Original subtitles

♪ I've been thinking about our cradle ♪

[Glass squeaking]

♪ And the way it used to sway

♪ When the matches springs were squealing high ♪

♪ And the roaches ran away

♪ But now you've gone to Memphis ♪

You know what I would do if I was a drag queen?

I'd take the Tennessee flag and cut it up

and make it into a sexy costume.

♪♪

And then I'd post it somewhere

where insane elected officials might see it.

♪♪

♪ Hey, everybody, have you heard the news? ♪

♪ Joe Bob is back in town

♪ He's over at the drive-in, hanging around ♪

♪ Watching crazy movies, so come on down ♪

♪ To Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Blood, beasties, boobies, and more ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's a spooky good time with monsters and ghosts ♪

♪ Crazy, kooky fun with the world's greatest host ♪

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be legendary

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ It's gonna be very scary

♪ Joe Bob's "Last Drive-In" show ♪

♪ Let's go

♪♪

[Static]

♪ Mama told me there'd be days like this ♪

We really do need the Shirelles here to sing us into our special

Mother's Day edition of "The Last Drive-In,"

because...

[Laughter]

This is a hint of what we're going to do tonight.

Because "Mama Said," is that the classic mom song?

That's a classic mom song, right?

Are the Shirelles still around?

The Shirelles are from Passaic, New Jersey,

right down Highway 46 from where we are tonight.

I think there are at least two Shirelles

still out there singing that classic Motown style.

Tonight's show is actually dedicated,

though, to Mariam Nabatanzi.

I want this to be known as the Mariam Nabatanzi episode

because I was looking for a super mom to honor

and I found Miriam.

Miriam is the mother of 44 children.

Whoa.

Is that true?

That is a mom, right?Wow.

That is some serious mom credentials.

And is that somebody that you know?

No. Miriam lives in Uganda and she's from a culture

where your family can marry you off to whoever.

And so she was married off at the age of 12,

which is totally not okay.

And then she had six sets of twins

and four sets of triplets and five sets of quadruplets.

Wow, I'm impressed.

Now, if that happens in the U.S.,

it's readily identified as this rare medical condition

called hyper ovulation.

It's actually dangerous to the mother.

So they give you drugs to slow down the number of eggs

that your ovaries are turning out.

But she lives in this town where they don't have that,

so -- but it gets worse.

Her husband grabbed all the savings and ran off

and left her with 38 kids still at home.

So she is a single mom responsible for 39 people

and she's working multiple jobs

to keep everything under control.

So let's have a toast. To Miriam.

Yeah. Wow.I mean, so can you have a toast in your outfit?

I can have a toast.

Alright, somebody help this amazing lady, you know?

Oh, wait. Toast.

No, we're toasting to Mariam Nabatanzi.

We think mom is --

we think Mother's Day is taking Mom out to dinner.

Take those 38 kids out to dinner.

You know, that's what she needs.

And a toast to you, Darcy.

You're a mom.Ah, yes, I know

Mm.

Well, the woman in our first movie tonight

has some serious mom issues,

meaning issues about her relationship

with her six-year-old.

And at times she turns a little homicidal.

Does that ever happen to you?

[Laughing] Oh, yeah.

You're not supposed to put that in a movie.

Yeah, the kid was so annoying

that she wanted to actually murder the kid, you know?

It gets that real.

We should toast your mom, too. You're proud of your mom.

Okay, we'll toast my mom.Yeah.

We'll -- we'll toast everybody's mom.

To the moms?Your mom, my mom, Yuki's mom.

Yeah. John Brennan's mom.

[Chuckles] Does anyone not like your mom?

Let's show. -- Show of hands. [Laughs]

Alright. Okay, we're mom people here at "The Last Drive-In."

Not all moms are good at it, though.

I know, right? I mentioned that last year.

Philip Wylie wrote that book about "Momism" in the U.S.,

"Generation of Vipers," how we're the only country

in the world that worships motherhood,

which is obviously a little dangerous

when we all hear these stories about moms

that that do kill their children or, you know,

or moms that just seem to be indifferent.

But there's too much judgment on that stuff, like the Octomom.

Right? Those kids are --

How old are those kids now?

14, I think, and she's hanging in there.

She's got six other kids besides them.

I don't care what people say about her.

She didn't run off. She didn't put him up for adoption.

She's still there. She's doing her job.

So, you know, where does the Octomom hate come from?

Let's -- let's toast the Octomom.

Yeah, Octomom. You know?

I started toasting stuff on Cinco de Mayo,

and now I can't stop. Alright.

[Laughter]

Anyway, Mama told me there'd be days like this.

That's the best mama song, right?

What? What what other choices are there for the --

for Mother's Day?

Well, the first one that pops in my head is the song by Queen.

Which song? "Tie Your Mother Down?"

No, but that would work.

You know, he has a song about mother love,

but I'm not sure it's directly about Mama's.

The one that goes, Mama mia, Mama mia

Mama mia, let me go.

Okay, great. Great song.

But -- but -- [Laughs]

But doesn't that song start out,

mama, I killed a man?

Yeah.Isn't that how that starts?

"Bohemian Rhapsody" That's it.

Okay. Yes, I guess that is a good mama song.

Yeah.Anyway, I was planning on

talking about Mom TV tonight.

For years, the TV networks would do daytime programing

exclusively for the stay-at-home mom,

hence soap operas.

And then one by one, the soap operas got canceled.

I mean, there's still a few of them out there.

I know "General Hospital" is still going strong.

"The Young and the Restless."

"The Bold and the Beautiful."

Are you a soap opera person?

No, but I know some actors.

Okay. What about "Days of Our Lives?"

They're not still making that.

Oh, wait, no, they are still making it

but it's not an NBC anymore.

Really? Yeah.

Where is it?I think it's on Peacock.

There's a streaming soap?

"One Life to Live." Is that --

That one's been gone for a long time.

Really? That's the only one I really know about

because I was on the set one time.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about soaps.

My point was, they got rid of the soaps

and they went to daytime talk

where they solve the problems of ordinary people

and, you know, issue shows, pregnancy shows,

cheating shows, mental illness shows.

And I guess the biggest dudes in that world

were Phil Donahue originally,

and then Jerry Springer and then Dr. Phil.

But now Dr. Phil is being canceled, I think.

But if he is, then it's a mistake.

So are we going to get to the movie soon?

Yes, but can't you see

how I'm heading towards "The Babadook?"

No, not at all.

But thank you for finally at least

explaining the title. Okay.

I mean, you're a very interesting Babadook.

Yes. But anyway, what's "The Babadook" about?

It's a mom going crazy, right?

So, you know, last week was Cinco de Mayo,

so I got deep into Aztec history and...

Wait, you've gone from the Shirelles to Uganda

to the Octomom to soap operas,

and now you're going to the Aztecs.

Yes. so...[Laughter]

Any chance of talking you out of that?

No. So there used to be these guys

who would stand up on the steps of Aztec pyramids

and they would scream all day long.

They were professional mourners.

You give them money and they mourn for you.

Let's say your baby, you know, gets his hand bit off

by a Jaguar or something. You can't deal with that.

So, you know, you can't go talk to the Jaguar,

but you think you must have done something wrong or else

the baby wouldn't have gotten bit.

So you go down to the Aztec temple,

you give the mourner some money

and he kind of becomes depressed for you

and he kind of lets your depression sink into his skin

and he screams to the gods.

And then you feel better because you figure the gods

got the message

that you were a little depressed by this thing with the Jaguar.

So my point is that's why we need daytime talk shows.

So that people can deal with medical emergencies.

No, no, no.

Here's -- here's how it works.

Somebody comes on the show who needs to mourn.

You know, maybe the show is about, you know,

ex-wives who got dumped for teenage girls.

Alright, and that's a specific thing

that they're going to mourn about.

But it's not the important thing.

What's important is they want to mourn

because think about what would happen

if you found an ex-wife who got dumped

but she said, you know what? It's really okay

if he really wants a young girl,

I'm happy he found what he wanted

and I'm happy that I found that out about him

at this time of my life.

The show would fall apart, you know?

The person has no desire to mourn,

so you got to want to wail a little bit.

Otherwise, all these talk shows would be over in five minutes.

In fact, I saw a Donahue show one time

where a woman clearly had no malice towards her daughter

who had taken her husband away.

And the audience was outraged, you know?

They suggested there was something wrong

with any woman who could continue to have

a friendly relationship with a daughter who would do that.

But who knows?

I mean, maybe the woman, you know,

didn't like her daughter or her husband.

You know, maybe that was freedom for her.

So rule number one is you must be upset.

You must mourn. So what's next?

The mourner tells his or her story.

Well, Jerry, I thought I had everything.

A lot of them start out this way,

and what they're doing is they're setting us up

just exactly the way a comic sets up a joke.

Because first you have to have everything

and then you have to lose everything.

And only then will you be able to mourn properly.

Well, Jerry, I thought I had everything,

but there was something gnawing away inside me.

I had my suspicions when he started buying

all the Justin Bieber merchandise.[Laughter]

You know, I knew it wasn't for me

and I knew it wasn't for him,

but I never dreamed it was for our our babysitter, you know?

And so this is rule number two. I was blindsided.

You know, you can't really start mourning

unless something is taken away suddenly and unfairly.

Alright, rule number three. I was naive, Jerry.

You know, you can't really start mourning

unless the world is a big, complicated place

that you didn't really understand until this happened.

So now the host is going to ask you a bunch of questions,

and the questions are just to make the set up better.

And they're all versions of you had everything, didn't you?

And you have nothing now, don't you?

And finally, we get to the big moment in the show.

Audience, what do you think?

