The Brood is a movie in which a woman, Nola Carevth, manifests her childhood abuse into such a rage that she gives birth to children who kill the people that her rage is directed at and do her bidding, such as kidnapping Nola’s daughter. The Babadook is a movie in which a woman, Amelia Vanek, and her son, Sam, are haunted by the Babadook which is a being that torments those who become aware of its presence. They are able to subdue him and lock him in the basement. Goodnight Mommy is a movie about twins, Elias and Lukas, who believe that their mom is an imposter. However, it is revealed that the woman is their real mom and that Lukas died, and everything that Lukas’s presence was just a hallucination by Elias.
Barbara Creed discusses the idea that horror films interact with the real-life “socio-cultural arena” by creating “a sense in which the concept of a border is central to the concept of monstrous” (71). This is best seen within The Babadook as Amelia interacts with this monstrous being. Not only is she tormented by it, but she also is possessed by the being and kills her dog and attempts to kill her son. However, Creed also notes that monsters and their interactions with humans also tend to be symbolic (71). At the start of the movie, Amelia has spent the past six years raising her son alone and having to deal with his behavioral outbursts. The Babadook may represent the depression and even the blame that Amelia might place on her son. She might believe that if her son wasn’t born, then her husband would have never gotten into the car accident. Overcoming the Babadook was her overcoming the blame and depression. However, since it is alive at the end of the movie it could be believed that Amelia is taking medicine (as signified by the worms) or has found a coping mechanism that allows her to function correctly.
When reading the article that discusses the themes of Rosemary’s Baby, I found many striking resemblances to the messages that The Brood was trying to display. “Mothering a Demon” discusses the power systems at play with the traditional role of women and says, “Rosemary is and a victim for a large part of the narrative, but there is an interesting development in this area, as she comes to face her own connection with ‘demonic’ powers” (134). Nola suffers from that same power loss and victim mentality as she was abused by her mother and neglected by her father. Yet, she has the same type of development as she begins to work through her problems and find closure within her past. Her powers give her the ability to “birth” children who act out on her pain and respond to her emotional wants. In this situation, she is able to take the power back and control her own narrative and rid herself of the pain that she experienced. The children she birthed represent the healing process as she figuratively kills those who harmed her.