#biologist.log

I was doing some thinking, and I really like the idea of an AU where Jude goes to Alternia instead of Joey, and Xefros comes to Earth instead of Dammek!

I think it should be called Hiveswitch! (and of course, the unofficial sequel would be called Hauntswap...)

me, and american, from my own home, while sick, was able to learn a millenia old tradition of weaving silk that was a closely guarded secret up until just 500 years ago

like............ bro...................................................................

and that’s just so genuinely awful to me. my mom was abusive much in the same way the mother in the babadook is. (insulting me, brushing me off, screaming at me, telling me to “just be normal”, swearing at me, she even screamed at me and verbally abused me when i tried to call my father to stay at his place in a scene that’s almost identical to one in the movie, and when she was done with all that, she would “try and make it up to me” with material goods in an attempt to make her feel like a better mother.)

the mother in the babadook does all these things and more to her child, and most people anaylzing the movie brush over it or chalk it up to grief, depression, or the babadook being real, absolving the mother in the movie of any guilt. while i can’t say this isn’t the analysis the director intended, i think a much better conclusion is that the mother is the true villain of the movie.

so much of the movie revolves around her denying the existence of the babadook. hell, she doesn’t even acknowledge that it’s real until after the climax of the movie, and then, she keeps it locked up in the basement and feeds it worms. even if the babadook is a metaphor for grief and depression, she hasn’t resolved anything by the end of the movie. yes, you can never truly get rid of the babadook, but the movie is set up in such a way that if she had acknowledged that it was real, at literally any point during the movie, the ENTIRE CONFLICT could have been avoided.

and when i say that, i don’t just mean she would have been able to “defeat” the babadook. had she listened to her son at the beginning of the movie, who was concerned about the babadook, and wanted to protect the both of them from it (it’s important that he explicitly worries about both of them) the babadook would have never been an issue in the first place. hell, by talking things out with her son, who, mind you, is all of SIX YEARS OLD, his issues could have been resolved. honestly, it’s up for debate whether they can even be regarded as “issues”, because in the end, his actions, mentality, and penchant for building weapons end up saving his life.

 instead of asking him why he was afraid of the babadook or monsters, or trying to help him find ways to deal with it, or asking about what he thought, she simply told him that the monsters weren’t real, again absolving her of any responsibility. 

we see the mother in the babadook time and time again avoid taking responsibility for her actions, and finding ways to not go to other people for help, because she refuses to acknowledge that the babadook is anything other than her son’s imagination, despite many, many, warning signs. she burns the pop-up book instead of turning it into the police as evidence. she doesn’t talk about her feelings with her sister. she doesn’t allow her son to go over to the neighbors house, even when he’s clearly very distressed, because she’s worried about others finding out about what goes on in her household. there’s even a scene where what appears to be the CPS comes to her house and checks up on her son, showing many signs of concern at the state of the house and the comments of her son. but, she again, brushes them off, creating excuses for herself based around grief, the cockroaches in her wall, her son’s spams, etc, etc.

in fact, it’s worth noting that even ignoring the scene where she forces her son to take his sleeping pills despite the fact that they clearly upset him, and that he said himself he didn’t need them anymore, they weren’t needed in the first place. samuel was sleeping just fine in the weeks leading up to her requesting the prescription for tranquilizers. they were never needed in the first place.

in the climax of the movie, she’s overcome completely by the babadook, telling him how he ruined her life, how she wishes she could kill him, calling him a “little shit” and brandishing knifes at him. her son attempts to call for help, but she removes the phone batteries, and cuts the phone wires. overcome with rage, she snaps the neck of the dog, and unknown to her, samuel watches on.

 he runs up to his room, locking himself in and hiding in the corner. the mother screams and bangs on the door, screeching the words of the babadook, “let me in! let me in! let me in!” before breaking down the door. samuel is forced to stab his mother in the leg to escape, and runs to the basement where he sets up traps for “the babadook” who is (important here!) at this point, his mother. 

she’s the one who’s been affected by the babadook, not him. even his seizure could be ascribed to overheating, but only the mother is directly affected by the babadook. the only exception is the scene where samuel is dragged upstairs by the babadook. through her, the destruction throught the movie is achieved.

what’s more, that book had to come from somewhere. if we interpret the movie to be a metaphor, then somebody had to have written the babadook book. however, we don’t see any references to the babadook in pop culture, the world, or the lore of the movie whatsoever. what does the movie tell us? the mother used to be a children’s book writer. she created the babadook, because she IS the babadook.

after being stabbed, she runs down into the basement, screaming bloody murder, and is tripped and subdued by her son’s “home alone” style traps. she wakes up, completely tied to the floor, her son sitting next to her.

samuel says he won’t leave her. he knows she doesn’t love him. the babadook won’t let her. but he loves her anyway.

the mother frees her hands and attempts to strangle him to death. she almost does it, too, but samuel strokes her cheek lovingly with his hand as he asphyxiates, and she violently throws him to the side, before entering a dream sequence in which she grapples with handing her son over to the babadook for him to be killed, and eventually resolves not to. 

she vomits on the floor, and runs upstairs with samuel, where the babadook makes a physical appearence and tries to drag samuel away. she screams at it, “if you hurt him, i’ll fucking kill you!” and the babadook quiets.

now, what did we see in the book of the babadook? after killing her son and the dog in the pop-up book, the mother kills herself.

finally, in the ending scene, we see the dead, rotting, corpse of the dog buried underneath a bush of roses, a metaphor for how the mother literally buries away her actions underneath a facade of sweetness and acts like nothing went wrong. furthermore, as evidenced by the fact that the ending scene takes place on samuel’s birthday, we know that barely two days, at best, has passed from the mother literally commiting attempted murder and being stabbed by her son in defense to a happy, picturesque family. no heart to heart talks, no explanations, no going for help, no nothing. they continue on as if literally nothing happened.

Samuel wouldn’t know any better. but she does.

she denies the existence of the babadook, hides the evidence from others, excuses not dealing with the babadook because of her depression and grief, ignores her son, which directly leads to the creation of the babadook, verbally and physically abuses her son, blames her problems on him, and CONSTANTLY acts like nothing is wrong, attempting to “make it up” to him with saccharine sweets and shallow rewards, like his birthday party and ice cream for breakfast.

in every horror movie, the monster isn’t defeated at the end. it waits, lurking, watching, hidden. the babadook is not an exception. the babadook, the mother, who are one and the same, are still out there.