And the audience starts mourning,

and they usually mourn for the person

that just told the story and here's how they do it.

They say, you know, I was just wondering

if you ever spoke to the babysitter

directly after you found out,

because I know that in my experience

and the experience of other women

who have had to deal with infidelity,

it sometimes helps to vent that hostility.

Alright, two things here.

Not really a question.[Laughter]

And I mean, it looks and sounds like a question,

but it's actually a form of mourning.

The lady is saying, here, let me wail with you for just a minute.

And then number two, and it takes this lady's story

and it makes it universal.

She's doing the same thing

that the wailer on the Aztec temple did,

just -- just like he said.

I'll ask Quetzalcoatl, the God, why this happened.

You know, this lady in the audience is saying,

why did this happen? How can this happen?

Isn't it terrible that this happens over and over again?

You know, we know Quetzalcoatl is the Aztec god

because we all watched the Larry Cohen masterpiece.

"Q the Winged Serpent," right?

Heck yeah, we did.[Laughter]

Alright. But now -- now the feeding frenzy begins.

You can tell how successful the mourning --

the mourning is in the studio

by how much applause the speaker gets.

You know, I think any man who would do

that should be taken out and shot!

[Laughter]

That'll always get a big hand because it's like clear,

precise, expresses what the more bashful mourners

are afraid to say.

And then if you really want to keep things moving,

you put a paid professional mourner

on the panel with the first mourner.

These are called psychologists.[Laughter]

They're usually selling books

with the titles of specific things we can mourn about.

Like, "How To Get Out Of an Abusive Relationship"

or "Living With an Alcoholic" or "Learning to Deal With Obesity."

And these are all just ways of saying, here,

I'll show you how to pick something out of your life

that you're doing wrong

and then mourn about it all day long until you feel better.

Watch these shows. Study the rhythm of them.

Watch how the worst the story is

the louder the morning and the more excited the audience gets.

And they only really come alive when the group mourning begins.

So let me make this simple, folks.

You're not doing anything wrong.

And if you are doing anything wrong,

you're not doing anything more than the rest of us.

So wonder why you're a little depressed

after watching several of these shows in a row

Because all they do is stir up

that part of you that stares at your navel

and makes you realize how lousy your life is.

These are not talk show hosts.

They're quacks, and we need them to maintain cultural sanity.

Are you done? Yes.

I realize that was complicated, but thank you.

Honestly, it made no sense.[Laughter]

It will make sense after we watch "The Babadook,"

because if the woman in this movie had just gone on

"Dr. Phil," she would not be terrorized day and night

by ghosts and demons and zombies and social workers.

But of course, we wouldn't have a movie either.

So I'm glad they don't have Dr. Phil in Australia.

I'm sure that they have an Australian. Dr. Phil.

Then she should have gone down to the studio

and spilled her guts, and...

Introduce the movie, maybe?

Alright.

"The Babadook."Yeah!

[Laughter]

This is the sensitive story of what happens

when a single mom reads a weird pop up picture book...

[Laughter]

...to her six-year-old son one night

and a strange man named Mr. Babadook

starts tormenting the two of them

with reminders of the violent death

of the woman's husband on the night

that the boy was born.

Meanwhile, the kid is becoming

increasingly out of control at school

and the social services people think maybe he's dangerous.

And the noises in the old gothic house they live in

are becoming louder and stranger.

Sure, we've seen it before, but have we seen it

with a five minute rope bondage scene,

a hallucinatory cockroach infestation and orgasm

interruptus leading to a worm-eating conclusion?

I think not.

Let's look at those Drive-in totals and get started.

We have two dead bodies, one monster,

one motor vehicle -- motor vehicle crash,

one violent treehouse plunge,

One febrile convulsion with tantrum,

neck snapping, leg stabbing, head slicing,

window bashing, darts to the arm,

stones to the head, violin cuddling,

or that may be a ukulele, I'm not sure.

Nasty creaking floorboards,

multiple anti-gravity flotation visuals,

firecracker popper jump scares,

the old glass-in-the-oatmeal trick,

phone-cord cutting, cockroach wall-infestation,

book ripping, fetishistic bath tub

maternal bonding, zombie makeout session,

child choking, black vomit, meat cleaver fu.

Three little pigs fu, oedipal -- Oedipal touching fu,

silent film Fu, sedative fu,

Babadook fu.

Drive-In Academy Award Nominations for

Noah Wiseman as a six-year-old magician who says,

"I'll kill the monster when it comes.

I'll smash its head in."

Essie Davis as the frazzled mom who says,

"I'll go find a school that sees my son as a human being."

And Jennifer Kent, the writer/director,

for telling a Gothic ghost story with mostly in-camera effects

that people can't stop talking about.

Four stars. Joe Bob says check it out.

Alright.

Cool.

You didn't like my rant.

It was great.

[Laughter]

You were on one of those

spill your guts talk shows, right?

I was on "Tyra Banks."

Is that still on? "Tyra Banks?"

No, it just lasted a few years.

So did you spill your guts on "Tyra Banks?"

Well, I was on twice, actually.

The first time I was there

just to give a 40-year-old virgin

his first kiss.

Really? You were his first kiss.

I was. [Laughs]

How did that go?

I mean, I feel like he was into it.

Okay.

Um...

But then didn't they -- didn't you go on there

one time and they talked about you?

[Chuckles] Yeah.

So I was doing softcore films

for like the Playboy Channel and Penthouse

and Skinemax and whatever.

And the premise of the show was that we'll watch her

as she's introduced to the hardcore porn world

and see if she wants to go further

than what she's doing now.

So you -- they showed you, like, meeting some porn stars

and they got your reaction to it.

Yeah.

They took me to the place

where you get your blood test done,

and Sharon Mitchell from "Maniac"

told me some stories about, like,

horrible diseases that you can get doing porn,

stuff like that. Really?

Mm-hmm.

And what happened?

I became a porn star. Shut up.

[Laughter]

I got to watch that episode.

That's what caused you to become a...?

I mean, it's what -- it pushed me over the edge.

I was like, maybe.

Oh, wow. Did you go off script?

You went off script on them.I went way off script.

It was not the way that episode was supposed to go.

[Laughs]

Well, and what do you mean supposed to go?

Well, I was naive at the time,

and I didn't understand that reality TV

meant like...

I thought it was supposed to be honest.

I thought it's supposed to be real, but not so much.

In other words, they wanted you to listen to Tyra's advice

and not do porn.

Exactly.

And you screwed up their show. [Laughs]

I did, yes.

Tyra was so pissed.

Oh, Darcy. You're such a rebel.

I mean, I was just being honest.

Oh, I guess we won't be having Tyra on this show.

Oh, no, we won't.

Is was that bad, Huh?It was bad.

Why am I so not surprised that you did that?

Whoo! [Laughs]

♪♪

[Static]

[Film projector clicking]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Shrill note plays]

♪♪

[Muffled, distorted screaming]

♪♪

Boy: [Muffled] Mom!

[Knocks on roof]

[Pounding, rattling]

[Distorted screaming]

♪♪

Mom!

[Brakes grind, glass shatters]

Mommy!

♪♪

Mom!

[Normal voice] Mom!

I had the dream again.

Amelia: "And he climbed down that chimney,

straight into the huge black pot.

And that was the end of the big bad wolf."

Did they really kill the wolf, mom?

I'm sure they did.

I'll kill the monster when it comes.

I'll smash its head in.

It's time to go to sleep now, sweetie.

It's very late.

Can we read it again?

"A long time ago -- just yesterday, in fact --

there were three little pigs and one nasty, big wolf."

[Sighs]

[Grinding teeth]

[Moans softly]

[Sighs]

[Hinges creak]

[Alarm beeping]

[Beeping continues]

[Beeping stops]

[Beeping resumes]

[Mutters]

[Beeping stops]

[Loud bang]

[Loud bang, glass shatters][Gasps]

What have you done?

It's not broken. It just slipped.

I don't want you firing things off in the house anymore.

Wait, wait, wait! Watch this.

When the monster comes, I'm gonna do this.

Please don't!

[Glass shatters]

Nothing in my hands. Nothing in my hands.

Stand still please.

Look at me, mom.

Come on, Samuel.Look at me.

Stand still please.Nothing in my hands. Nothing in my hands.

I don't want you making weapons anymore.

It doesn't work if you don't look at me!

This monster thing has got to stop, alright?

Mm.

Mm!

Don't do that.

[Sweetly] Ready?

Come on.

Quick. You're late already.

What have you got in there?

See you later, alligator!

[Hurried footsteps]

Here's one for you, norma. It's got milk in it.

What?

One with your milk in it.

I don't want milk.

No worries. I'll make you another one.

Ah, just where a woman should be --

in the kitchen.[Chuckles]

"Get to work, woman!"

[Chuckles]

Do you want a cuppa?Nah.

I'm heading for the dementia Ward.

Ah. It's a few years before you end up there, isn't it?

[Chuckles] Right?

♪♪

Amelia.

Your son's school is on the phone.

Oh, my God. Did he hurt anyone?

A dart could have gone into a child's eye or even worse.

I'm gonna have a serious talk with him.

Mrs. Vanek, we've had the talks.

We've had the sessions with the counselor.

We're going to have to employ

a monitor for him.

Monitor?

He'll be separated from the other children.

The monitor will supervise him one-on-one.

Samuel won't cope with this.

He already feels so different.

I'll have a talk with him.

I'll have a serious --Mrs. Vanek, the boy has

significant behavioral problems.

You know, Samuel doesn't need

a full-time monitor.

What he needs is some understanding.

I have 24 other first-graders in that class!

Do you want me to put them all at risk because of your son?

I think I'll just find another school. Oh.

Mrs. Vanek, you can't just take the boy out of school.

