THE BABADOOK (2014) Breakdown | Easter Eggs, Hidden Details, Making Of & Ending Explained

[Music] welcome to the heavy spoilers show I'm your host Paul in this video we're breaking down the babadook released almost 10 years ago the films become a cult classic and there's lots of things going on within the movie subtext throughout this video we're gonna be going through it all and another thing the hidden layers that lie deep beneath the surface created by Jennifer Kent this movie's gained a big following since its release dude a great word of mouth and the sense of dread that builds up throughout it babadook is an anagram of a bad book and the word itself means he is coming in Hebrew it actually builds off the back of Ken's short film monster which the director herself has called Baby babadook the film was actually inspired by a friend that was a single mother with a son who was traumatized by a monster figure in the house he said he saw it everywhere and Ken began to imagine that the monster might actually be real though she decided to go make a movie on it however the idea didn't stop there and the premise constantly kept scratching away at her starting on the screenplay in 2009 she wanted to tell a story about the darkness within everyone frame from the point of view of a single mother can't aim to touch upon the tablet three subjects that a lot of parents feel when parenting and how things can get to the point of being too much now as someone who recently became a parent I view this film in a slightly different light and though I've never wanted to you know make it so the kids won't be running the heavy spoilers channel in 20 years time I think every parent can relate to at least some part of this movie we've all set in our cars at some point staring at the window blankly while the kids scream away and actually becoming a parent made me appreciate the movie more Ken said she wanted to show how mother hurts anything but perfect and just because you love your kids it doesn't mean you have to like them citing influences like the thing Texas Chainsaw Massacre is shining and Let the Right One In you can see these elements all leaping out when you watch the movie however the most striking influence it actually calls back to a movie released almost 100 years ago and that is the man in the beaver hat from London after midnight unfortunately the film was lost during a fire that happened in the MGM vaults during 1965. it's one of the most sought after the films from the silent ERA with some single frames being all that survived there's actually YouTube videos that display every single surviving frame and you can really see the similarities between the character and creature now the movie centers around Amelia and her son Samuel the former of which is living as a widow we learn that her husband Oscar was killed in a car accident that happened when he drove out of the hospital while she was in labor and the movie actually begins with us taking a focus on Amelia reliving the memory of the car crashing down awoken by her son screaming he tells her that he saw the Monster again now he watches Amelia reads him a story about the big bad wolf did they really kill the wolf mom this of course foreshadows what comes at the end and Amelia doesn't actually kill the babadook this is something can actually fought with when trying to get Distributors involved as they all thought that the babadook should be killed however she said that because it's represented in a demon with an Amelia that it's not something that can easily be killed off it's something people must learn to live with and Trauma like this sticks with someone forever the director didn't end up getting funny from the studios and inside the film was financed through crowdfunding now this grief definitely helps to set the groundwork for the movie and there are lots of different ways that you can interpret it sure you can see this just as Supernatural entity but all these elements make me view it differently Emilia of course witnessed the death and the grief guilt and Trauma has clearly been buried deep in her subconscious you can also at least sympathize why she might blame Samuel as had he not been born then she'd still have her husband I'm not saying that's the right interpretation to take from the situation but you can see why the character might have that door cross her mind one thing that you also have to consider is that the character's birthday is also the anniversary of Oscar's death so every time you celebrate it you have this reminder of what you've lost and yeah it adds a ton of complexity to Amelia's character Amelia is clearly someone who desperately misses her husband and she's someone who resents her son because of how he acts Samuel's a problem child who lashes out and loses his temper leading to her almost being unable to cope with what it's like being his mother there's this constant idea that she's missing someone in her life which symbolically is often shown by an empty space beside her at the 3 minute 26 Mark we see her hand on her husband's pillow and that 20 minutes we see her sat on a sofa rather than sitting in the middle she's off to the side and this leaves a blank space for where Oscar would normally sit at about 37 minutes she looks over to the alarm clock and we get another subtle focus on the missing person now Samuel and Amelia end up sleeping in the same bed together with Emilia certainly trying to get some separation between herself and her son his legs are up around her he nips his skin and grinds his teeth and it's clear from this that he's also grinding on her he watches Samuel ends up running out into the basement and this is then accompanied by the sound of loud banging foreign Awakening in her mind and I think that is shown alongside her waking up but that specific reason as she goes downstairs we watch Samuel breaking a window and very much get the cuts and highlights of how her day tends to go again if you're a parent you'll know the days are made up of moments like this where there being lots of highs and lows depending on what happens however during this Montage we get focused on an interesting poster showing a Victorian magician known as Thurston in the picture he's carrying out a medium reading with a focus on the text do the spirits come back now this is of course commenting on how Amelia Longs for her husband and she may have even been interested in a way to speak beyond the grave although Samuel grines and her we also see that he has a