1) Choose one film from across the course.

With reference to the opening scene and one

other scene from the same film, discuss how these scenes create meaning for the

cinematic spectator and are reflective and indicative of the film as a whole. Bear in mind

that your examination should take into account all the various aspects of film criticism set

out across the module, for example, sound, colour, lighting, style, narrative, editing,

space, Mise-en-Scène, cinematography.

The Babadook

The film Babadook is a horror and thriller film that was directed by Jenniffer Kent, starring Essie

Davis as Amelia who is acting as the mother, Noah Wiseman as Samuel as the son, Daniel

Henshall as Robbie and Hayley McElhinney as Claire.

This film is about Amelia who lost her husband during the road to give birth to their son Samuel,

the only child. Amelia is struggling to be a single mom as Samuel always has bad dreams or fear

of monsters. At the same time, Samuel has the violent reaction that he used to overcome his own

fear which brings more trouble to her mom and causes the distance of her friends. One night,

before sleep, they read a book in the house regarding the “Babadook” monster of how they will

hide in the dark areas around the house such as the closet. Samuel started to get scared, and they

stopped reading about it halfway. Things started to go bad, Samuel started to put the blame on

The Babadook for some of his bad actions, but Amelia thinks that Samuel is only making a story

about it. But later, she had a bad feeling about a weird thing that was happening around the

house. She started to believe it and tore the book and burned the book. But the book returns
which makes her more stressed as the book shows how the mother will kill the son. She then

kills the dog and gets angry. The whole movie will be telling the audience how Amelia and

Samuel are being haunted by the monster called the Babadook with the crazy and weird things

happening. (IMDb, 2014) Director Jennifer Kent is the director, writer for the movie of

babadook. She explained that she wanted to know more about the idea of pushing down with bad

experiences such as, dark, and painful experiences is harder than facing them. In the movie, she

wanted to tell others that it is ok to be scared of things. She was putting herself in the film when

she was writing the script, which explains that there are many life events that we have been

through in the movie. For example, Amelia always pushes her friend away in the beginning

when everyone asks do she need any help, is she ok she always pushes away by saying “I’m ok”

but deep inside she needs help, she is struggling and at the end of the day she started to burst out

and wanted to kill her son. (The Dissolve, 2014) In this essay, I will be explaining about the

babadook movie from the opening scene and the other scene in the movie with analyzing the

narrative structure and mis en scene from it.

The Babadook movie is using the non-linear narrative structure of the story plot. This movie

started with the flashback of the crash that gave a question on what the entire movie is about

which also gave the biggest role of what is going to happen in the movie later. After that part, the

whole movie was brought back to reality, and it showed what happened with the flows. The

equality of the movie is how normal the things happening in the film are, such as how Amelia

wakes up at the same time every morning and does the same routine such as looking after her son

or working. Before the day ends, she usually reads a story to her son as her son is afraid of

monsters. The movie is mostly happening in the house with the dark atmosphere where it brings
the horror feelings of the movies with the close up, wide angles and composition, the cutaways

and mirror shot is used in the editing. The plot of this movie is in the chronological order where

The Babadook shows how the horror all begins from the first to the last which is a very easy

flow and comfortable flow to follow in the movie. Amelia and Samuel always have a different

reaction in the movie, such as scare and scream from the situation that shows us the horror part

in this movie, with a good ending in the movie. Mis-en-scene plays a very big role in this movie

as without the right color, lighting, editing and sound we won’t be able to get the spooky

atmosphere of the amazing movie. The setting of this movie is the weather, there were few shot

of the weather which is the outdoor, the bedroom that most of the incident happens where in the

beginning is the safe place to be in as it is comfortable, the corridor and the stairs because we can

see the long shot of the stairs in the darkness without any sound which create the intense of the

movie. The lighting in the film is mostly dark, not so bright and the night lamp will always create

an atmosphere in the horror movie. (AnnaJanberga, 2016)

The opening scene is showing how Amelia and her husband are on the road to the hospital to

give birth to Samuel, who is their only Son. Which is a close up shot on how Amelia looked at

her Husband during the crash that shows us the pain and the shock in it. The face expression was

clearly shown during the close up shot. There are few close up shots taken during the scene, and

then follow with a two shot shot between Amelia husband and Amelia as they look at each other

during the accident. The surrounding is dark to indicate that they are rushing to the hospital at

night, but out of the sudden there were bright lights that identified as there are cars in front of

them coming ahead. With the slow motion of the glasses dropping on Amelia's face after that.

The colour in it is just dark and a little bright to see the clear face with the glass dropping. It
indicates that they are in the car at night. From the colour of the scene, it doesn’t feel like a

horror movie but more it gave a feeling to the audience to want to know more of what is going

on. Why did it started up with slow motion and what was happening during that moment with a

sudden brightness on Amelia face. Then there was a pause, and we can see in slow motion how

Amelia is dropping back down onto her bed. The angels then move to the next space where we

can listen to a sound before seeing a boy shouting mom which is Samuel waking up Amelia. This

can let the audience understand that Amelia was having a traumatic dream that had happened in

the past. (Ruth Harris Media AS, 2014)

From the opening scene, we can see that the editing is quite simple for this scene as we can

already see the slow motion from the beginning of the accident until the moment where Amelia

was thrown on her own bed. There was a cut scene where Samuel suddenly appears on the scene

after Amelia being thrown on the bed which leads to the understanding that Amelia is dreaming

in her sleep.
The sound in the beginning of the scene is still and rarely hears anything as there was slow

motion on what is happening in the scene from the beginning which gives the audience the

intensity of the movie. As the scene goes on, the sounds get louder and louder that create

different feelings for the audience. When Amelia was thrown down the bed, we can hear another

sound of a boy calling for mummy behind before we can see the face of the boy which brings out

the intensity of what is happening in the scene.

