samuel assures her that he will not leave until the Babadook is out of her...
...and of course the Babadook isn't ready for that, frightening off Samuel:
He still tries to reach his mother, and it is seen that the mother is making an effort to break free:
Samuel tells her that he knows that she doesn't love him because the Babadook won't let her, but he still loves her, which again prompts a response of internal agony from Amelia. He tells her she let the Babadook in, and she has to get him out:
She frees her hands and starts choking Samuel...
...but when he starts caressing her face with pleading of his love, she starts fight the Babadook's presence again...
...and lets go of Samuel's throat and throws him off:
We then see Amelia shaking violently, and then in a horror trope straight from The Exorcist (yes, we've seen some of this stuff before), the Babadook is "ejected" from her body, although we didn't see this in the earlier ejection of the Babadook:
Samuel attempts to revive her spent body...
...but it's not over yet. Samuel says that the Babadook will never leave this house...
...and some force takes hold of him and pulls him up the stairs. Amelia runs up after him, sees him being thrown up against the wall...
...she grabs him and holds him on the bed as it begins shaking violently...
..."What do you want?" Amelia cries out, and the shaking stops. Out of the darkness the figure of Oskar appears again...
...Amelia finally says "No," the "dream," or nightmare, is over now:
The image of Oskar begins to talk about their last moments together, on the way to the hospital, telling her to keep breathing, and that it looks like rain, no doubt to induce guilt in her. Amelia repeats "no" to keep from remembering. The "dream" must end with Oskar death, from a head injury in the crash:
The body falls to the floor...
...and is dragged away in the shadows. Amelia tells the Babadook he is "nothing" as the room shakes violently again...
...the Babadook appears again...
...Amelia taunts it, telling it is "trespassing" in her house. The room again shakes violently, and the walls start to crack and objects break. She threatens to kill the Babadook if it touches her son again...
...it responds by taking a hold of him, but Amelia holds on...
...and taking control of him again, cries out as loud as she can to frighten off the Babadook:
Suddenly everything stops and the Babadook drops to the floor:
Amelia approaches the fallen figure, but Samuel warns her not to touch it...
...before she does, there is a bright light that reveals something horrible (but unseen)...
...that rushes down the stairs and into the cellar that Amelia immediately locks tight:
When it is all over, mother and son have beaten the Babadook and they are a family again:
The film end with Samuel running to greet his mother returning from work after spending the day with Mrs. Roach...
..and .another visit from the community service people, who are "disturbed" that Samuel is quite comfortable admitting that he is having his first birthday party on the day that he was born, when his father died in a crash taking him to the hospital to be born:
In the garden, Samuel digs up enough worms...
...for Amelia to take down the cellar to feed the creature...
...which apparently is easily "frightened" and expresses this fright in the usual way...
...and she reassures it that everything is "alright" and tries to calm it down, almost like a child:
Back in the garden, Amelia tells Samuel that the creature is getting "calmer," and then takes a more delighted interest in his magic tricks...
...and in an indication that she has put the past behind her, holds him close and says "Happy birthday, sweetheart":
I wouldn't call The Babadook a "great" film on par with the aforementioned The Innocents--since it eventually abandons psychological terror for monster-movie tropes, whereas The Innocents leaves us with the notion that supernatural monsters may be, after all, a figment of the disturbed imagination--although it was left open the possibility that the children were "possessed" without realizing it. Still, The Babadook is for me that rare horror that keeps one guessing, which presents one reality and then throws those expectations into complete chaos that is perfectly understandable once we take the time to evaluate the situation presented. It may not be "clear" the first time around, and this being a film I like watching and rewatching, I eventually determined that what seemed incongruous the first (or second or third) time around did make perfect sense if I thought about it.
I've already pointed to some of these indicators. Samuel initially does not gain our sympathy because we do not yet understand his "reality," and because of her own unstable inability to let go of the past ("depression" is what some viewers call it), Amelia is slow to sympathize with his problem; she and others misdiagnose this as a "psychological disorder," although there are a few whose eyes are more open, like the doctor and Mrs. Roach. While to some viewers the sudden switch to Amelia being the "crazy" one and Samuel the "sane" one may be somewhat offensive, the explanation for this "switch" is plain enough to deduce.
We are provided no clues about the origin of the Babadook creature, in fact we have to suspend disbelief quite a bit with the incongruence of the apparent powers of the Babadook with the "creature" that feeds on worms. We are first presented with the Babadook through a "character" in a book, and an imaginary one, if one that also understandably causes "nightmares" in a young child. But for Samuel it is all too real, and it is his belief in its reality is what saves him from being "absorbed" by it. What everyone else sees as evidence of a severe psychological disorder that is a danger to himself and others, is in fact was "real" enough that it took great effort and ingenuity to keep it "out."
But first you had to believe in "it," because disbelieving in it weakens one's defenses against it and allows it easier access inside the target. After a long and difficult fight, Samuel kept the Babadook from taking over his body, and it looked for next target, albeit one that was supposed to be the "stronger" one, since Amelia is the "adult" in the house.
At what point were roles switched? The obvious one was when the Babadook "entered" Amelia's body, which happened on two occasions, apparently "ejected" the first time when she put away the kitchen knife after "imagining" she had killed Samuel with it. However, I think that the point where the "switch" was made inevitable first was when Samuel was given the sleeping pills, and at that point could not be victimized by the Babadook, and coupled with Amelia's attempt to destroy the book, which was the ultimate denial of its "reality"--and ignoring the warning that the more one "denies" the stronger the Babadook becomes.
I think the ending might have been more satisfying if the Babadook remained in the realm of the psychological and that the Babadook was simply a very strong internal emotional presence that once confronted and "fought," could be ejected and "normal life" could be restored. It doesn't make a lot of sense for the being behind the mask merely to now being a frightened creature which feeds on worms, and where it came from remaining unknown, and how would it know to play on Amelia's own demons. Unless, of course, Amelia was "imagining" the creatures intentions and motivations, and even it taking the form of her deceased husband.
However, what makes The Babadook a fascinating film to watch and rewatch is that these questions are there for the viewer to ponder, because, after all, inner "demons" are more thought provoking and closer to one's own "demons" than your typical hockey-mask wearing slasher; in those films the "shock" is not "if" its going to happen, but "when." In horror films like The Babadook, "if" and "when" are less important than the "what," and that is the more interesting kind of horror.
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