sweet acai tomb he's just a kid after all and Jennifer Kent was extremely conscious about making a horror movie and how that could mess up a kid telling him a child-friendly version of the story Noah Wiseman was actually never on set when Emilia was abusing him instead this was done to an adult ouched on their knees and even the reverse shots were achieved without causing trauma Ken said she didn't want to destroy his childhood to make a film so when we have reaction shots where he looks scared it was just something where she just threatened to break his toys now from here we go to Amelia and we see that she's employed at a local care home this of course comes with its own difficulties which we'll talk about later in the video call him by the school we learned that Samuels brought a crossbow in and that he could be isolated from the rest of the students I can't even imagine how difficult it would be immediately having to raise the kid right after your husband's died and Samuel is of course lashed out due to being desperate for attention other parents look down on him and don't want their kids hanging around with him and this is of course also isolate Amelia whether intentional or not this clearly rubs off on him and at home they decide to go and read the babadook book a rumbling sound thing three sharp Knocks now the movie itself actually ran campaigns where you could buy the babadook pop-up bug for about eighty dollars over nine thousand copies were sold with the initial 2000 all being signed by the director the look of it is it's extremely creepy and it of course features Samuel's big fear of a monster hiding throughout the house it begins to give him nightmares and in the next scene we see Amelia lying in bed looking at the book and I'm I'm warning you I'm gonna reach right now rage now the way the light hits the cover here gives a clear focus on the word mister I was wondering if the babadook clearly being a man was the comment on how there's an absent male figure on both the pair's life and this is hinted at in the next scene when we catch Emilia watching TV she sees an old movie where a man kisses a woman and this gives us a classic depiction of what romance is this is the life Amelia believes that she should have but she goes up to her room alone and takes out let's say a woman's toy out her box look at YouTube it's been a nightmare recently for the monetizing stuff and every time a blur or dance around something people always kick off saying I shouldn't censor it trust me yeah it takes us twice as long to edit something then Blair and then cut around it and if I could just mention this stuff without getting the platform limiting our videos you know I would so I'm sorry for that but that's the way the video is gonna be anyway even this moment with itself is interrupted by Samuel and the stronger her dislike for him gets the more power that it gains she lurks up been here is banging in the house which is representative of the babadook moving through her subconscious often sure to have her staring at closed cupboards and doors we get the idea that she's tried to lock this away mentally this is the way she's tried to gain control over her dark thoughts but in not really controlling them they end up controlling her the house itself also has this incredible atmosphere to it without always feeling like there's something in the corner hidden in the shadows I don't know why but there's just something in the way it's lit and frame but it's sort of got a dull and drab feeling to it that almost sucks a life out of you there's no bright or bursting colors anywhere and it helps to cement the weariness that Amelia feels now this was intentional too and the entire interior is actually a set with them building two stories so they could have the characters running up and down the stairs window shots were avoided because you'd see the outside and they didn't have the budget to blue screen it or build in backgrounds the furniture itself was also brought in by the set Department with a lot of items being painted darker to convey the dimmer mood these drab colors are all also echoed in the book giving us the idea that they're sort of Trapped in this story after getting some time to herself we see that she seems happier but watching a couple kissing in the car makes her long for a different life shortly after when she's watching the dishes we see her looking at a window and this is to an old woman known as Mrs roach sat in a chair like Amelia there's an empty one beside her and the old woman sat watching the TV by herself to Amelia this could represent the loneliness she feels and what she believes is gonna end up being the rest of her life even when she skims the buck we see this has tons of blank pages towards the end emphasizing the loneliness that she could feel however this could also show that the story's ongoing and that the future hasn't been filled out yet a Samuel's Behavior gets worse and worse too when he ends up scaring his auntie and cousin due to him talking about the babadook Robbie comes to visit them with a bunch of flowers but the pair end up destroying this by having an argument Emilia discovers Samuel's being going to ask his stuff in the basement and scattering all of his items comes out onto the floor this includes music sheets and later in the scene we see a violin which the character clearly played up next to this though is a suit and hat with this clearly being clothing that belonged to Oscar this is also a direct note of the babadook who of course wears similar clothing and for Amelia he's a representation of the guilty fields for Oscar now I've been talking about how Samuel gets some of the blame but there has to be a part of her that blames herself too say she hadn't gone into labor the moment that she did then the crash could have potentially been avoided and though I'm not saying it's a fault you can't see how someone would also blame themselves now this hand code is why it takes on the shape of her but as for Samuel he never knew his dad instead the manifestation appears due to his imagination are we catch him watching a magician's show where the performer wears a top hat at the party we also see a juggler wearing black and white face paint which could also slightly influence the creature a glass appears in her food and she also finds a picture of her and Oscar with the eyes and mouth scribbled out though she tries to burn the buck but the creature returns indicating that this is something that simply can't