Why The Babadook never leaves
Spoiler Warning
The Babadook isn’t a Hollywood monster or spirit that pulls you across the ceiling or sucks you into a strange underworld. He’s a Jungian-type shadow of the darkness inside our own hearts. “If it’s in a word, or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook,” warns the beautiful, simple handmade book Amelia reads to her son Sam in the first few scenes of this much buzzed-about film. The book is familiar, children’s books are often unsettling, introducing to the child, and the parents, a way to talk about the darker parts of life. Of course, it is often the case that children’s nightmares can be inspired by creepy books, but that doesn’t mean that monsters aren’t important. We need fictional monsters because we have monsters living inside of us.
Sam was born into the world with a grief-stricken and unhinged mother who had no time to take care of herself and find a way to deal with her loss. As a single mom, she has to work long-hours as a caretaker for the elderly, and then come home and dig up love for her difficult son from her scant emotional resources.
They barely have any support system, and Sam’s violence and odd behavior drives away the only family they have. The film oozes with the complicated feelings of a mother and son who both desperately love each other, but are terrified of themselves. Each one is flailing, and cannot hold onto one another without sinking further down. When the Babadook is introduced to them, he’s a place to hang all these repressed feelings and nightmares, all the nauseous terror of love and need.
When it turns out that The Babadook is really Amelia, or that Amelia has become possessed by him, it also seems plausible that Amelia is his creator as well as his puppet. Amelia used to write children’s books, so makes sense that she used her book-making skills to create the mysterious, haunted object that infiltrates their life. If that’s the case, the second book depicting herself as the monster was also made by her, possibly in an insomniac trance.
Seven-year-old Sam is a difficult child, but his situation is horrific, and has been long before The Babadook manifested itself. He’s just beginning to comprehend his mother’s resentment towards him, and the horrible fact that his father died on the same day of his birth. His obsessions with magic and weapons seem to stem from his intense need to protect himself, and his mother, from the constant threat of their very existence. As the monster grows, Sam himself transforms from a bit of a monster into a helpless child. As the danger increases for him, both the audience and Amelia start to see him more as a doe-eyed helpless child than a symbol of destruction, burden, and loss.
When they are saved from the Babadook’s madness by Sam’s tenderness, a neighbor’s concern and love, and, especially, Amelia’s assertion of power over the malevolent force, the Babadook is still with them. He will never leave, because he is st.
Presentation by Andreas Schleicher Tackling the School Absenteeism Crisis 30 ...
Why The Babadook never leavesSpoiler WarningThe Babadook isn.docx
1. Why The Babadook never leaves
Spoiler Warning
The Babadook isn’t a Hollywood monster or spirit that pulls you
across the ceiling or sucks you into a strange underworld. He’s
a Jungian-type shadow of the darkness inside our own hearts.
“If it’s in a word, or it’s in a look, you can’t get rid of the
Babadook,” warns the beautiful, simple handmade book Amelia
reads to her son Sam in the first few scenes of this much
buzzed-about film. The book is familiar, children’s books are
often unsettling, introducing to the child, and the parents, a way
to talk about the darker parts of life. Of course, it is often the
case that children’s nightmares can be inspired by creepy books,
but that doesn’t mean that monsters aren’t important. We need
fictional monsters because we have monsters living inside of us.
Sam was born into the world with a grief-stricken and unhinged
mother who had no time to take care of herself and find a way
to deal with her loss. As a single mom, she has to work long-
hours as a caretaker for the elderly, and then come home and
dig up love for her difficult son from her scant emotional
resources.
They barely have any support system, and Sam’s violence and
odd behavior drives away the only family they have. The film
oozes with the complicated feelings of a mother and son who
both desperately love each other, but are terrified of themselves.
Each one is flailing, and cannot hold onto one another without
sinking further down. When the Babadook is introduced to
them, he’s a place to hang all these repressed feelings and
nightmares, all the nauseous terror of love and need.
When it turns out that The Babadook is really Amelia, or that
Amelia has become possessed by him, it also seems plausible
that Amelia is his creator as well as his puppet. Amelia used to
2. write children’s books, so makes sense that she used her book-
making skills to create the mysterious, haunted object that
infiltrates their life. If that’s the case, the second book
depicting herself as the monster was also made by her, possibly
in an insomniac trance.
