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Week 10: Mourning Gory

The Babadook (2014) Jennifer Kent • Directed by Jennifer Kent • Produced by Kristina Ceyton and Kristian Moliere • Screenplay by Jennifer Kent • Based on Monster by Jennifer Kent • Cinematography by Radek Ładczuk • Edited by Simon Njoo • Music by Jed Kurzel

“Managing to scare an audience silly with original imagery and non-formulaic jolts is no mean feat at a time when the horror genre has become a largely self-plagiarizing, cannibal entity. Managing to move us at the same time is close to miraculous. The Babadook, an Australian chamber shocker of cunning bespoke power, achieves both, in a layered, thoughtful, cumulative way that switches your dread from a focus on the bogeyman to the human psyche, then wavers between them, wobbling on a knife-edge.” Tim Robey

• “A bogeyman film” • Psychological thriller • A horror film

"I'm not a parent but I'm surrounded by friends and family who are, and I see it from the outside…how parenting seems hard and never-ending. I thought the film was going to get a lot of flak for Amelia’s obvious shortcomings as a mother, but oddly, I think it's given a lot of women a sense of reassurance to see a real human being up there. We don't get to see characters like her that often.” Jennifer Kent

• This is a film about grief and how we do or don’t handle it • The manifestation of The Babadook becomes an embodiment of ‘emotional suffering’ • Her ‘denial’ becomes power in the hands of dark forces • The Babadook is forced into the basement • The basement is where Amelia keeps her late husband’s belongings • The Babadook becomes a much-diminished threat • But rather than ignore it, she feeds it momentarily • By acknowledging The Babadook (her grief) is there she can ensure the ‘darkness’ remains within her control

Prevenge (2016) Alice Lowe • Directed by Alice Lowe • Produced by Vaughn Sivell, Jennifer Handorf and Will Kane • Screenplay by Alice Lowe • Cinematography by Ryan Eddleston • Edited by Matteo Bini • Music by Toydrum

• When heavily pregnant Ruth’s (Alice Lowe) husband dies in a climbing accident she blames his fellow climbers • She believes she is being controlled by her unborn baby, who tells her to carry out a revenge killing spree • It is a horror film that plays with existing genre tropes • Possessed mother • Evil child • The slasher/giallo film • It also subverts many of these well-trodden aspects • Lowe was keen to jettison any Hollywood clichés concerning the pregnant woman • Ruth, after dispatching her first victim, Mr Zabek, a slimy reptile of a man, literally strips away her mumsy disguise and burns it before our eyes. • It’s a symbolic cremation of clichéd cinematic motherhood and lets us know immediately that this particular murderous narrative will hold no truck with traditional depictions of maternity frocked frailty. • It’s a funeral pyre for our unchallenged expectations and a statement of intent.

‘It was important to me to portray a pregnant woman from the inside out, rather than the outside in. Many of my favourite films, Rosemary’s Baby etc., depict pregnancy I think with an onlooker’s gaze, probably a male gaze. The mother is vulnerable, sweet, helpless, loving. There’s no sense of existential angst, questioning motherhood itself. What it does to the body, the mind, the identity. These are all assumed as things women should take for granted, as ‘normal’, ‘natural’. Other films such as Alien are much more honest about motherhood in the sense of a ‘hostile takeover’ Alice Lowe

• A film about pregnancy which celebrates death, not life • It’s a film which is littered with other such visual flourishes, stark social commentary and black as hell comedy. • It’s a dark character study, a rollicking British slasher film and a deeply unsettling journey into a lost soul. • There are many scenes where the Ruth is depicted in dark enclosed spaces ‘a claustrophobic hell’ • There are also scenes of transition – passing through tunnels, caves etc. into wider spaces, which act as birthing metaphors • It deconstructs the slasher film and the sexism therein by attacking both literally and metaphorically representations of misogyny and gender based inequality.

• And yet it also remains a personal film, a moving, if somewhat disturbing drama detailing the anxieties of motherhood, pregnancy and a woman’s seeming inability to grieve in a conventionally acceptable manner. • It’s a darkly colourful film which feels happier in the morgue than the maternity ward and yet there is a humanity and an urgency there which forces us to examine our deeper set concerns about birth, life and death.

Hereditary (2018) Ari Aster • Directed by Ari Aster • Produced by Kevin Frakes, Lars Knudsen and Buddy Patrick • Written by Ari Aster • Cinematography by Pawel Pogorzelski • Edited by Jennifer Lame and Lucian Johnston • Music by Colin Stetson

• Annie Graham is a miniature artist • The story begins at the funeral of her mother • It is clear that the relationship between herself and her mother was difficult and that her mother lived a secretive and mysterious life • After the funeral, the family learn that Annie’s mother’s grave has been desecrated • When another death in the family occurs, Annie seeks solace with a support group but she soon ends up down more supernatural avenues

Themes • Difficult family relationships • Loss of parents • Grief • Guilt

"In its seriousness and hair-raising craftsmanship, Hereditary belongs to a proud genre lineage, a legacy that stretches back to the towering touchstones of American horror, unholy prestige-zeitgeist classics like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby. Remarkably, it's a first feature, the auspicious debut of writer-director Ari Aster, whose acclaimed, disturbing short films were all leading, like a tunnel into the underworld, to this bleak vision” A.A. Dowd