You look after your business,

and I'll go find a school that

sees my son as a human being

and not just as another problem to be gotten rid of.

That's very unfair.

We're only trying to help the boy.

Please stop calling him "the boy."

His name is Samuel.

We can see Ruby and Auntie Claire

at the park today.

You can play on that swing you like

for as long as you like, okay?

Mrs. Bowen hates me.

No, she doesn't.

Just need a break. That's all.

Don't tell Auntie Claire what happened.

I'll tell her later.

[Cash register beeping]

Mom, come and look at this.

I can do it again.

Sam, don't bother the lady.

Oh, no, no, that's all right.

We have to go home and see daddy though, haven't we?

My dad's in the cemetery.

Oh, that's --He got killed driving mom to the hospital to have me.

Samuel!

I'm sorry, he just --No, that's all right.

I shouldn't have...

Well, your mom's very lucky to have you then, isn't she?

We have to go.

Say, see you later, Katie. -Bye.

Claire: The artist was so drunk he vomited --

right in front of his own installation.

Lost all these sales.

You're not listening.

Oh, I am. I am.

So, you l-- you lost all these sales and then what happened?

Ruby. Don't play there.

It's wet.

Mom! Mom!

I'm gonna smash it's head!

Be careful.

Mom, Mom! I'm gonna smash it!

[Sighs]

What would you like me to do for Wednesday?

I can get their birthday cakes.

That's easy.

I was hoping Ruby would change her mind.

She doesn't want a joint party with Sam this year.

Oh.Mom, Mom!

She wants to have a princess party.

Mom! Mom!

That's okay.

We don't have to come.

You can still come.

Mom!

She just doesn't want to share the day

with Sam anymore.

I understand.

Mom!I understand.

Mom, I can go really high!

Watch!

Oh.

Maybe you want to celebrate his birthday properly this year

anyway -- on the day.

Yeah, we'll see.

[Grunting]

You know, Amelia, I just want

you to be happy, and then this

birthday thing rolls around, and I end up feeling awful.

I don't want you to feel awful, Claire.

[Grunting]

We'll be fine.

We'll be absolutely fine.

Mom! Look at me!

-[Gasps] -[Crying]

Mommy!

♪♪

Mrs. Roach: Who do we have here?

Hello, Mrs. Roach.

You look tired, little one.

You been in the wars today?

A few wars.

He's had a big day.

That's all. He's just exhausted.

Poor little sweetheart.

[Singsong voice] Bugsy.

Hello, darling. Hello.

You look tired too, love.

You okay? [Sighs]

Nothing five years of sleep wouldn't fix.

[Chuckles]

I'll put your rubbish out for you, Gracie.

No, no, no. You just got in, pet.

I'll do it now. Then it's done.

[Insects buzzing]

You can choose one tonight.

Where'd you get this?

Samuel: On the shelf.

"If it's in a word or it's in a look,

you can't get rid of the Babadook.

If you're a really clever one,

and you know what it is to see,

then you can make friends with a special one --

a friend of you and me."

[Giggles]

"His name is Mister Babadook.

And this is his book.

A rumbling sound then

three sharp knocks -- Ba-ba-ba dook!

Dook! Dook!

That's when you'll know he's around.

You'll see him if you look.

"Ba-ba-Ba Dook! Dook! Dook!"

We might read another one tonight, eh?

But you said I could choose.

"This is what he wears on top.

He's funny, don't you think?

See him in your room at night..."

[Gasps]

Mom, does it hurt the boy?

Mom?

Does it live under the bed?!

Mom?

Mommy.

Mommy!

[Crying]"How sweetly they sung,

telling of their happiness and lovingness way

at the bottom of the ocean and entreating

the sirens not to be afraid."

[Moans]

♪♪

[Pages rustling]

[Eerie music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Music stops]

[Cool jazz plays]

♪♪

It's that time of the night again.

Time --

If that's what the doctor ordered, I --

Ooh, yeah, yeah.

That's...what the doctor ordered.

[ Romantic music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

[Button clicks, music stops]

[Floor creaking]

[Vibrator buzzing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Vibrator buzzing]

♪♪

♪♪

[Vibrator buzzing]

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

♪♪

[Moaning]

♪♪

Aah! [Gasps]

It's in my room!

What is? The Babadook!

Oh, no. No, no, no.

This is not going to happen.

The closet doors were closed,

and now they're wide open.

It's just a book.[Sighs]

It can't hurt you.

You've had a big day.

You're just exhausted.

[Breathing heavily]

I don't want anything bad to happen to you, Mom.

Nothing bad's gonna happen, Sam.

I'm gonna protect you.[Sighs]

[Chuckles softly]

[Soft rumbling]

[Knocking, floorboards creak]

[Warbling, insects buzzing]

Samuel: Mom, it's 9:00.

[Sighs] He's not running a fever anymore.

No, no, no, my sister's going to take him.

Put it back.

Put it back, or it goes in the bin.

Aw!

Sorry. What was that?

Oh, no, no, I couldn't get to the phone.

He was vomiting.

Yeah, yeah, no worries. I'll see you soon.

Samuel. No monster talk at Auntie Claire's, okay?

Samuel?

No Babadook, no nothing.

Alright?

[Balls clattering, big band music plays]

♪♪

88. Number 88.

Two fat ladies?

Good, Elaine.

Another few days, and someone could call out "bingo."

Number 11. Who has number 11?

Legs? 11?

Right.

Let's see what else we've got.

Five billion. Anyone got five billion?

[Door opens]

Beverly's not very impressed with your bingo skills.

[Chuckles]

Are you all right?

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm fine.

How are you? How's "G" wing?

Fine, yeah. Just a bunch of old people.

[Both chuckle]

You don't have to be fine, you know?

just a bit stressed at the moment.

Why don't you go home?

Old cranky bitch -- she goes after lunch.

I can cover for you.

You'd do that?

Yeah.

I'll give you my pay.

Aw, don't -- don't be ridiculous.

[Chuckles]

You've got a sick boy.

Life's too short.

You're so sweet, Robbie.

[Sighs]

You should go.

Yeah.[Both chuckle]

Say hi to Sam for me.I-I will.

[Ethereal music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Music stops]

[Cellphone beeps]

[Static]

Are these two miserable people or what?

Mom is miserable. Her son is miserable.

The people who come in contact with him,

school and family are miserable

as they try to separate themselves from Amelia

and Sam's miserableness.

You know, I have heard people say that they hate this movie

because Sam is so annoying with his, you know,

homemade trebuchet and his darts

and his endless screaming and his moaning

and his magic tricks.

He's just another way of seeking attention.

You know, I'm calling that medieval weapon of his --

I'm calling it a trebuchet.

I don't really know what it is.

Sam is obviously a very talented woodshop six-year-old.

But anyway, to the people who want to compare Sam

to the unbearable Bob in "House By the Cemetery,"

I say apples and oranges, you know.

Hello.

It's part of this story that he's that way.

I'm sure the kid is not really annoying in real life.

This is some kind of hyperactive ADD diagnosis.

You know, he probably needs Adderall.

He's supposed to be that way. Part of the story.

I know sometimes people confuse an actor's personality

with the character personality, but not a six-year-old boy.

He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be

doing in the movie.

I don't want to give away any spoilers,

but I actually disagree

with almost all the analyzes of this movie

that have been offered over the past nine years.

But I can't talk about that until the movie's over.

"The Babadook" burst onto the scene in January of 2014

at the Sundance Film Festival.

It was one of the very first films that were tagged

with that elevated horror label, you know, a term that I hate.

Elevated horror, I've said this before

and I'll say it again, it's a term that's only used

by people who hate horror.

Anyway, what's odd about it is that

"The Babadook" had not attracted

that much interest back in Australia where it was made.

It was shot in Adelaide,

the capital of the state of South Australia,

and nothing has ever shot there.

I mean normally the Australian movies that make it over here

are shot in either Melbourne, Sydney or the Outback,

but Adelaide.

They chose it because they wanted

a sort of middle of the road locale,

what we would call a stultifying suburban atmosphere.

In America, it would be like deciding to shoot

in a slower paced Midwestern city,

Indianapolis, you know, instead of shooting in New York or LA.

But the rollout of the movie

is something that I'm told happens a lot.

The Australians did not get excited about "The Babadook"

until the people at Sundance and the people in London

got excited about it.

But anyway, it became a cult hit almost immediately

after that Sundance screening

and it continued to play festivals all year long.

And it's been a horror fan favorite ever since.

It's also a gay meme.

You'll see people at Pride parades

dressed up like Mr. Babadook,

even though, as far as I can ascertain,

the movie has nothing to do with any gay themes.

And the reason for that, the way that story is told,

is that Netflix mistakenly listed "The Babadook"

under LGBTQ Films back in 2017,

and ever since then it's been considered gay.

No idea. I mean, it doesn't seem like

that would be enough to launch a cult,

but apparently it did.

Anyway, the movie attracted

a lot of academic attention,

a lot of social media attention.

People love to argue about the ending.

So anyway, I'm just going to give background.

I'm not going to go into what may

or may not be happening in the actual movie

because as I said, people don't agree

and they especially don't agree with me.

Alright, back to the movie.

Roll the film.

And I should point out that if you are an Adelaidean

and you're watching this, I don't mean to imply

that there's anything wrong with Adelaide.

I mean, we do have people who watch the show in real time,

and right now in Adelaide

it's like 2:00 in the afternoon, you know?

Actually Adelaide is one of those weirdbeard time zones

where it's half of a regular time zone.

You know how they do that?

Like, the time zone to the East is 9:00

and time zone to the West is 8:00 and Adelaide is 8:30.

Why do people do that?