The second scene that I am going to analyze from The Babadook is from 44.02 to 45.37 which is

also called the kitchen scene. From the camera angle for this scene, it all started from how we

can see the sky turning dark which let the audience understand that the scene is now shooting

during a nighttime which also represents that the horror atmosphere is there during the dark as

the monster only be at dark place. Follow up with a wide shot that we can see Samuel lying on

the sofa quietly without any sound. The editing was then paused and cut to a medium close up

shot of Amelia which is the mother washing the plate, she looked up while washing the plate

then she saw her neighbour through a window which is a bird angle shot as Amelia can look

through right away. She continues washing her plate with the same position, which is a

continuous shot, she looks up with the camera moving to the neighbor. There was a monster in

the closet of the neighbor’s house. She got shocked, followed with a pause and a close up of the

plate felt and broke. Samuel was calling Amelia mom in the background and a medium close up

was used on Samuel to tell his mom that he was tired and he wanted to sleep. Amelia looks back

through the window and the monster is gone, but Amelia does not allow Samuel to sleep first and

hopes Samuel will be up with her for a while but Samuel refuses so Amelia had to come out with
an excuse saying that if he goes to bed now the medicine will not work on him. Samuel left no

choice but to stay awake. Medium shot was taken where Amelia looked back at the kitchen while

she was in the living room watching TV. She saw Samuel was about to fall asleep, so she had to

volume up the tv to make him stay awake. Then the woods with the dark shadow slowly

approaching which give the feeling to the audience that the monster has arrived and is awaiting

them to be asleep where we can hear an Amelia sound in the background where she tells Samuel

to sleep. Then a close up of Amelia watching Samuel asleep on her lap.

The sound on this scene started with a water sound that

represents Amelia is watching the plate, there wasn't a sound in the beginning when Samuel is

lying on the sofa that makes the audience confused, is he sleeping or is he watching the tv. There

were some television sounds when Amelia was washing the plate because her neighbor was

watching television through the window when there was the time she saw The Babadook at the

closet as we can hear plate cracking sound. It represents that she was scared and shocked at the

same time. Before we can see any faces, we hear a boy son in the background that the audience

will understand that is Samuel as there were no other people in the house except Amelia and her

son Samuel. This whole scene, there were two quiet scenes, the first is the beginning where we

can see the sky turning dark which is night time, Samuel lying on the sofa and the shadow

getting closer from the woods. It gave the audience an intense feeling on what is going to happen

with a quiet atmosphere. There was less dialogue used in this scene except when Samuel is
talking to his mom about he is tired and he needs to go to bed. With that being said, the audience

will have the wonder of what will happen when Samuel goes to bed as we can hear that Amelia,

who is the mother, is convincing Samuel not to sleep as the pill will not work if he does. It builds

the tension between the audience and the film. (jamesdalymediaa2, 2015)

The editing and lighting of this whole film is representing the Non-linear narrative including this

scene. (jamesdalymediaa2, 2015) In this scene, the lighting is mostly dark as the scene were

using the dark pallet lighting to express the unpresent in the house with the fear among Amelia in

this scene. The editing was mostly a cutaway between Amelia and the neighbor as Amelia kept

looking at her neighbor and she saw the monster at her neighbor’s house. There was also slow

motion used in the editing during the shadow approaching nearer in the woods, and cutaway to

Amelia is telling a story to Samuel before sleep. The scene often uses the editing where we can

hear the sound first before seeing what is going on. For example, we heard Samuel calling out

Amelia in the background when Amelia is still looking at the neighbor to see if the monster is

still there but we haven’t got to see Samuel when we heard his sound. The color in this scene has

dark and bright. The bright color was shown when Samuel is calling out Amelia to let her know

that he wanted to sleep, Amelia is watching the plates in the kitchen and when Amelia tells

Samuel tells a story before his sleep. But other than that, it was dark colour especially when the

camera shows Amelia looking through the kitchen from the living room. To represent the fear in

her, she was afraid that the monster would appear in the kitchen, as the monster was at her

neighbor’s house. Dark colour or deemed colour show the fear and scary feelings from Amelia

when she looks through it.

In conclusion, The Babadook is a very interesting horror film and well-made film. It is still

considered one of the best horror films that brings the intensity of the audience during the whole

film. It drew the attention of the audience to the end of the movie with the very detailed usage in

the elements of the mise-en-scene with the colour, settings, editing, sound etc. It also brings the

emotions and a lesson learned that is ok to be afraid of what the director wants to tell the

audience.