The Babadook
The Babadook: Facing the Darkness
As more than just another psychological horror film, Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, which debuted in 2014, explores grief, motherhood, and fears that lurk in the every day. While the trailers focused on the horror of the monster, audiences quickly picked on the fact that the real horror of the film centers on the psychological and emotional conflict between a mother and her son, and the creeping, almost sentient, Babadook. The making of the film also took intense focus, reflecting the personal journeys of the actors and the vision of the director.
Amelia and Samuel: Grief Worn on the Skin
Amelia Vanek, the character played by widowed mother Essie Davis, and her young son Samuel, portrayed by Noah Wiseman, are the main characters in The Babadook. Amelia’s character is a portrait of monolithic exhaustion. She is a single parent, grief-stricken, and faces the challenge of raising a child that is emotionally weak, and at times, clever but utterly exhausting. Her arc is less about external monsters and more about internal pain that is buried and unaddressed.
In interviews, Essie Davis stated that playing the role of Amelia meant she needed to explore her own vulnerabilities and emotional strength. While Davis did not experience loss on the same scale as Amelia, her insights on the burdens of caregiving and parental responsibilities surely enriched her performance. Davis was reported to have spent several weeks finding ways to express exhaustion through subtle movements of her face and body, and avoiding the histrionics that would have made a performance like this seem cheap.
Ten-year-old Noah Wiseman was not only the most precocious actor on the set, he also had to carry emotional scenes that conveyed Samuel’s fear. Wiseman’s challenge, especially during night shoots and in the darkness of the set, was to keep his performance authentically scared. Wiseman has spoken about feeling genuinely frightened off set when the Babadook puppet was around, as the prosthetics also scared him. That real fear was a gift for Wiseman’s performance, as it created a feedback loop of frightening emotion for the character.
The Babadook can transcend the role of a simple villain. Instead, it personifies grief and unacknowledged trauma. The sharpness of the Babadook’s features and the starkness of its movements, especially the top hat, evoke fear, sadness, and anger, and serve as a reminder of loss that has been ignored. Jennifer Kent designed the Babadook to confront Amelia and Samuel with the emotions they avoid. Those emotions culminate and amass when a loss goes unchecked. The Babadook’s design creates a discomfort that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional horror.
Fans truly appreciated the analogy’s possibilities. Conversations online focused on the Babadook as a figure of post-traumatic stress, mental illness, or anxiety in mothers. These memes and articles discussed various interpretations, and Kent appreciated and encouraged the focus on the psychological elements. He invited audiences to consider the film a psychological as well as supernatural horror.
Through Craft, He Builds the Tension.
Through minimalism and a more focused approach to her craft, Kent caused the horror to escalate. In terms of cinematography, time and again, Amelia and Samuel were framed together in claustrophobic compositions to highlight the themes of isolation and emotional suffocation. Night scenes and sequences were photographed so that the shadow and the Babadook’s presence were implied as conflicting movement and sound were used to suggest the Babadook before he was actually shown.
The “pop-up book” scene in which the Babadook is introduced was a combination of practical effects, puppetry, and stop-motion animation. Kent describes how the book “came alive” during a rehearsal and distressed even the veteran actors, which speaks to her talent of dissolving the boundaries between reality and performance. There were great technical challenges. The crew had to integrate the lighting, camera, and puppetry systems so that the elements coordinated within a few heartbeats to create the desired illusion.
Off-Screen Trials That Resonate With On-Screen Battles
Davis and Wiseman demonstrated stamina during emotionally charged scenes while balancing the challenging script. For Nicholas Davis, who was already established in Australian cinema, the stress, both emotional and physical, specialists had to deal with during the scenes where Amelia faces the supernatural force of the Babadook was considerable. At times, the character’s despair becomes so profound that Davis has to take breaks to regain perspective.
Equally challenging for Wiseman was the burden of portraying compounded feelings of terror and frustration while claiming the scene with intellectual cunning. As a child, he was also expected to improvise during scenes with the Babadook puppet, allowing the arousal of the a fear to appear spontaneous. This created a genuine emotional connection with the story, and the chemistry between the mother and son became a defining feature of the film.
When the Hype Grew Before Release
The Babadook generated “festival buzz” before it even hit international screens! This new horror film by Jennifer Kent premiered at Sundance Film Festival, where audiences experienced the horror flick with “awe and terror” at the same time and gave out “praise” for Kent’s “restraint” and for the “character work.” Kent was notably awarded for making “creative use” of the horror genre by “exploiting” the universal elements. “Trailers” and “promotional material” centered the “Babadook” as a “mysterious” and “terrifying” “being,” informing “curiosity” and “mystery” before the film’s “psychological layers” were experienced.
The creature’s design attracted enough fan “speculation” and “discussion,” occurring “in forums” where “symbolic” connotations and “narrative” possibilities were “dissected.” Online “discussion” constructed the film as a “puzzle” to solve, creating a “cult” “following” before The Babadook was even available “for commercial release.”
“Filming” was as “challenging” “as the tensions in the film.” Jennifer Kent “had to think creatively” for effects and “set design” due to “budgetary constraints.” “The Babadook” “puppet” was “particular” and “needed coordination” as “puppet manipulation” “could ruin a take.” The “narrative” “had actors and crew” work “in tight” “sets” and “at night,” which “amplified” the “emotional weight” in the “scene.”
The Babadook includes casting challenges. It was difficult to choose a young actor for the role of Samuel who could keep pace with the emotional intensity of a scene without overpowering it. Ultimately, Noah Wiseman was chosen for his ability to strike a balance between a naturalistic performance and responsiveness to the practical effects. Wiseman’s relationship with Davis was vital, and a great deal of the rehearsal time was devoted to establishing a convincing mother-son relationship to bolster the emotional center of the film.
In The Babadook, Kent made the intriguing choice to leave some elements of the story untold. Instead of revealing the monster through explanatory dialogue, she allowed for the possibility of it being interpreted within the emotional framework of the characters. This choice amplified fear and left an open-ended discourse for the viewers, a tactic which contributed to the film’s cult following.
The Babadook resonates. It combines elements of fright with psychological depth. The combination of Amelia’s grief, Samuel’s fear, and the Babadook itself together creates a hauntingly human story. The dedication and insight of the cast and crew, along with the director, is palpable behind every shadow, scream, and subtle movement. The emotional, physical, and creative challenges the cast and crew faced demonstrate the fear, loss, and resilience the film explores, leaving its darkness feeling intensely real.
The Babadook is not just a monster. It is a representation of all that we hold in silence. It serves as a reminder that the most terrifying thing to face is oneself. It takes courage and empathy to face one’s self. It takes a little bit of cinematic magic.
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