Are you trying to be ridiculous?

I mean, anyway, Adelaide is great.

You know, Adelaide has like...

Adelaide has pretty churches and...

football teams, Australian rules football.

They have that and other stuff.

I mean, you know the problem with Adelaide?

No criminals.

[Laughter]

See most of Australia was settled by criminals,

but Adelaide had no convict settlers.

Everybody moved there by choice.

And so knowing that the entire city consists of people

who moved there by choice had to assume it's great.

Got to be great, you know?

I gonna go party with Adelaideans

at the earliest possible date.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static]

Claire: Where have you been?!

You weren't at work.

I rung you a million times.What happened?

He scared the crap out of Ruby. That's all.

He insisted on talking to this bloody Babadook thing.

All day, just talking to the air.

It even freaked me out.I'm so sorry.

You need to get him to see someone, Amelia.

It's not normal for a kid to carry on with this rubbish.

It's not rubbish! It's real!

Don't you talk to your Auntie Claire like that!

[Firecracker explodes]

Where did you get those firecrackers?

You got them for me on the Internet.

Well, that's the end of the Internet.

If the Babadook was real,

we'd see it right now, wouldn't we?

It wants to scare you first.

Then you'll see it.

Well, I'm not scared.

You will be when it creeps

into your room at night.

That's enough.

You will be when it eats your insides!

I've decided you're not having your birthday

with Ruby this week.

No cake, no games. That's the end of it.

[Woman speaking indistinctly on TV]

Samuel!

[Dishes clatter]

Samuel: Ladies and gentlemen!

Mom and Dad!

Life is not always as it seems.

It can be a wondrous thing!

But it can also be very treacherous.

[Bugsy yelps, firecracker bangs]

[Woman speaking indistinctly on TV]

Don't worry, Dad. I'll save mom.

I'm gonna trap the Babadook like this!

When he's trapped, I'm gonna kill it!

[Bolt fires]Amelia: Samuel?

[Grunts]

I was just putting something back.

All your father's things are down there.

He's my father! You don't own him!

[Knock on door]

Just thought I'd see how you're going.

Can I come in?

Hi, matey. This is for you.

My mom always got me a model plane

when I was sick. [Chuckles]

I'm not sick.

Oh. I-I th-- I thought...

No, he's not, actually.

The truth is, he's so disobedient he can't go

to school anymore.You said that's not true!

How many six-year-old boys do you know, Robbie,

who still believe in monsters? I hate you!

She won't let me have a birthday party,

and she won't let me have a dad!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Rustling][Gasps]

♪♪

♪♪

Ow. [Inhales sharply]

Don't eat it.

[Sighs]

The Babadook did it, Mom.

Go and watch a DVD, and I'll make something else.

The Babadook did it!

Just go and watch a DVD, Samuel.

[Stove hissing]Man: Ladies and gentlemen,

girls and boys, welcome to

"The Great Martin's DVD School of Magic."

Life is not always as it seems.

It can be a wondrous thing.

But it can also be very treacherous.

On this DVD, you will learn

magic tricks to surprise,

to delight and perhaps even shock

your family and friends.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Do you think this is funny?

Oh, no. No. No.

[Grunting]

Give it to me!

[Roars]

Do you want to die?!

[Water dripping]

♪♪

[Electricity crackles]

♪♪

[Breathing heavily]

[Metal clinking]

♪♪

[Breathing shakily]

♪♪

♪♪

[Loud bang, Samuel screams]

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

♪♪

[Breathing shakily]

♪♪

Don't let it in!

Don't let it in!

Don't let it in!

Don't let it in! Don't let it in!

Don't let it in!

[Eerie music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

[Music stops]

[Rustling]

[Electricity crackles]

[Knocking]

[Gasps][Knocking stops]

♪♪

Samuel: Mom, do we have to go to Ruby's party?

[Paper crinkling]

I've already got this doll, Mom.

Now she's got a twin.

They can go shopping together.

[Nervous laughter]

Come on.

[Whining]Off you go.

[Continues whining]

He's just really tired.

[Door closes][Whining loudly]

Go and play right now.

[Door opens, closes]

Claire tells me you're a writer.

Oh. No, not really.

Not anymore.

What kind of writing did you do?

I wrote some articles for some magazines

and did some kids' stuff.

You just need to get back into it.

That's all.It must be difficult.

I do volunteer work with some

disadvantaged women, and a few

of them have lost their husbands,

and they find it very hard.

How's Richard's merger going?

Ah. Good.

I-I mean, his workload's just ballooned.

[Chuckles] I've got the kids 24/7 it feels like.

[Chuckles] Tell me about it.

I don't even have time to go to the gym anymore.

It's ridiculous!That's a real tragedy.

Not having time to go to the gym anymore --

how do you cope?

You must have so much to talk about with those poor

disadvantaged women.

[Children laughing]

[Footsteps]

This is my tree house.

You're not allowed in here.

I'm not hurting anybody.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thanks.

Thanks.

[Sighs]

[Children shouting indistinctly]

How would your mom know if it's real or not?

She never comes to our house.

Mom told Dad she didn't want

to go to your house 'cause it's too depressing.

The Babadook would eat your mom for breakfast.

It'd rip her arms off!shut up!

Amelia: They feel sorry for me, Claire.

There's a big difference.Claire: God, Amelia.

As soon as anyone mentions

Oskar, you can't cope.That's not true.

It'll be seven years.

Isn't it time you moved on?

I have moved on.

I don't mention him. I don't talk about him.

What strain is that on you, Claire?

Ruby: You're not even good enough to have a dad.

Everyone else has one, and you don't.

I do have a dad!

I listen to your life, day in,

day out, and you never stop

to ask me anything about mine.

I do.

I want to know how you are!

You don't come around to our house anymore.

Because I can't stand being around your son.

I can't believe you just said that.

You can't stand being around him yourself.

Your dad died so he didn't have to be with you.

That's not true!

And your mom doesn't want you.

No one wants you.

[Grunts]

[Thud]

-[Crying] -[Gasps]

[Both gasp]

♪♪

What did you do?!

She said I didn't have a dad!

She kept saying it!

Is she all right?

Stay here and look after the children!

Do you want another one to get hurt?

Samuel: Mommy!

She wouldn't believe me!

Mommy!

Mommy! Mommy!

Mommy! Mommy!

Why can't you just be normal?!

[Shrieking]

There is no Babadook!

Get out!

Get out! Samuel.

Mommy![Crying] Stop this now.

Get out! Get out! Get out!

[Screams]

[Horror music plays]

[Grunting]

[Crying]

♪♪

♪♪

Please help me!

There's something wrong with my son!

[Button clicks, machinery whirring]

[Button clicks, machinery whirring]

[Heartbeat]

I think it may have been a febrile convulsion.

That's when the brain overheats.

It always looks worse than it is.

I've never seen anything like this.

We'll have to wait until the tests come back.

All his other results are normal.

He's obviously suffering a high level of anxiety,

very committed to the monster theory.

That's an understatement.

All children see monsters.

Not like this.

And it's getting worse.

He's becoming aggressive.

He could see a psychiatrist.

I can refer you.

Takes a few weeks to get in.

That'd be great.

But can you...just give me something for now just...

to make him sleep?

And just until...

Just until we can get an appointment.

Please.

I haven't slept in weeks, and -- and neither has Samuel.

And when we go home tonight, this whole nightmare will start

up again, and I'm really...

I'm really not coping.

I can give you a short course of sedatives,

just until the tests come back.

Most mothers aren't too keen on them

unless it's really bad.

It's really bad.

These can make children feel...

foggy, perhaps some temporary nausea.

They'll certainly help him sleep, though.

That's for one week.Thank you.

[Static]

This movie is relentless.

You can feel the fatigue of that mom from scene to scene

because she never gets a break.

And something tells me that sedatives

are not really going to be the answer here.

The Babadook was written and directed by Jennifer Kent.

It's her debut film, actually.

And Jennifer Kent has what I would call a restless resume.

I'm a big fan of restless resumes.

I have one myself.

And by that I mean that she's someone

who tried many different things

before she found the place that she wanted to be.

And I think all talented artists are like that.

Jennifer Kent grew up in Brisbane,

which is the third largest city in Australia after Sydney

and Melbourne, capital of the state of Queensland.

That big, big old state in the northeast

where the Great Barrier Reef is.

And she was one of those precocious kids

who starts writing little plays at the age of six.

And she was determined to be an actress

and she did become an actress

and apparently a really good one because she went to NIDA,

the famous acting school in Sydney,

Very hard to get in that place.

Stands for National Institute of Dramatic Art.

And she was one year ahead of Essie Davis,

the actress playing Amelia in "The Babadook."

And Essie Davis says she looked up to Jennifer Kent.

She aspired to be as good an actress as she was.

So Jennifer Kent graduates in 1991.

She does some television.

She does a lot of theater, as you tend to do in Australia,

still very much the British style system there.

She was in "Babe," the pig movie.

She became disillusioned with acting for the reason

that most people who try it become disillusioned with it,

namely that no matter how good you are,

somebody has to give you a script

that lets you show your depth.

So the life of an actor has taken a lot of jobs

that are very poorly written.

So she actually got bored with acting.

She wanted to be more involved as a filmmaker,

and she happened to see a Lars Von Trier film.

And at its conclusion, she said, okay,

that's what I want to do.

Now...

Do I need to explain Lars Von Trier?

I, you know, we have a fairly hip audience

here at the "Last Drive-In,"

but we may not have many Lars Von Trier fans.

Lars Von Trier is like the hyperactive

Samuel of European film.

He's a Danish filmmaker who makes avant garde movies

that kind of spit in the eye

of any kind of traditional storytelling.