be brushed away we see how everyone also sort of tips around her and at the party see how the other women view her she's shutting around in the frame whilst they're all as a group and the colors they wear are put in place to differentiate the two every woman here wears a dark blue gray item and this is along with the black clothing they wear Amelia wears black too however she also wears pink and this is to show the difference between them their problems like being able to get to the gym all the time they see minuscule competitor hairs and Samuel ends up having a seizure after lashing out of the party his cousin ends up saying that his dad died to get away from him and that is mother can't stand him either now for as much as Samuel is a problem child he's still being thrown into a world that he doesn't really understand he's at a disadvantage due to not having a father and not many kids know what it's like to grow up without one it's one of those things where unless it happens to you you can't really comprehend it and there's Amelia bags to medicine to help keep him sedated he says I love you Mom and at this point we see a real change in Amelia she goes after bed and floats down from her dream peacefully smiling as she lands on it trying to read into the symbolism is apparent here I think that this is kind of how you have a really tough day with your kids but them just saying I love you it honestly it makes all the difference I think it can also show how quickly that depression can change and how you can be down one moment and then Happy the next the problem with depression is that when you're in it you feel like it's never gonna end and it tricks you into believing that it's always been that way however as we all know you can get to the other side it's just about getting through those really dumb moments and the happiness is shattered when there's a knock at the door and we see that the bark has been reassembled the show's Amelia standing in the babadook Shadow with her arms stretched out like a demonic angel in the book she sees herself killing the dog and this is something that she ends up doing later in the movie this part represents how the babadook could be possessing her and we see how she becomes the villain later on it's very much taken over her identity and this is something we get hinted to at in the police station when Amelia goes to try and get help from them we can see a sign and it says stop identity theft the police don't end up helping at all and this is kind of a comment on how useless they are when it comes to mental health issues Amelia ends up seeing the babadook's card hanging up and after there she then flees the station picking up Samuel we see Mrs roach from before who seems to be the only one that actually likes him like I said she's very much what the future could have in store for Amelia but it shows that people can still end up happy when we saw her watching the TV show she was smiling away showing that there is hope but it comes with self-acceptance in a scene at roughly the 45 minute Mark we also see her sat watching TV and can hear the film playing in the background this sounds exactly the same to what Amelia watched before and it's somewhat showing the life that she could have [Music] one thing you might also notice as well is that you can see the babadook standing in the doorway looking creepily at Mrs roach completely missed this on like my first eight watches and then going back to this breakdown I spot it was like caught me off guard and yeah I really appreciate when a movie scares me just like this now in the house bugs start to overrun it which is summing up people with psychological issues often say they end up seeing digging into the walls this is a metaphor for her mind and how beneath the surface there could be something hiding visited by Community Services they then inspect the house and we see that the hole has been patched up this could metaphorically show how she's keeping up appearances and pretending to act like nothing's wrong whilst the pair visit Emilia forces Samuel to stay awake even though he's tired and this is because the pills just won't work otherwise though she plays the TV and then reads him a story but once he goes to sleep strange things start to happen we get a flicker of light and then she looks about her bedroom which is when we can once more see a black coat and hat hanging up that night the babadook finally comes in in the room moving almost with studded animations and this gives an almost otherworthy feeling to it I kind of saw this as making it almost seem like flicking through a book which of course ties in with how it was first introduced Emilia tries to stay awake and she watches the TV which is when we Asylum Phil mask's story playing at this shows the babadook and the black and white style to it of course also mirrors the colors of the creature and able to sleep she stays up all night and in the mornings too tight to even feed her son this is a clear form of neglect with her not having any food in the house at all really hungry if you're that hungry why don't you go and eat she apologizes but you know it is pretty harrowing looking at how anger can cause you to do something you'll regret Emilia also gets a pain in hitch you're likely caused by constantly clenching it and later on this leads to her ripping out her tooth bugs crawl all over her and on the phone book and she Witnesses the babadook crawling on the car this causes her to crash it but she drives away further shedding her responsibilities sitting in the bathtub these are often seen as spaces to be alone and Samuel says that he can call his auntie she's clearly having a nervous breakdown though and she ends up picking Samuel up and putting him in with there there's a really dark subtext to the entire thing with a character symbolically drowning from what's happening around her she takes all the boxes of an abusive controlling parent and stops Sam reaching out to get help from others she takes the batteries out of the phone and also cuts the line severing any ties that he has to the outside world wielding a knife there's a clear Illusions to Psycho with her dress being similar to what Norman Bates wore when he thought he was his mother she she further barricades a door and closes all the windows and forces him to have even more pills sitting watching cartoons is depicts a wolf putting on sheep's clothing much like how she gives the appearance of an easy going Pleasant woman you see as she