Seven-year-old Sam is a difficult child, but his situation is
horrific, and has been long before The Babadook manifested
itself. He’s just beginning to comprehend his mother’s
resentment towards him, and the horrible fact that his father
died on the same day of his birth. His obsessions with magic
and weapons seem to stem from his intense need to protect
himself, and his mother, from the constant threat of their very
existence. As the monster grows, Sam himself transforms from a
bit of a monster into a helpless child. As the danger increases
for him, both the audience and Amelia start to see him more as
a doe-eyed helpless child than a symbol of destruction, burden,
and loss.
When they are saved from the Babadook’s madness by Sam’s
tenderness, a neighbor’s concern and love, and, especially,
Amelia’s assertion of power over the malevolent force, the
Babadook is still with them. He will never leave, because he is
still a part of Amelia. Feeding this creature worms is an
acknowledgement for both Amelia and Sam of the terrible
things they’ve been through, and the realness of the monster,
while symbolically maintaining their control over its presence.
Why it has to be worms isn’t clear, but maybe that’s not
altogether important.
According to Carl Jung, “To confront a person with his own
Shadow is to show him his own light.” Everything isn’t fixed
for Amelia and Sam now that they’ve confronted The Babadook,
but Amelia is no longer a captive to her darker impulses. She
isn’t free, because we are never free of the hell we are capable
of creating in our own minds, but she is able to functionally live
and love her son again because she has acknowledged, and
therefore tamed and diminished, the dark terror of her grief and
pain.
3. What Does The Ending Of The Babadook Really Mean?
TOPICS:The Babadook
Posted By: Jesse Gumbarge December 9, 2014
If you’ve just finished watching the psychological horror film
The Babadook, then you may find yourself having a few
unanswered questions. Was there really a creature at all? What
exactly happened? And worst of all, what was up with those
worms at the end? Well, let’s try to work through this together
shall we? It should go without saying, giving the title of the
article, but a SPOILER ALERT is in full effect!
Leading up to the anniversary of her husband’s death, the
depressed and emotional Amelia (played by Essie Davis) begins
to sense a disturbing presence stalking her and her son Samuel
(played by Noah Wiseman) after reading a mysterious pop-up
children’s storybook titled “Mister Babadook.”
What’s immediately striking about this film is its persistence on
ambiguity. As a horror film it comes across as a very
frightening lullaby. On the other hand, the film will most likely
not sit well with many fans of the genre because of its departure
from traditional dramatic scares and generic imagery. Instead
The Babadook treats horror with far more intelligence as it
really challenges your emotional output more constructively
than films that are similar.
The Babadook “creature” itself takes up less than a few minutes
of screen time as director Jennifer Kent focuses on implication
rather than the obvious. What’s really effective is how
conspicuous the cinematography is; as each shot of the creature
is composed with immense subtlety. Its appearance plays on our
misinterpretation of darkness. We’ve all been in that situation
where we woke up in the middle of the night and thought we
saw a strange man lurking in the corner only to discover that
it’s only a coat or some random object. Metaphorically, the film
4. is shot with this fact in mind.
As you watch the film you’ll quickly notice that the
composition of each character and object is always on the verge
of your peripheral vision rather than being directly in your field
of view. You’ll think you saw something out of the corner of
your eye and before you know it, the film has already cut to the
next shot.
Despite there being no loud bangs or jump scares the film still
manages to make you tense up simply at the sight of a mere
claw in the darkness. Because the film plays on psychology
you’re left questioning whether or not the monster is actually a
fragment of Amelia’s fears and detachment because of her
copious amounts of stress.
Like The Exorcist or The Shining, The Babadook is far more of
a human story rather than simply setting up scare after scare.
There is an inherent skepticism that needs to be maintained in
order to manipulate the audience’s sense of understanding. By
giving doubt, you’re also creating a fear of uncertainty; a
natural human emotion that makes characters so relatable.
Now, on the face of it, this film may seem like a typical
possession movie (even the Kickstarter campaign for the film
descried it as such). Though, there is a strong case to be made
that the events of the film are simply a representation of
Amelia’s sorrow. The film is seemingly about grief and
resentment that consumed both her and her son. Sam grew up
without a father, he lives with a mother who keeps a locked
basement with all his possessions. She clearly has at least some
resentment built up towards her son as she finds him partly
guilty for causing the father’s death. The kid feels that
resentment and sees it constantly from his mother who has
visibly gone off the deep end. The metaphoric shit starts hitting
the fan when the boy goes into the basement, “releasing the
demon” aka bringing stirring up strong memories for his
mother.