People love him or hate him.

He's also very outspoken,

and he frequently gets censored for saying one thing or another.

He says he was inspired, in fact,

by the film "The Night Porter,"

which is not a good thing to say in Europe.

That's the ultimate Nazisploitation film back

when that was a genre in the '70s.

So he's kind of a deranged genius.

People will form opinions about you

depending on whether you love him or hate him.

I like him because he's Danish, and the Danes, in my opinion,

are always ahead of the curve

in anything involving the arts or culture in general,

for that matter.

Anyway, way off topic,

Jennifer Kent sees this Lars Von Trier film

and she writes this long pleading letter to Lars,

begging him to let her come to Copenhagen

and apprentice on one of his films because she said,

"I would rather stick pins in my eyes

than go to film school."

And so Lars says, "Okay, come on over.

I like that attitude."

And she goes to Copenhagen

and she works as a production assistant.

On what has become one of his most famous films, "Dogville,"

the one with Nicole Kidman.

And of course, Lars was hammered

for apparently being mean to Nicole on the set.

That movie also stars Chloe Sevigny, Lauren Bacall,

James Caan, Ben Gazzara,

a lot of Lars Von Trier regulars like Udo Kier.

Anyway, I'm not going to try to describe "Dogville."

It's a love it or hate it. Go watch it.

Very avant garde, very arty.

But Jennifer Kent has this life transforming experience,

watching Lars Von Trier direct, and she says,

Okay, I got it now. I know how to do this now.

And she makes a little short film called "Monster"

about a mother who's at the end of her rope

because her son thinks there's a monster in the closet.

And that idea eventually becomes "The Babadook,"

but not right away.

She submitted many other projects to film Australia,

but they were considered too ambitious

for a first time director.

She couldn't get arrested as a director,

so she decided, okay, I'm going to figure out how to make

"Monster" into a feature.

And she found this place in Amsterdam.

This is why I say her resume is restless.

This place called Binger Filmlab.

This is a place where they have professional tutors

from all over the world. They match you --

They match the tutor up with your project

to try to get it into shape so it can be made.

And she goes through several drafts

of the script at Binger Filmlab

and then she goes back to Australia

and she says, okay, this is it.

This horror film is what I want to make.

It was in Amsterdam, in fact,

that she came up with the name Babadook.

She had a roommate who was Serbian, and she asked,

how do you say boogeyman in Serbian?

And the word that he said was not quite right,

but she used the Baba part of the word.

And then she added Dook to make it silly and childish.

And it was simple enough to be made low budget.

It's basically a two-hander.

And she got most of the money from the film commission,

and then she did a very small

Kickstarter to get the rest of the money.

And all of this takes a long time,

but like most successful directors,

she had that stick-to-it-iveness to get the job done.

Okay.

Back to the movie.

Roll the film.

Does anybody remember Nazisploitation?

I don't think they do.

They passed laws in Italy and Germany.

You cannot even make those anymore.

You can be arrested. Your film can be banned.

We're in this international censorship period now

where films are supposed to avoid certain topics.

And actually the one we're watching tonight

is going into a forbidden zone.

A woman who's not sure whether she loves her own son or not.

You know, a woman who thinks maybe her life

would be better without him.

You know, we're not supposed to see that on the screen, are we?

I actually interviewed Liliana Cavani,

the director of "The Night Porter,"

shortly after it came out, and tough woman.

And Roger Ebert told Lili--

Liliana Cavani that her movie was disgusting.

He told that to her face.

He gave it one star.

And so now the Roger Ebert school of censored topics

has become the norm.

Alright, sorry to get so serious, but...

[Laughter]

How 'bout them Bears?

[Laughter]

Of course, if you've been watching

"The Last Drive-In" for very long,

then you know that the correct answer

to that question is spoken by Henry,

the serial killer who says, "Fuck the Bears."

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static]

Samuel: Why don't people like me?

Amelia: Why do you say that?

Ruby said people don't like me because I'm weird.

Sometimes people say things that aren't true.

You just need to take your medicine,

have a big sleep, and not worry.

[Sighs]

I don't want you to die.

I'm not gonna die for a long time yet.

Did you think that about my dad before he died?

Just take your pill so you can go to sleep.

I've got the day off tomorrow.

Maybe we can do something, hmm?

Will these make the Babadook go away?

I think so, but you have to promise me

not to mention it again.

I promise to protect you if you promise to protect me.

Then I won't mention it.

I promise to protect you.

Come on.

Come on.

Can you stay here with me?

Yes.

I love you, mom.

Me too.

[Eerie music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Music fades out, chimes chiming]

[Knock on door]

[Chimes chiming]

[Pounding on door]

[Chimes chiming]

♪♪

[Ominous music plays]

♪♪

[Door closes]

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Paper crinkling]

[Gasps]

♪♪

[Metal scrapes, music continues]

[Gasps]

♪♪

[Music stops]

Claire: Her nose is broken in two places.

She's gonna need surgery.

I'll pay for everything.

You can't even pay your own bills.

Look, I really have to go.

Claire, I think someone is stalking me and Samuel.

What?

A book turned up at our place.

I threw it away, but somebody

glued it back together and put it on our doorstep.

Amelia. [ Sighs]

I just can't help you right now.

I don't expect you to help. I-I just wanted --

If you're that worried, you should go to the police.

I have to go. [Line clicks, dial tone]

[Receiver clicks]

[Footsteps depart]

[Telephone rings]

[Footsteps approach]

Claire.

[Clicking]

Hello?

Ba-ba dook!

Dook! Dook!

[Gasps]

[Door bangs open, footsteps approach]

Hi.

I want to report someone stalking me and my child.

Can you tell us what happened?

Somebody sent me... a children's book.

[Chuckles]

And...?

And it contained violent and graphic images

of my child and me being murdered.

Can we have a look at the book please?

I burnt it.

You burnt it?

Yes.

Well, unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it.

He's been making phone calls to me, as well.

What's he been saying?

Nothing. Just is making these...noises.

How do you know it's the same person?

Because of what he wrote in the book!

The book you burnt.

Yes.

[Pen scratching, eerie music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

Okay.

Don't worry about it.

♪♪

♪♪

Mrs. Roach: Did you get your things done?

Mrs. Roach has Parkinson's.

That's why she shakes like this.

Samuel, you don't have to say

everything that goes through your head.

Oh, it's alright, love.

He wanted to know, so we talked about it.

He sees things as they are, that one.

Oskar was the same.

He always spoke his mind.

Do you have to keep on bringing him up?

[Bugsy growling, barking]

[Singsong voice] Hey, Bugsy.

[Continues growling, barking]

Hey.

Hey. [Bugsy growls]

[Scampers]

[Sighs]

[Dishes clinking]

Aah! [Gasps]

[Gasps]

♪♪

[Cockroach chittering]

♪♪

[Gasps]

♪♪

Don't come in here!

[Knock on door]

I don't want to buy anything.

Are you Amelia Vanek?

Yes.

I'm Warren Newton, and this is Prue Flannery.

From the Department of Community Services.

My son's only been away for two days.

He's not actually registered

at Babbage Bay anymore.

If I could just come in and meet Samuel

and get you to look at these papers,

that'd be great.

[Door closes]

I'm just in the middle

of cleaning up the house at the moment.

I'm sorry. There's, um, stuff everywhere.

[Sighs]

Hello, Samuel.

I'm Prue, and this is Warren.

How are you?

I'm a bit tired from the drugs mom gave me.

Not drugs -- tranquilizers.

From the doctor.

Oh, he had a-a fit yesterday.

I'm really tired actually.

Prue: That's no good.

May I have a glass of water please?

Yes, of course.

I'll...get you one.

It's a real mess.

I-I just found this cockroach infestation.

I normally have the house sprayed.

I did actually already have it sprayed,

but [sighs] there's this hole in the wall

behind the fridge, and that's why I...

I didn't mean a hole in the wall.

Uh, there was a hole in the wallpaper.

That's where they were laying their eggs, I think.

Warren: We've caught you at a bad time.

I'll leave you with this.

We're required to come back in a week

to talk through your options.

Here's my card.

Mom.

I think I'm gonna vomit.

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

[Romantic music plays]

♪♪

Woman #1: What was that noise I heard?

Woman #2: I didn't hear any noise.

Yeah, howling, doors slamming.

Why, I declare, Bonnie thinks this house is haunted.

-[Gasps] -Mom.

[Gasps]

I'm gonna go to bed.

Are you sick?

[ Speaking indistinctly]

It's only 6:00.

Don't you want to stay up with your mom for a while?

No.

If you go to bed now, the pills won't work properly.

You have to stay up for a while, sweetheart.

[Sighs]

[Pleasant music plays]

[Animals calling]

♪♪

Where's it's mother, skip?

[Volume increases] Koalas don't leave their babies about.

Hey, you're still there.

Man: Yep, soon as I've fueled up.

Tell Jerry I'll keep in touch on the radio,

and I'll be back before breakfast

the day after tomorrow.

Amelia: "And the Prince and the Princess

lived happily together in a beautiful palace

for the rest of their days."

[Snoring softly]

[Electricity crackles]

[Wind howling]

[Metal scraping]

[Scraping stops]

[Bugsy barks][Gasps]

[Sighs]

[Metal scraping]

[Scraping stops]

[Doorknob turns, hinges squeaking]

[Breathing heavily]

[Chittering, scratching]

[Gasps]

[Rustling]

Ba-ba dook! Dook! Dook!

[Panting]

[Chittering]

♪♪

[Metal scrapes][Groaning]

♪♪♪

[Growling, chittering intensifies]

[Metal scrapes]

[Shrieks][Muffled scream]

[Gasps]

[Muttering]

Where are we going?

