"Scholars want me to be wrong, and their research reflects that. Telepathy scares the everloving crap out of people" -Tattletale, Worm Ch. 3.11
Central to the discussion of the uncanny is the concept of Unheimlich, indicating that something either disrupts the comfort of an environment or reveals something that one would prefer be kept secret. In other words, the Unheimlich is something that you shouldn't perceive because of the "wrongness" that it generates, this wrongness becoming a source of fear. The Unheimlich is the fly in the ointment, the dead pixels on the monitor, the flubbed line in a stage play, but it can also be the doorway that tears down one's conceptions of what is and what should be.
When we see magic outside of its normal context of fairy tales and antiquated trappings, it represents a threat, an encroachment on how humans recognize the world as working. The Unheimlich nature of magic comes from its conflict with the existing paradigms which we've used to model our behavior and shape our lives. If you've led a life mired in secrets and doubts only to discover that an entity can read your mind or grow stronger every time you think about it, this paradigm shift would unseat all of your assumptions about safety and autonomy: an extreme example of the Unheimlich.
The introduction of powerful supernatural elements into a structured modern environment is exactly what makes so many horror films terrifying, and the Babadook is the perfect example of how an Unheimlich magical force can upend somebody's life in nightmarish ways. For so long, Amelia has believed that she could bunch up the trauma of losing her husband and move on, raising her son Samuel as a normal child and never having to address her own hangups. When confronted with a being which becomes stronger and more aggressive the more one tries to run from it and which can break people with disturbing revelations, Amelia is forced far out of her comfort zone and must face the truth of her vulnerability head-on.
Of course, as will all good magical creatures, the Babadook is an extension of more relatable, earthly struggles. The problems it creates all stem from Amelia's existing fears: the worry that Samuel is obviously different, the worry that others will judge her for her trauma, and especially the worry that her painful experiences will twist her behavior in a way that endangers Samuel. The Babadook exacerbates all of these with its powers, its Unheimlich powers magnifying the myriad forms of Unheimlich which exist within Amelia's life.
The most fascinating part of this movie, I found, was the method in which Amelia ultimately overcomes the Babadook: by rendering the Unheimlich entity Heimlich. She opens up about her worries and her past, treats Samuel with the dignity and respect that he sought through his behavior, and domesticates the creature in her basement, normalizing the Babadook and her trauma rather than trying in vain to annihilate it. Amelia thus fulfills the unique position of both monster and final girl, a source of danger who also ends being the force which contains it.
I find this a really fascinating observation: "As a fantasy author, I think a lot about the distinction between exciting, fantastic magic and horrific, nightmarish magic. The boundary between them is pretty slim and often seems to come down to execution rather than the actual magic itself." Its a great observation to bring to Freud's ideas of the unheimlich and especially to your final observation about The Babadook, that Amelia is able to conquer her fear by integrating her fears into her everyday home life. Its funn how that creates a sense of extreme and unsettling discomfort for the viewers, especially her acts that nurture and feed the creature. Ultimately, this film is really good at raising questions about boundaries between self and other not only about the characters onscreen but with the sudience as well.
ReplyDeleteYour point that Amelia overcomes the Unheimlich by rendering it Heimlich is something that I think highlights what makes defining the uncanny so difficult. Neither familiar nor unfamiliar, the uncanny can be more of a transition and less of a state. Freud mentions the feeling of uncanny coming from reaffirmation of once conquered fears. It's not necessarily the absence of safety but the dismantling of perceived safety. The Babadook, or I guess Amelia's grief, became uncanny because it was stuck in the in-between, as it will never leave no matter how hard she tries to push it out. In this case, that which disrupts the comfortable environment must be integrated instead of cast out, allowing it to complete the transition.
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