5. This happens in cycles every year, hence Sam never having had
a real birthday party. The boy feels like he caused everything
and his mom reinforces this idea. This causes him to act out at
school and also causes him great anxiety. The neighbor next
door even says, “I know how hard this time of year can be for
you..”
This is a reoccurring theme in both of their lives. They “protect
each other” from it. He from her demons and her from his. The
boy being tossed around was the mother’s doing. We learn that
she sometime’s has out of body experiences (i.e. when she finds
herself hovering over Sam with a knife out of nowhere). We as
the audience see the boy being thrown around by nothing, but it
is indeed the mother. The “possession” was simply the built up
of memories/depression/resentment etc.
The Babadook manifesting itself as a top hat-wearing monster?
Well, young Sam is obsessed with magic, and magicians tend to
dress in that fashion, maybe that has something to do with it. As
far as the book? Well, it is stated in the film that Amelia indeed
used to write children’s books and when she goes to the police
station her hands are black. This isn’t from her burning the
book but rather it is most likely from using pastels to create the
book herself. Her keeping it in the basement is just her keeping
it out of site/out of mind (or perhaps she finally faces her fears
and is able to move on). Feeding it worms can mean whatever
you want it to mean. Though, the bottom line is that this is not a
movie about a demonic possession in the typical sense.
The Babadook isn’t groundbreaking filmmaking but it’s an
affirmation in horror that was truly needed. There’s a corky
oddity you need to overcome in order to get on the same page as
the film. Though, once you do, it’ll keep you thinking and it
will certainly keep you scared. There is indeed a persistent chill
of how daring The Babadook was to subvert your attention to
the unknown rather than the unremarkable.
6. Vocabulary for The Babadook:
1) Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that
ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another,
thus making an implicit comparison.
2) Symbol: something that represents something else by
association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material
object used to represent something invisible.
3) Subconscious: the part of the mind below the level of
conscious perception.
3.1) Unconscious Mind: consists of the processes in the mind
that occur automatically and are not available to introspection.
4) Patricide: the act of killing one’s Father.
5) Matricide: the act of killing one’s Mother.
6) Infanticide: the intentional killing of infants.
7) Oedipal Complex: denotes the emotions and ideas that the
mind keeps in the unconscious via dynamic repression that
concentrates upon a boy's desire to sexually possess the Mother.
8) Castration: is any action by which a biological male loses use
of the testes.
9) Castration Anxiety: a boy’s fear of damage being done to
their genitalia by the Father as punishment for sexual feelings
towards the Mother.
10) Demon: a paranormal often malevolent being prevalent in
religion, occultism, literature, fiction, and folklore.
11) Possession: psychokinetic control of a person by the Devil
or other malevolent spirit
12) Fairy tale: a type of short story that typically features
folkloric fantasy characters such as fairies, goblins, elves,
trolls, giants, mermaids, or gnomes.
13) Externalize: To project or attribute (inner conflicts or
feelings) to external circumstances or causes.
Questions for The Babadook?
1) Why can’t Amelia resolve her grief regarding the death of
her husband in the car crash? Might she actually blame Sam for
his death? If so, what are the consequences for their
7. relationship?
2) Amelia’s sister is a rotten sibling, why doesn’t she want to
help? Why is her daughter such a rotten kid? How come there
are so many rotten kids in this picture? Is it because the
narrative is written from the perspective of Samuel? After all,
he does make the direct statement: “Everybody hates me!” If
that’s true, why does everyone hate him?
3) Who puts the broken glass in the soup? Does that have
anything to do with pain Amelia experiences in her back molar?
Is it real or imaginary pain?
4) Who writes the book The Babadook? What are the
consequences to Samuel. In the book, the Babadook appears to
want to kill Samuel, is that the unconscious desire of Amelia?
How could a Mother ever want to kill a child?
5) How does Freud’s notion of the Oedipal Complex play out in
the narrative of the film The Babadook? Would you still be able
to understand the film even if you have never read any of
Freud’s ideas? How so?
6) Why does Amelia kill the little dog, and then bury it in the
back yard? Do the worms come from the decay of the carcass?
Has the dog been sacrificed to the Babadook rather than Sam to
appease it?