We're going downstairs.

Why?

Because we are.

[Static]

And so she sinks further into the clutches

of the Babadook.

And thank you for coming back, Darcy Babadook,

because I want to talk about Mr. Babadook.

We only get glimpses of him in the movie,

and we mostly know him from the drawings in the children's book.

But top hat, skinny, long, black swallowtail coat,

bony hands, maybe knife fingers. Did I see that?

Did I see the knife fingers in the in the movie?

I'm not sure about that.

And there's one drawing of him

with a joker grin plastered across his devilish face.

So what is he?

He's Jack the Ripper.

He's Nosferatu. He's the Tall Man in Phantasm.

He's the preacher played by Julian Beck in "Poltergeist II."

He's Lon Chaney in "London After Midnight,"

which is 1927.

Tod Browning silent film about a man in a beaver hat

who can manifest anywhere like a ghost and a demon.

That film is lost, but the talkie version

is Tod Browning's "Mark of the Vampire,"

starring Bela Lugosi.

He's the man who comes to get you, you know?

Jennifer Kent used stills from "London After Midnight"

to get the gist of what she wanted

Mr. Babadook to look like.

But she also wanted him to be ephemeral and mysterious

and for reasons that we will talk about later.

[Laughter]

And then there's Darcy Babadook.

[Laughter]

Darcy, what are you exactly?

Which Babadook are you?

I'm Pride Babadook.

Oh, Pride Babadook.

Explain the whole Pride Babadook thing to me.

Honestly, I'm not really sure.

He just dresses well and he's cool,

so I think that's it.[Laughter]

Alright.

Well, Darcy Babadook doesn't look that scary.

What? I'm so scary?

Actually, I think I'm pronouncing it wrong

because doesn't it have to be Baba-dook?

So it will rhyme with words like look and book

when they read the actual Babadook -- Babadook book?

Oh, my gosh, you're right.

It does, but I always call it Baba-duke.

I hear it both ways.

Well, Baba-dook is goofier.

Let's go with Baba-duke,

because that's how I've always been saying it.

Would you agree with me, though, that any man

in a long black trench coat with a top hat

is basically the messenger of death

coming to carry you away?

I would, and I love every. One of them.

Yeah, they're all established in film.

Chaney did it. Lugosi did it.

Max Schreck did it.

Angus Scrimm did it. Julian Beck did it.

Jennifer Kent could have gotten a tall, skinny actor

and made the Babadook a lot more menacing.

I mean, not as menacing as your version, Darcy,

Thank you.[Laughter]

But she chose to be coy about the monster.

Which is a really big disappointment to me.

I wanted more monster.

Well, you always want more monster.

I do. You want Godzilla to be bigger?

True.

Let's go back to the movie

and find out why she made that choice.

Because Amelia has now turned on every light in the house.

But will that matter?

Of course not.

Roll the film.

♪♪

As a mother, Darcy, would -- would you say

that Amelia is reacting appropriately

to the menace of the Babadook?

How do you think she's reacting?

She's freaking the fuck out.

Well, then yeah, that's appropriate.

I mean, even though it's likely to scare Sam?

It's the Babadook.

I mean, she keeps telling Sam to drop it.

You know, there's no monster.

Should you lie to your kid like that?

He is a behavioral nightmare, so yeah.

Alright. Pride month is next month.

Are you -- are you going to wear this in a parade somewhere?

Well, I hadn't really thought of that, but maybe.

Where's the biggest Pride parade?

Who has the biggest Pride parade?

San Francisco.

Okay. Be there, Darcy.

San Francisco, represent us.

Be the Babadook for "The Last Drive-In."

Well, I think the Babadook thing

was more like five years ago.

And now somebody is finally going to do it right.

Darcy's in the house.

Alright, I am so there.

Okay.

♪♪

[Static]

[Eerie music plays]

♪♪

Iris, Iris, Iris.

No.

[Ethereal music plays]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Shrieks]

[Music distorts, slows down]

♪♪

[Bugsy barking]Woman: Glass and mirror attachment.

Clean and polish shower doors

or mirrors for a streak-free shine.

As part of this steaming special,

we'll even include the garment and upholst...

I don't want to give it to anyone at work.

Alright, give all my shifts away.

That's just what I need.

I can't help it if I'm sick. What do you expect me to do?

You do that!

[Telephone beeps]

[Sighs]

[Footsteps approach]

Mom.

I took the pills, but I feel sick again.

I need to eat something.

[Sighs]

I couldn't find any food in the fridge.

[Sighs]

You said to have them with food.

I'm really hungry, mom.

Why do you have to keep

Talk -- talk -- talking?

Don't you ever stop?

I was just --I need to sleep!

I'm sorry, mommy. I was just really hungry.

if you're that hungry, why don't you go and eat shit!

[Breathing heavily]

I'm so sorry.

I don't know why I said that.

That was terrible.

I've had absolutely no sleep.

I didn't know what I was saying.

I'll cook you something, eh?

What would you like?

I'm not hungry anymore.

We really need to get out of this house.

We've been cooped up here too long.

That's the problem.

Do you want to go to Wally's?

You can have anything you want, alright?

Even ice cream for breakfast if you like.

-[Shouts] -Give it back now.

-It's mine! -Give it back.

Stop it. Sit down.

Sit down now.[Indistinct chatter]

-No. Give my drink back. -Now.

Go sit down, please.

[Children shouting]

Where are we going?

I just want to drive for a little while.

[Cockroach chittering]

[Chittering intensifies]

♪♪

[Gasping]

[Groaning]

Hey! Mommy![Screaming]

[Both screaming]

Ba-ba dook! Dook! Dook!

[Tires screech, glass shatters]

[Door opens, dog barking]

You ran straight into me!

I just bought this bloody car! What were you thinking?

Oh! Driving on the wrong side of the road,

with a kid in the back!

You could've killed someone!

[Gears click, engine revs]

Hey! Hey, what are you doing?

Hey! Crazy bitch!

Hi, sweetheart.

Mom?

I can call Auntie Claire.

I can call and she can come over.

Mom?

Auntie Claire doesn't want to talk to us anymore.

Mom?

Mom, look at me.

[Moans]

it's nice and warm in here.

I don't want you to go away.

I'm not going anywhere.

[Grunts]

Mom?

Mom.

I don't think we should stay here tonight.

I can call Mrs. Roach.

I don't want you to call anyone.

I just need to sleep.

Mom. Leave it!

[Breathing heavily]

[Raspy breathing]

[Indistinct ghostly whispering]

♪♪

Something in the house.

[Whispering stops]

[Raspy breathing]

[Indistinct ghostly whispering]

♪♪

There's someone in the house!

[Gasps]

[Indistinct ghostly whispering]

[Whispering stops]

[Whispering resumes]

[Raspy breathing][Breathing, whispering stops]

[Whispering resumes]

[Harsh whispering]

[Whispering] Mrs. Roach.

Can we come and stay the night?

[Sighs]

Gracie, I'm so sorry.

Mrs. Roach: Has someone broken into the house?

Sam said that --No, no. We're fine.

Samuel's just being very

disobedient again.

Oh, I was so worried.

I told him not to call anyone.

He asked if you could stay the night.

No, no. We're fine.

I just had a headache. That's all.

I really have to go, though, now, Gracie.

[ Stammering]

I'm so sorry for troubling you.

Yes. Talk soon?

No worries. Talk soon.

I told you not to call anyone,

and you deliberately disobeyed me.

Do you want to frighten Mrs. Roach --

an old lady who can hardly walk?

Do you want to make her sick?

Get that bloody thing off!

Is this the only way I can trust you

not to embarrass me in front of our neighbors?

Is this what I have to do?

I'm sorry, Mommy.

It's just that the Babadook made you crash the car and then --

What did you say?

I said the Babadook --

The Babadook isn't real, Samuel.

It's just something you've made made up

in your stupid little head.

I just didn't want you to let it in!

I'll make sure nothing gets in tonight, alright, Samuel?

Nothing is coming in here tonight.

Nothing!

♪♪

♪♪

[Lock engages]

[Window shuts]

[Lock engages]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

I feel sick.

if you don't take the pill,

you'll feel worse.

Mom, I don't think I need --

[Sternly] I am the parent, and you are the child,

so take the pill.

Good boy.

["The Hearse Song" plays]

[ Raspy breathing]

♪♪

[ Laughs cruelly]

[Gasps, screams]

[Breathing shakily]

Mom!

♪♪

♪♪

[Paws scratching floor]

Hey, Bugsy.

Hey, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie. Hey.

Hey.

Hee-hee.

[Bugsy yelps, growls]

[Bugsy barking, growling]

[Mid-tempo music plays, man speaking indistinctly]

Here we go.

♪♪

There's more where that came from.

♪♪

♪♪

[Gasps]

Decide, or we all die.

[War cries][Grunting]

What's the secret --

[ Scary organ music plays]

-Letter of max's, didn't you? -No, not for a minute.

Woman: Don't lie. You called me a jezebel.

Why? -The North --

Man: ...natural corset.

Woman: With fresh meat --[Insects chittering]

Woman: Only five in --[Machinery whirring]

You don't want to go in there all by yourself, do you?

Man: Police say the woman used a kitchen knife to stab her son.

His body was found in their basement.

The woman later attacked officers with the knife.

They drew their guns and shot her to death.

Little is known about the tragedy, but neighbors

say the boy was celebrating his birthday today.

He had just turned seven.

[Electricity crackles, glass shatters]

Samuel.

[Muffled] Wake up, mommy.

But you're the one who's asleep, sweetheart.

♪♪

Don't go down there.

It's not safe.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Sighs]

[Sighs]

[Crying] I thought you were dead.