imagines Samuel dead and even the dog doesn't like her anymore the house really takes on a dark depressing turn at this point representing the mental state that Amelia now has we also see clips of Phantom of the Opera giving an idea of the horror finally being unveiled we see news reports about a woman who murdered her child and is fully portrays her deepest and darkest thoughts she imagines herself sitting in the window looking on and it's arguably one of the most creepiest scenes in the movie traveling into the basement we see Oscar and his suit and he tells her that she has to go and bring him the boy at this point though Amelia makes a stand rather staying with the idea that killing her son will bring them together running up the stairs we see is the babadook comes in the room dropping items off the curl that we saw before this includes the hat which slums down the chimney before Oscar's old coats dropped onto the floor from this point the babadook takes over Amelia and then she ends up killing their little dog probably the most disturbing scene in the entire film and I think you know this might put a lot of people off her for good the movie definitely has his tone where you know it can be a difficult watch at times and seeing her clearly abuse Samuel you know it doesn't exactly make her likable and this further gives the idea that Samuel's protections are now missing because the only one in the house on his side is now gone unlike a lot of other horror films though all of the human characters live which is something that rarely happens in this genre banging on his door she ends up entering the room and she stands like how the drawing did all the way back in the pop-up book Chase through the house Samuel fights back and at this point Mrs roach knocks on the door and offers some kind words this changes Amelia around and it shows how even showing some form of support can make all the difference although it's not too long before the darker forces come out and after a fight with Samuel he ends up tying her up in the basement this is repeated later on when they finally restrain the babadook and it does show the similarities at the pair share she tries to strangle Samuel but him lovingly touching her causes her to vomit up black you instead I think this yet again represents how loving and caring can be used as a way to help people going through mental struggles but as Sam says you can't get rid of the babadook and at this point he's pulled up into the bedroom repeatedly thrown against the wall the bed and rocks similar to The Exorcist and its possible a levitation scene from before was also not to that as well both films had the idea of possession and it could be the creative team giving nod to that film now once more seeing Oscar she Witnesses his death again before finally confronting the creature and calling it nothing now if you recognize the sound effects yeah then this is because they use elements of mataro from Mortal Kombat 3. this is my house the creature then starts growling and they use the dragon growl effects sound effects from Warcraft 2. foreign [Applause] hat drops lifelessly to the floor and though it seems to feared we know that it isn't touching it the creature then powers back up before it flies down into the basement and away from the pair finally she's managed to lock it away and it's now summing a she must live with in the deepest parts of her mind in the end we see a complete change in Amelia and this also brings about a major change within Samuel she gets him in a new school enjoys watching his magic tricks and his funny celebrating Samuel's birthday my first birthday I've ever celebrated this is the first time they've ever actually done it and his shows actually now looks at it as a happy day instead of being a sad one out in the garden we see her trimming up a black rose and symbolically these are used to represent death and mourning her accepting this and letting it Bloom outside shows how she's finally willing to stop hiding her grief away from here she starts collecting worms and we see that the daughter of the basement has now got several locks on it Emilia will keep the creature down here and occasionally confront it but she'll also make sure she treats it because it's part of her rather than running from the babadook she's now accepting of what it is and this helps her to deal with what it really means now from here she goes back upstairs and celebrates Samuel's birthday finally able to move on and see the good in her son he makes a white dove appear as part of a magic trick and symbolically white doves mean New Beginnings in peace happy birthday sweetheart we close out with Amelia sort of struggling to smile and there's so much in this moment that you can read into personally I see this ear knowing that there's been bad times and that she's also had a lot of tragedy happening in her life however she's still forcing a smile because she wants to see the girl and we end with a happy node rather than a sad one now that closes out the film and I hope you enjoyed the video and obviously let me know below if there's anything we missed I am planning on doing upgrade pretty soon and at the moment I'm also thinking about doing 2001. let me know if you have any other suggestions Silent Hill I might do that as well and if you want to support the channel then please click the join button we release these videos sometimes a week in advance for members and it's something you can get access to for less than the price of a cup of coffee a month thank you to everyone who subscribed are blown away by the numbers and if you want something else to watch we've got another classic movie breakdown on screen now with that out of the way huge thank you for clicking this and again thanks for all your support on these older movies I've been poor you've been the best and I hope to see you next time you take care peace

Channel: Heavy Spoilers

Views: 88,362

Keywords: Babadook, Babadook easter eggs, Babadook hidden details, Babadook things you missed, Babadook ending, Babadook ending explained, Babadook review, Babadook full movie, Babadook spoilers, Babadook analysis, Babadook hidden meaning, Babadook meaning, Babadook meaning explained, subliminal messages in movies, hidden secrets in horror movies, horror movie easter eggs, Babadook background, horror, ending explained, easter eggs, the babadook, babadook explained, movies

Id: rKzGHi4aJz4

Length: 22min 58sec (1378 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2023