Sheet1gamesabrunshitsdoublestripleshrrbisalary1705670510761
939320672318366329.2139183333407863156387334233757512
80737084014818463553100105633374058161431810742129001
19636034379281916124541165020327489113621452701424057
47003941293179303511337141695432100578240355139527522
349137118165129235156434451161601059212.5169447411111
811444212.5872782570143121180789287231275812415853753
40045667121014200044216172304196922352091250528160817
83956078130825701208827561011011212547504781348155351
69926123200168421421142323421901093301971101833138861
97194481427136371111328720111253299142960071233877916
30041234331481207409799582123000415159223443362182115
13. The double-log model takes the form:
ln(salary)=B0 + B1ln(games) + B2ln(ab) + B3ln(hits) +
B4ln(runs) + B5ln(rbi) + B6doubles + B7triples + B8hr
+ w.
(We don’t take the logs of doubles, triples, or hr because some
observations are zero.)
a. For all three models, report and interpret the estimated
coefficient for runs.
b. Which of the three models fits the data best?
c. Consider the 2nd player in the sample, with 918 games
played, 3333 at-bats, etc. What salary does the double-log
model predict for such a player?
d. Compute a test statistic for testing the hypothesis that the
double-log model has no explanatory power.
H0: R2 = 0.
State the distribution of the test statistic (Remember also for
every test in this exam to report the p-value.)
e. For the double-log model, test at the .10 level the hypothesis
that, all else equal, doubles has no influence on ln(salary).
H0: B6 = 0.
14. Now do the same for hr.
H0: B8 = 0.
The test statistics have how many degrees of freedom?
f. Can you use the results from part e to make any inferences
about the hypothesis that doubles and hr together have no effect
on ln(salary),
H0: B6 = B8 = 0?
Explain.
Perform an F-test of the above hypothesis at the .10 level. State
the degrees of freedom for the test, and show how the test
statistic can be computed from sums of squared residuals. Can
you reject H0?
g. In the presence of heteroscedasticity, are the coefficient
estimates still BLUE? Are conventional test statistics still
valid? Describe the properties of the estimators of the
coefficients and the standard errors under heteroscedasticity.
h. Use a Breusch-Pagan test to test for heteroscedasticity in the
double-log model. After estimating the model in Stata, you can
perform the test using estat hettest followed by the list of
explanatory variables. Do you find evidence of
heteroscedasticity?
i. Can you show how the same Breusch-Pagan test statistic in
part h can be computed from a regression involving the squared
15. (and scaled) residuals?
j. Perform a heteroscedasticity-consistent test of the hypothesis
that, in the double-log model, the coefficient on ln(ab) equals
zero
H0: B2 = 0.
Does correcting for heteroscedasticity change your inference on
this coefficient in this model?
k. Find the double-log model that maximizes the adjusted R2.
State the rule that gives a necessary condition for the adjusted
R2 to be maximized. Does the adjusted R2 have interpretation
as a percentage of variation?
l. Stata reports the Standard Error of the Regression (aka
Standard Error of the Estimate) under “Root MSE.” Show for
the double-log model how this statistic can be computed from
the sum of squared residuals.
m. Show that the bias in the coefficient on ln(games) due to
omitting from the model ln(ab) equals the product of two terms:
(1) the coefficient on ln(ab) and (2) the coefficient on ln(games)
from a regression of ln(ab) on all the other explanatory
variables.
Questions for The Babadook?
1) Why can’t Amelia resolve her grief regarding the death of
16. her husband in the car crash? Might she actually blame Sam for
his death? If so, what are the consequences for their
relationship?
2) Amelia’s sister is a rotten sibling, why doesn’t she want to
help? Why is her daughter such a rotten kid? How come there
are so many rotten kids in this picture? Is it because the
narrative is written from the perspective of Samuel? After all,
he does make the direct statement: “Everybody hates me!” If
that’s true, why does everyone hate him?
3) Who puts the broken glass in the soup? Does that have
anything to do with pain Amelia experiences in her back molar?
Is it real or imaginary pain?
4) Who writes the book The Babadook? What are the
consequences to Samuel. In the book, the Babadook appears to
want to kill Samuel, is that the unconscious desire of Amelia?
How could a Mother ever want to kill a child?
5) How does Freud’s notion of the Oedipal Complex play out in
the narrative of the film The Babadook? Would you still be able
to understand the film even if you have never read any of
Freud’s ideas? How so?
6) Why does Amelia kill the little dog, and then bury it in the
back yard? Do the worms come from the decay of the carcass?
Has the dog been sacrificed to the Babadook rather than Sam to
appease it?