Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for The Babadook
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10 years ago, thehorrorgenre had one of its most prolific years ever. While we hadn’t quite hit the renaissance that the combined efforts of Jordan Peele andA24 would bring abouta few years later,2014 was still a surprisingly solid year for audiences looking for a good fright. Sequels likeThe Purge: AnarchyandParanormal Activity: The Marked Onesbrought continued success to their franchises, while original stories likeAs Above So Below,Deliver Us From Evil, and especiallyIt Followsproved profitable to varying degrees.
Yet far and away, horror’s crown jewel of 2014 wasThe Babadook, which earned rave critical reviews and saw a worldwide gross of over $10 million on a budget of just $2 million. In the years since, it’s become a cult classic, arguably having shepherded in the 2010s’ shift to arthouse horror, while the titular monster once saw an influx of internet memes, in which many ironically claimed it as a queer icon. For a film that’s proven so quietly influential, it’s easy to assume a sequel would’ve been released by now, butdirector Jennifer Kent has repeatedly insisted that she will never allow a continuation to be made.
The Babadook
The Babadook’s Director Refuses to Allow a Sequel
Last month,The Babadooksaw a limited theatrical re-release to celebrate its 10th anniversary, and the press rounds saw Jennifer Kent returning to the interview circuit. When the film first came out, she’d already been adamant about making it a one-and-done, once tellingIGN, “I don’t care how much I’m offered, it’s just not going to happen.” WhenScreenRantasked her if she’d changed her mind over the last 10 years, her response was blunt.
While admitting that she was open to a continuation if the right idea came along, she nonetheless firmly stated, “No, I’m too involved with other films that I’m trying to get made. I mean, if there suddenly became some desperate urge to tell a story related to that, I would probably say, “Okay, all bets are off. I’m going to go and make the sequel.” But I just can’t see that happening. I feel that the idea has really been explored.”Considering that Kent and her co-producers hold the rights toThe Babadook, it’s out of the question that anyone else could make a sequel in her place.
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A big part of why Kent is so adamant about this is becauseshe specifically wrote the story as a one-and-done; in her interview with IGN, she simply stated, “It’s not that kind of film.It would destroy the integrity of everything we worked so hard to protect.” And it’s easy to see why Kent would be so protective of her creation; the film at heart is anallegory for griefand the struggles of being a single parent, and it’s hard to imagine trying to continue that without feeling like diminishing returns.
The Babadook Doesn’t Need a Sequel
Even though today’s horror scene is significantly more vibrant than the found-footage wasteland audiences were consistently getting a decade ago, sequels dominate the genre landscape as much as ever. Every now and then, we get a worthy follow-up likeA Quiet Place: Day One,Evil Dead Rise, andCandyman, but for every one of those, there seem to be two equivalents ofInsidious: The Red Door. Additionally, a sequel by nature can’t be exactly as fresh as the original, and especially for a genre fundamentally built around surprising audiences, it often puts a franchise at risk of sacrificing its goodwill. Look at how much of abreath of fresh airParanormal Activityfeltback in 2009, and compare that to the total non-event that 2021’sNext of Kinwas upon its arrival.
It’s safe to assume that the freshness ofThe Babadook’s premise would be diminished if it saw a sequel. The film’s plot revolves around a grieving widow, Amelia (Essie Davis), struggling to raise her six-year-old son Sam, who’s dealing with recurring nightmares about a monster in their house. One day, they discover a children’s book titled “Mister Babadook,” and Sam becomes convinced that the titular monster in the story is the creature he’s been dreaming about. He starts suffering violent hallucinations, and despite Amelia’s initial skepticism, she gradually begins to believe the monster is haunting their home.
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As previously mentioned, the film is apowerful allegory about grief, as the titular creature represents the depression Amelia has tried to repress after losing her husband, growing increasingly powerful the more she denies her feelings. The climax brings this metaphor to a natural endpoint, as the Babadook possesses Amelia, who tries to kill Sam while under its influence. While Sam is able to snap his mother out of her trance, they both realize the creature can’t be defeated entirely, so they force it to retreat into the basement before locking it inside.
While films likeThe ConjuringandInsidiousleft enough ambiguity in their conclusions to allow room for sequels,part ofThe Babadook’s power is the finality with which it ends. The incredible final scenes show Amelia, now in a significantly better emotional state, returning to the basement to feed the creature. While the Babadook initially tries to attack her, she’s able to calm it down before returning upstairs to celebrate Sam’s birthday. This displays that Amelia has learned to live with her grief without letting it dominate her, andemotionally, it’s about as perfect an ending point as one could possibly get, to the point where even attempting to make a sequel feels pointless.
The Babadook Still Terrifies 10 Years Later
A decade later,The Babadookremains a terrifying and emotionally resonant horror film, clearly one ofthe genre’s greatestin recent memory. It’s even more satisfying to know that Jennifer Kent wrote the movie specifically to be a one-off, knowing that attempting to continue the story or continue her central allegory past its conclusion would cheapen the work she did.
Not every popular horror film needs a sequel, especially when it feels actively unnecessary, and even if Kent’s blunt response may depress some, like Amelia and Sam, it’s a fact that we’ll need to learn to live with.The Babadookis streaming onAMC+andPluto TV.