I thought you were dead.

[Breathing heavily]

Oh.

We can be together.

You just need to bring me the boy.

[Buzzing]

you mean Samuel?

[Distorted] You can bring me the boy.

You can bring me the boy.

You can bring me the boy.

Stop calling him "the boy."

I think it's going to rain.

No.

[Crying] No. No.

[Static]

Okay.

Whatever else you can say about this movie,

can we all agree that Essie Davis, as Amelia,

is pretty much nailing every emotional moment?

And there are dozens of those as she cycles through confusion,

anger, catatonia, rage, hopelessness,

wishful thinking, longing, regret, guilt.

This has to be a wild ride as an actress.

And it's not so much what she's saying and doing.

It's her face.

You can read every change on her face.

Essie Davis, as I pointed out before,

was one year behind Jennifer Kent at NIDA,

the Australian drama school.

She had grown up in Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.

It's interesting to me

that everybody connected to this project

is sort of outside the usual Sydney-Melbourne nexus.

But before this, Essie Davis was best known

for starring in a series

called "Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries,"

and her character of Phryne Fisher in that show

was the utmost in glamour.

She was coiffed, manicured,

dressed in the highest of high fashion.

Very popular show,

and she was known for being a beautiful heroine type.

So kind of the opposite of this role.

But she was known to be very versatile.

She had played Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire"

at the National Theatre in London.

She got a lot of attention

for doing a Tom Stoppard play on Broadway in 2003.

She'd done a huge amount of theater in Sydney,

tends to be classics.

She played Juliet.

She starred in "School for Scandal."

But I love this particular section of the movie

because she must be crazy.

She has taken a bath with her clothes on.

She's cuddling with a ukulele or a violin or something.

She's telling her kid to eat shit.

She's brandishing that giant kitchen knife.

She's yelling at him for calling the old lady next door.

And yet we're following her through all of that,

and we're not thinking, "Okay, she's stark raving mad."

We're thinking, "Wow, the influence of the Babadook

is making this house very spooky."

And then there's Noah Wiseman as the 6-year-old Samuel.

He really was 6 years old when this movie was made.

Jennifer Kent looked at about 500 child actors on tape.

She was originally going to use a 9- or a 10-year old

because there's a big difference in acting, training,

and sophistication between 6 and 9.

But she had this nagging feeling

that the older kids were just not innocent enough.

They would be subconsciously winking at the camera.

If you're annoyed by Noah, you're -- you're thinking,

"Innocent? What the fuck?"[Laughter]

But I think there is something underneath that busybody nature

that is pure and undisturbed.

So anyway, she narrowed down the applicants from 500 to 100.

She worked with those hundred in small groups

and she ended up with Noah.

This is Noah's only feature film,

but he also nails it.

He plays the hyperactivity very well.

He nails the child abuse scenes.

I was very interested to find out that Jennifer Kent

decided to spare his feelings in some of those abusive scenes.

They would take him off set

and they they would have an adult actor come in

and get on his knees and stand in for him

as his movie mom unloaded on him.

And then when they brought Noah on to do the reverse shot,

she would say something like,

"I'm going to throw all your Lego blocks into the river,"

you know, to get a facial reaction out of him.

You know, last week we watched "Tigers Are Not Afraid"

and we talked about that six-week workshop

that the child actors went through

so that they could feel the abuse

and the sadness and the pain.

So, two very different theories

of the way to work with children.

Both Jennifer Kent and Essie Davis

were very proud that they, quote, "protected" Noah.

But if you talk to Issa López,

she's still close to all those kids

that she worked with in "Tigers Are Not Afraid."

And she told them, "Okay, this is -- this really bad feeling

is going to happen to you in this scene,

and then it's gonna be over and we're gonna talk about it."

I don't think anybody in Mexico said,

"You're abusing all those children."

[Laughter]

Anyway, this movie has a lot of gothic elements --

not just the haunted house

and the ghost and the secrets and the creaking floors,

but everything bad originates in the basement,

where the dead husband and the father is sort of kept alive

because all his belongings are down there.

And I guess in Babadook land, he is down there, too.

But he has an agenda.

He -- He isThe Babadook, I think,

or The Babadook can impersonate him or something.

Okay. Back to the film.

When you play a ghost in a -- in a play or in a movie,

the ghost has to want something, right?

You want something or you wouldn't be there.

You'd be resting quietly in the afterlife, you know.

But something is burning you up inside.

Unfinished business. Suspended animation.

So those are always really good roles.

Ghost roles.

Um, what's the most famous ghost role?

Banquo?

What does Banquo want?

He wants Macbeth to suffer, and suffer a lot.

So all his spooky stuff is just a way

to make Macbeth cower and hide and look back over his shoulder

and make speeches about how sad he is.

And so the ghost in this movie --

Oskar is the name of the ghost.

He wants to blame somebody.

And I probably shouldn't say anything more.

But, handsome ghost, by the way.[Laughter]

One of the better-looking ghosts in movie history.

You know, Benjamin Winspear is that -- is that actor's name.

Does a lot of Australian TV. So, let's give him credit.

Great ghosting, Ben.

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static]

[Gasps]

[Electricity crackling]

[Glass shatters]

[Breathing shakily]

♪♪

[Insects buzzing]

[Buzzing intensifies]

[Eerie music plays][Gasps]

♪♪

[Whimpering]

[Groaning]

[Whimpering]

[Insects buzzing, chittering]

[Gasps]

[Crying]

[Monstrous groaning]

Aah!

[Sobbing]

[Growling]

[Breathing heavily]

[Growling loudly]

[Panting]

It isn't real, it isn't real, it isn't real.

[Shrieks]

[Growling]

[Flesh rending]

[Shrieks]

Woman on TV: Aah! Ohh!

[Crying] Oh, no. Oh, no.

[Eerie organ music plays]

No...[Breathes shakily]

[Door creaks]

[Organ music continues]

[Breathing shakily, moans]

No! No!

[Bugsy barks] Bugsy!

[Bugsy barks]

[Barking]

[Breathing heavily]

[Barking continues]

[Breathing intensifies]

[Barking continues]

[Woman moaning]

[TV clicks off]

[Inhales sharply]

[Bugsy yelping]

[Bugsy growling, snarling]

[Bugsy yelping]

[Screams][Neck snaps]

[Wind blowing]

[Breathing shakily]

[Groaning]

[Screams]

[Breathing heavily]

[Tooth clatters]

[Gasps]

[Rapid footsteps]

[Door slams]

[Mutters]

[Doorknob jiggling]Samuel!

[Doorknob jiggling, knock on door]

Samuel.

[Breathing heavily]

Bugsy's hurt, and we need to get help.

You don't want him to die, do you?

Samuel.

Are you listening to me?

[Doorknob jiggling]

Let me in, you little shit!

Let me in!

[Distorted voice] Let me in!

Let me in! Let me in!

[Roaring]

[Grunts]

[Grunts]

[Roaring]

[Shrieking]

♪♪

[Breathing heavily]

You little pig!

Six years old, and you're still wetting yourself!

[Breathing heavily]

You don't know how many times

I wished it was you, not him, that died.

I just want you to be happy.

[Mockingly] "I just want you to be happy."

[Chuckling]

[Sighs] Sometimes...

I just want to smash your head against a brick wall

until your fucking brains pop out!

You're not my mother.

What did you say?

I said you're not my mother!

[Distorted voice] I am your mother!

[Poppers snapping][Shouts]

Run, run, run, as fast as you can!

♪♪

Get away!

Didn't I tell you not to play with weapons?!

[Grunting]

[Sighs]

[Both screaming]

[Breathing heavily]

♪♪

♪♪

[Knock on door]

♪♪

♪♪

[Gasps]

[Hisses]

I'm sorry, love. I-I know it's late.

I just wanted to make sure you were okay.

I'm okay.

I-I know...

this time of year is terribly hard for you.

And I know you don't want me to go on about it,

so I won't.

I just wanted you to know

that I'd do anything for you and Sam.

I love you both.

Samuel.

I'm sorry.

I understand you're scared.

I haven't been good since your dad died.

I haven't been good at all.

[Breathes heavily]

I'm sick, Sam.

I need help.

I just spoke with Mrs. Roach.

We're gonna stay there tonight.

Do you want that?

I want to make it up to you, Sam.

[Breathing shakily]

I want you to meet your dad.

It's beautiful there.

You'll be happy.

Aah! Unh!

[Gasping]

Sorry, Mommy!

♪♪

[Screaming]

[Rope creaks]

[Shouts]

[Grunts]

[Breathing heavily]

[High-pitched whirring]

Aah!

Unh!

♪♪

[Breathing shakily]

♪♪

[Grunts]

[Ropes creaking]

[Breathing heavily]

[Grunting, screaming]

Mom! Mom!

[Breathing heavily]

I'm not leaving you!

Mom?

Mom?

[Shrieking]

[Laughing evilly]

We said we'd protect each other!

[Breathing heavily]

I know you don't love me.

The Babadook won't let you.

But I love you, Mom.

And I always will.

[Screaming]

[Breathing heavily]

You let it in! You have to get it out!

[Screaming]

[Breathing heavily]

I don't want you to go away.

[Shouts]

No! No! Mommy!

[Choking]

[Grunting]

[Sobbing]

[Breathing heavily]

[Grunts]

[Moaning]

[Shrieking]

♪♪

♪♪

[Thud]

Mommy!

Mommy! Mommy!

Mommy! Mommy!

Mommy!

Mommy! [Gasping]

[Crying]

[Coughs]

[Breathing heavily]

[Static]

This movie has three or four endings,

and that is the first one, but it's not nearly over.

