The Babadook: contexts and key sequences — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
The Babadook: contexts and key sequences
The Babadook
What you need to know
The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014): Amelia, whose husband died in a car crash as he drove her to give birth, struggles to cope with her six-year-old son Samuel; after they read a sinister pop-up book, Mister Babadook, a creature seems to haunt the house and take hold of Amelia.
An Australian horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent on a small budget, partly crowd-funded.
A woman's view of the horror genre, and the pressures of grief, exhaustion and motherhood.
Key sequences to know in detail: destroying the book and the birthday party, and the book's return.
Cinematography and mise-en-scène: a grey-blue palette and dark house, close-ups and point-of-view shots, the pop-up book as the central prop, and Amelia's washed-out costume.
Editing and sound: shot-reverse shot, reactions shown before what causes them, and distorted sound and the Babadook's voice.
The few short lines of dialogue that matter most in these sequences, a few words each.
Short answers of the kind the first parts of the Section A question ask for: naming and describing a setting, character or moment, and explaining a choice.
How to answer each part: the marks, and what the short identify and explain parts need as well as the extended answer, since naming a technique instead of a specific example from the film loses marks there. Practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.
