The Babadook

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Fish

Seriously....

Spoiler about the plot and finale:

Spoiler!

First, what bothered me the most is that the movie has no real likable characters. The mom is a selfish crazy bitch. She curses at the kid, gets very violent with him, tells him to eat shit because the kid interrupted her nap, doesn't allow him to celebrate his birthday on the day of his birthday because that's also the day the father was killed, etc. The woman playing the mother did a good job acting, but the character just didn't make sense and came off selfish and hateful. The mixed in a lot of suspense to make you sort of think the mom was losing her mind, it just didn't work for me. The kid was an insufferable asshole, but you still feel a tiny bit sorry for him because everyone else in the movie is even more of an asshole.

The movie does a good job at building up lots of tension. It finally results in a big showdown finale of the Mom vs. the Babadook. Up to this point, the Babadook has been able to do all kinds of badass poltergeist stuff, like move objects, make noises, invisibly pick up people and objects, completely posses people, etc. There's a standoff between mom and monster, and the mom screams at it, and all of a sudden the monster loses all its power for no explained reason at all. From that point on, the mom and kid keep the Babadook in the basement and take care of it as a bizarre pet of sorts, and bring it food like a bowl of worms. Everyone lives happily ever after. The end.

Yeah, you kinda missed some of the finer points.

Her screaming at the kid and being an asshole was something that evolved over time as she continued to lose her mind. That was the point the movie was trying to make. Remember, the movie doesn't start that way. She starts off as a very caring mother and progressively gets worse, assuming under the pressure of her misbehving child and the death of her husband that she tries to push under the rug, even though its consuming her.

And the standoff...that was very well explained several times through out the movie....it's even noted in the trailer.

As far as the ending goes, i feel that it's very, very open ended. Im not sure it's SUPPOSE to be taken literally.

Im not sure that the Babadook was even a REAL thing, but rather a manifestation.

If you notice, the handling of the Babadook shared a lot of similarities to the way she handled her dead husband. And the end was essentially symbolic of her coming to terms with her OWN inner demons.

I think the message is a lot deeper than you're giving credit for. I don't believe it's intended to be taken at face value.

it's the same conversation i had with my wife, who enjoyed the movie up until the confusing ending.