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As a young child, most people were afraid of the monsters under the bed.
However, they say that the scariest monsters are the ones in plain sight. The monsters we let in by reading horror stories and watching scary movies.
But have you ever thought that a monster was something that could teach you a lesson? Well, if you haven’t, it’s time you check out “The Babadook.”
Here are three things you need to know about the multifaceted monster.
”The Babadook” is a 2014 Australian psychological horror film.
Psychological horror films are a sub-genre of horror that aim to create unsettling effects through the use of psychology. In addition, it can be taking out the physical threats and replacing them with psychological ones.
Jennifer Kent wrote and directed “The Babadook,” which was her directorial debut. It is based on her 2005 short film “Monster.”
When the film was first released in Australia, it didn’t do very well. However, in 2014 it played at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. There it got the attention of people in America and Europe, where it ultimately did much better than in Australia.
The “Babadook” is known as a supernatural creature that haunts the main characters in the film. Moreover, the creature appears as a tall, shadow-like, bogeyman with claw-like hands and a pale face. It wears a black coat and a black top hat.
How it works is that the “Babadook” hides in a pop-up book that randomly appears in homes. The “Babadook” haunts whoever reads its poems, and as the readers become more scared, the “Babadook” gets more powerful.
The creature is symbolic of what the main character Amelia has gone through since the death of her husband. It symbolizes denial, anger, fear, bargaining and finally acceptance. When Amelia learns to deal with her inner demons the “Babadook” stays in their lives in the basement, but she is able to live her life with her son once again.
The LGBTQ community adopted the “Babadook” as an icon for different reasons. One of those reasons is because, like Rolling Stone explains, queerness is many times shot down by society, but the topic comes back stronger and more visible.
And just like Amelia tries to get rid of the “Babadook,” it just comes keeps coming back, stronger and with a bigger presence. Also, in the film the “Babadook” is a menace to Amelia and her son. In the same way, more conservative people find the LGBTQ+ community to be a threat to their heteronormative ways.
However, this Pride month the LGBTQ+ community has reclaimed the “Babadook” as a positive symbol. Some people even felt that the “Babadook” was the first time that they were represented in a film.
So in a strange way, this made-up creature actually works as an icon for the LGBTQ community. Sure, it might not make sense at first, but when you think about it, symbolically, it kind of does. And this past Pride month it definitely seemed to have meant a lot to the LGBTQ+ community.
So, there we have it.
Although some monsters are meant to frighten us, others are meant to teach us lessons. This creature shows us that the best thing to do in some scenarios is to deal with our inner demons head on.
