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This movie was actually disturbing and creepy... until the titular character decided to use the Sectoid Death Scream from X-COM. I know it isn't super fair (generic soundbanks and all) but holy poo poo did it take me out of the movie. And I'm not the kind of guy who actually uses the phrase 'takes me out of the movie'!
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Nov 3, 2014 04:05
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:21 |
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^ The problem with that, and the problem I have with the ending, is that the ending only works on a subtexual, Babadook-as-symbol-of-grief-or-PSTD level. On a practical level, the movie ends with the protagonist mom-accosting a demon-monster into shamefully crawling into the basement and feeding it worms for the rest of their lives, which is a pretty strong  .The only time that worked, to my memory, is Freddy in his first film. The xenomorph didn't stop hunting you because you understood its rapey undertones. Jason didn't stop hunting you because you realized he was just a dumb scared kid. And I always heard that catharsis-based therapy has been proven to be not very ideal, because eventually your body conditions the cathartic act with the only way to deal with an emotion. Get angry, punch a bag to release that anger, and eventually your mind only accepts releasing anger via punching.
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Nov 3, 2014 19:23
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The issue, ultimately, is that symbolism can't support things on its own; it works best as subtext. The ending only works as Babadook As Symbol Of Grief. It a stupid as hell ending from a people-dealing-with-a-ghost perspective. If you've got a ghost thing in your basement, the last thing you do is feed it.
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Nov 7, 2015 18:55
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FreudianSlippers posted:You can never get rid of it. Might as well try to make sure it doesn't become malevolent again. Or, since it retreated into the closet, let it starve there. You don't feed a entity thing that is tormenting you, especially won you just defeated.
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Nov 8, 2015 02:04
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Best Giraffe posted:Do you expect there to be a different movie, that you imagine, but that obviously is not the extant movie? I expect movies to have coherent endings consistent with the actions and events leading up to it. The extant movie fails to have that on a practical level. FreudianSlippers posted:I don't think the being you explicitly can never ever get rid off isn't going to starve if you don't give it food. Then why feed it at all? Don't tell me the ~symbolism~ of it. The symbolism of it isn't going to absolve or replace the practical insanity of it.
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Dec 11, 2015 01:21
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 04:21 |
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Taear posted:It works perfectly if you read the film as being about mental illness. That's what I said - it works fine if you read the the entity as a symbol of mental illness. It doesn't work when your movie is about a demon creature. When your movie's end becomes a scene from We Bought A Zoo 2: We Bought A Babadook with your characters taking care of the thing that's been tormenting you, shits done hosed up. FreudianSlippers posted:Lets say you have an immortal mad dog running around. You can't kill it no matter how you try but you manage to chain it up. You could try to ignore it but it might become restless and hungry and maybe even try to escape and eat your face. Alternatively you could feed it and check up on it regularly to make sure it's still there and still chained up. Or, put the immortal mad dog in a metal box, put chains around it, bury the box in a hole, pour concrete over it, then lock the door to the room its in. You don't go ~well its immortal so I guess I have to keep looking at it and feeding it blood~. That'd be stupid. About as stupid as an demon monster movie ending with the protagonists keeping the demon monster on life support. Cut out the feeding-worms nonsense and simply have the mom go downstairs and have still alive but incapable of harming/interacting with her while she's doing her normal-people chores, and you've got a solid movie that makes sense both symbolically and practically. You may not be able to get rid of a Babadook, but you can certainly break its arms and legs, pull out its teeth, and stuff a cork in its hellmouth so as to make its existence immaterial. MisterBibs fucked around with this message at 04:53 on Dec 13, 2015 |
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Dec 13, 2015 04:47
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