Member-only story
The Babadook (2014) — Horror and Its Predilection for Psychoanalysis
6 min readMay 3, 2020
The Babadook (2014) is a horror/thriller film directed by Jennifer Kent. Upon a breakdown of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories and the Oedipus Complex, one would find that these ideas align consistently with The Babadook’s characterization and particularly in the behavior of Amelia and her son Samuel. Through an in-depth analysis of the role of women in horror and of the ways in which a woman could be seen as the object of the camera’s gaze, a victim or a monster, one notices that all these characteristics could manifest in unison to provide Amelia with a far more complex character or narrative.
Before we begin with this (psycho)analysis, here are some key points to note about the background of Freud’s theories in relation to the horror genre:
- Here is a list of clichéd but recurring themes in horror films: “parents and children, sex and blood, secrets from the past, loss, repetition, trauma [and] death (Dumas, 21)”, all of which are evidently present in Babadook.
- To set the base for Sigmund Freud’s…
