The Babadook?

This movie quite interesting and mind blowing. One of the 'smartest' stories I've seen about the Shadow archetype.

So the Babadook is the shadow archetype. Quick rundown, for those who aren’t familiar is, the shadow is a part of the ‘self’ (a persons mind) that we refuse to accept as part of ourselves. Aspects of ourselves that are so vile, repulsive, or contradict to how we view ourselves that it is utterly ignored and unacknowledged. So, the shadow is named as such because it is the darkness of our mind, and by nature largely unconscious. Amelia has a great deal of hate for her child. It’s difficult to face such feelings when you believe yourself to be an unconditionally loving mother. Her child is a burden, abnormally difficult to raise, and worst of all is to blame for her husbands death. The beginning of the story shows Amelia tackle this difficulty with a great deal of compassion, and endless patience. But of course, all of that hate is hidden inside and as the story progresses we see it unleash.

This process is well documented in Analytical Psychology. Allowing a part of the mind to remain fully unconscious lets it grow unchecked. It allows it power it doesn’t rightly deserve. If you ignore it, it will grow stronger. Sometimes this results in an eruption, causing those unsavory aspects to overtake all other aspects of a person. Psychosis, fits of anger, etc. And so it does, rapidly and with little warning.

This has purpose though, to the mental health of the individual. Becoming a more consciously whole person can be of great benefit. When you can ‘let in’ parts of yourself that were being denied you can gain power over impulses and behavior being caused by them. So this eruption of the Shadow to the surface is a violent way of aspects of ‘self’ merging. We see at the end how Amelia has learned to have a pressure valve for her mind, and to handle this in a more healthy fashion. There is no getting rid of the shadow (babadook), it’s rightfully a part of each of us.

One thing that I loved so much is the portrayal of the ‘realness’ of the babadook. We might not be able to set them on a shelf, or take pictures, but they’re as real as gravity. At no point did the film say, ‘oh this was all just in her head’ or ‘she’s just crazy’. Many other films with a ‘monster in the mind’ scenario do take the route of showing how ‘none of it was real’.

About the babadooks unmasking, of course the surprise is that she sees herself (I think that’s first made clear from the popup book?). I also notice the bright light, perhaps this is the gems I referenced earlier.

I do wonder, why worms in earth as food? I see how important the scene is of her keeping and feeding the babadook, but I have a hunch I’m missing exactly why that offering was chosen.

Why babadook? I found interesting information about it.I saw someone translated this to 'chuckling father'. I'm mostly struck by the primitive sound of the word (which is why baba is often the word for father, children can say it). The Shadow is primitive, the definition being- denoting the character of an early stage in the evolutionary development of something. Archetypes (which include the shadow among others) are the building blocks of modern mind.

Overall, it quite a different horrow movie compare to others. But some may view it different because of it's literally meaning. Last but not least, I would recommend you guys to watch it because the element in the story can challege our mind where at first i dont get what the movie was about.