Just what the heck is goin on here?
Started this movie I can't bother to finish watching before I need to ask, how in the blue hell is the mom like 17 and her girl is like 12?
shareZoe Kazan, the actress who plays the mother, is 33, not 17.
What's going on here: the monster is a metaphor for addiction. Think of the scenes with the monster as a metaphorical reality for what is actually happening-- the mom neglecting and abusing her daughter, probably od'ing, and the "good" part of the mother trying to protect the daughter from her monstrous side, even as her addiction rages out of control and she destroys the person she loves most in the world.
Brian -- honestly, did you write and direct this crap, I mean movie? Concentration needed to be more on telling a story than dealing with the tv soap opera histrionics.
The flashback man. Just don't do it. We don't need to see it. American audiences tend to have it all dumbed down, I know, however, give the audience some credit and let them try to fill in some of the blanks. We don't need it all spelled out.
I can see the influences all over this film:
1. jaws 2. ALIEN (big time) The girl is definitely written in fond appreciation of Ripley from those Alien movies. Which, I understand borrowing from a person's favorite sources it just feels forced here.
Zoe that actress: The smoking on screen is too gimmicky to try to show she's damaged. I know addicts smoke. It just looks too cliche now a days on screen. It's an easy mistake to make, this smoking device for actors. Actors love devices.
All of the crying and yelling between the horrible, horrible, millennial, insipid mother and her daughter was unbearable. Watching a bad mother is bad enough. When we direct and write these stories we should try to see the film through the eyes of an audience. We know the mom is messed up and the daughter will grow up to be hyper sexual and narcissistic. We don't need to see all of the trashy yelling, like, 'f-you' to the daughter etc.
The metaphor is appreciated. Not this particular metaphor just that someone was trying to say something outside of "Monster, cool effects, blood, create suspense, and the end."
However, Babadook, and that Iranian film used the same mother and child theme and I think the theme just needs to stop.