Grief and Terror

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2018)

Kent does a spectacular job relating a life full of grief to a bedtime story monster. Amelia's tragic events in her life are a reason for her depression and the hardship of loving her son. As Kent highlights the gloomy, dark colors throughout the movie, Amelia goes through her life living in the past and not realizing what a promising future her and her son could have. Both Amelia and her son are stuck with a children's book, "The Babadook," which ends up haunting their lives. The monster portrays the never-ending grief Amelia has in her life. It is not easy to get rid of the monster just like it is difficult to come to terms with her past. Her son has an unbreakable bond with his mother when he swears to protect her no matter what. He believes the Babadook wants to kill him and his mother and after he is medicated, his thoughts become out of control. When Amelia realizes her son's hallucinations might be real, she realizes that her son has been warning her.
The allegory in The Babadook, I believe, is the grief someone can have once tragedy hits that person's life. That bottled up grief and no reason to move forward eats a person from the inside out. The monster in this movie portrays this by always coming back. In the end, grief will always be there, but there is ways to cope with it to not ruin the future.