And I know what all you parents out there

are thinking at this very moment.

You're thinking about that time you looked at your child

and you thought, "I want to smash your head

against a brick wall until your fucking brains pop out."

But you're also thinking,

"I wonder if my child loves me enough to tie me to the floor

with about 40 yards of nautical rope

wound tightly around my arms and legs?

And if so, would he or she still love me

if I managed to wrap my hands around the child's neck

prior to puking up some black Baba vomit?"

[Laughter]

But these are biblical questions.

We will not be able to answer them here.

And by the way, the elderly actress who plays

the kind next-door neighbor, Mrs. Roach, that's Barbara West,

whose credits go back to the '50s.

She was in that groundbreaking medical series "Medic"

starring Richard Boone, and she was also in the great

Bruce Beresford movie "Breaker Morant"

in 1980, during the Australian New Wave.

She was semi-retired ever since she developed

Parkinson's disease at the age of 40.

But Jennifer Kent specifically requested an actress

who really had Parkinson's disease for this role,

partly because her own mother was suffering from it.

We should do a poll.

Who is the worst mother in film history?

'Cause we had that movie "The Baby."

That mom might qualify.[Laughter]

We had "Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker."

She was pretty awesome in the bad mother department.

We showed "Mother's Day," mom as an outright killer.

And of course, there's always "Mommie Dearest."

"Mommie Dearest" has had a comeback in recent years.

People are watching that again.

Oh, what am I thinking?

Carrie's mom -- Piper Laurie.

There's actually a lot of competition for this.

If you included Lifetime movies,

you would have thousands of candidates.

They have -- They have a whole "evil mom" subgenre

that they go back to again and again and again.

You know, "Don't Wake Mommy." Remember that one?

They call those psycho moms.

Give me another psycho mom this season.

We don't have any psycho mom fare

on the schedule for the fall.

But Essie Davis, as Amelia,

she is a psycho mom that we kind of like.

And we keep expecting her to change

and become something else, and she does not.

So spooky.

All right. Back to the movie.

Back to the exceedingly strange conclusion of "The Babadook."

You know, the Japanese,

they understand this better than we do.

They have a genre called the "uncanny mother film."

And the word "uncanny,"

when you hear that in film criticism,

it usually means somebody who has weirded out,

they've gone into a zone, they've turned zombie on you.

And when it's the mother, chaos ensues.

The mother is not allowed to go into the crazy zone

in Japanese culture,

or else the whole civilization falls apart.

This is an uncanny mother, but it's made in Australia now,

which I've got to assume based on

just its geographical location,

they're better acquainted with Japanese horror

than we are over here.

Uncanny, though, is a good word because it's not batshit crazy.

It's short of batshit crazy, but it's also somebody...

They're putting mustard on their Popsicle,

you know, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

I mean, you don't pipe up and say,

"Hey, why are you putting mustard on your Popsicle?"

You just kind of look the other way.

You kind of side-eye the person

and you go, "Okay, that's a choice."

[Laughter]

Uncanny.

Right?

[Laughter]

♪♪

[Static]

[Breathing heavily]

[Breathing heavily]

What is it?

You can't get rid of the Babadook.

[Grunts]

[Screaming]

[Gasps][Screaming continues]

[Breathing heavily]

[Footsteps pattering]

Unh![Gasps]

Ugh!

[Breathing heavily]

[Rattling]

What do you want?

[Rattling continues]

What do you want?!

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Whispering] No.

[Sighs]

Keep breathing.

♪♪

Put your seat back, sweetheart.

10 more minutes, and we're there.

[Breathing shakily]

♪♪

No. No.

♪♪

I think it's gonna rain.

Stop!

[Tires screeching]

♪♪

♪♪

[Gasping]

[Moaning, sobbing]

♪♪

[Babadook snarling]

[Babadook shrieks]

[Babadook hisses]

[Babadook hisses]

[Gasps]

[Babadook hisses]

[Babadook hissing, pattering]

You are nothing.

[Babadook growling]

[Rattling]

[Babadook hisses]

[Rattling continues]

[Babadook hisses]

You're nothing!

[Babadook hissing]

[Rattling continues]

This is my house!

[Babadook hisses]

[Rattling continues]

You are trespassing in my house!

[Babadook shrieks, growls]

[Babadook growling]

[Wood cracks]

If you touch my son again, I'll fucking kill you!

[Babadook roaring]

[Samuel screaming]

[Babadook shrieks]

[Screaming continues]

[Babadook growling]

[Screaming]

[Screaming continues]

[Babadook growling]

[Growling quietens]

[Groaning]

Mommy, don't!

[Groaning]

Don't!

[Groaning]

[Gasps]

[Babadook shrieking]

[Babadook breathing heavily]

[Babadook shrieking]

[Breathing heavily]

[Lock clicks]

[Breathing heavily]

[Sniffs]

[Birds chirping in distance]

[Both laughing]

Watch out for your mom's leg, little one.

He's fine. I've had the stitches out.

What time's the party?

Oh, anytime after 3:00 is fine.

I'll see you in a few hours, then.

Bye.

Bye, Sam.

Prue: That school's a good choice.

Amelia: I've been doing a lot of reading about it,

so I think Sam will be happy there.

Warren: He's been out of school over two weeks now.

It's time to get back.

We needed some time to sort a few things out.

Are you having a party?

It's Sam's birthday today.

My first birthday I've ever celebrated.

That's not true.

Yes, it is.

My first party on the day.

That's unusual.

My husband died the day that Sam was born.

He got killed driving mom to the hospital to have me.

Sam's just like his dad was.

Always speaks his mind.

Well, parties are lots of fun,

especially when they're yours.

My cousin's not coming

because I broke her nose in two places.

I'll take that for you.

[Scraping]

Good shot!

Look, there's another one!

Where's your bowl?

Wow, you've got a lot today!

[Lock clicks]

Am I ever gonna see it?

One day, when you're bigger.

You go outside.

And you don't come in until I tell you.

[Babadook hisses]

[Babadook growls]

[Shouting]

[Babadook growling]

[Shouts]

[Babadook hisses, growling]

It's all right! [Breathing heavily]

It's all right. It's all right.

[Babadook moaning]Shh!

Shh, shh.

Shh, shh.

[Breathes heavily]

Shh, shh, shh, shh.

Shh, shh, shh.

How was it?

It's pretty quiet today.

Come here.

It's getting much better, Mom.

Wait!

I have a new trick.

Life is not always as it seems.

Nothing in my hands, nothing in my hands.

[Laughs] That's great!

I haven't finished.

[Coin clatters]

Abracadabra!

[Dove cooing]

[Laughing] How did you do that?!

[Giggling]

[Both laughing]

Come here, you. Come here.

[Both laughing]

[Birds chirping]

[Chuckles]

Happy birthday, sweetheart.

[Sighs]

[Chirping continues]

[Eerie music playing]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

[Static]

Okay, rarely do we see that much visual energy,

and actually audio energy as well, in a film.

Jennifer Kent says, "I'm in love with sound design,"

and you can tell that from the whispering to The Babadook voice

to all the sounds that the house makes.

They built the interior of that house on a soundstage

so that they could get all those dizzying shots

in the action sequences.

It had to be a little roomier than a real house

for what they wanted to do.

They just had to stay away from the windows

'cause there was nothing outside the window

except another wall.

And then there's that ending with the worms and the basement

and the happy mom and son in the garden.

Um, one reason "The Babadook" didn't get wider distribution

is that all the American distributors

wanted the director to go back

and shoot a scene where The Babadook dies

instead of keeping him alive in the basement.

And she refused to do that.

And before I go into what I think about the movie,

what do you think, Darcy?

Well, I like it, but I wanted more Babadook.

I think it's the first movie we've ever shown with,

if I'm being honest, it's a zero body count.

I mean, I didn't want to say that in the Drive-In total,

so I counted the husband who died seven years ago.

I counted the dog.Oh, my gosh.

How many dogs have been killed on this show now?

Oh, I think they had to kill the dog because...

remember that page in The Babadook book

with the stick-figure drawings?

It showed three levels of violence --

dead dog, dead child, and then dead mom by suicide.

So, once you see that, and then --

and then you see her actually kill the dog,

the emotional stakes get much higher

'cause you know what number two is.

True.

I just would've liked to see more of the monster.

Okay.

Now, here's where I disagree with almost everybody else,

so please don't shoot me.

But I don't think there isa monster.

Explain that.

I don't think there's anything supernatural about the story.

I think the mom wrote The Babadook book.

I think only she sees The Babadook.

I think The Babadook does not exist.

But we see it.

We see it in dream visions.

We see it only when she can see it.

Hmm.Remember at the beginning of the movie,

they go searching the house together for monsters.

You know, so she can reassure her son.

They look under the bed. They look inside a cabinet.

We don't actually see under the bed, do we?

And we don't actually see inside that cabinet, do we?

Because it's a shot of the two of them.

They are the monsters.

Oh, my God. You are ruining this movie.

Why? I'm not ruining it.

Because I want there to be a monster.

Well, there's a monster, but it's inside Amelia's head.

No.She sees it everywhere.

I don't like that.When she goes to the police station.

That cop, remember?

He becomes The Babadook. His hands turn black.

When she watches late-night TV, Babadooks pop up everywhere.

And The Babadook is a killer and a shapeshifter,

and it's telling her if you just hadn't got pregnant,

you'd still have your husband.

Because he died on the way to the hospital

on the day that Samuel was born,

and she's never gotten over that

and she blames Samuel for ruining her life.

"If I didn't have this kid, everything would be fine."

She can't really even stand to touch her kid.

You know, when they're in the same bed, she turns her back

and moves over to the edge of the bed.

You know, when he hugs her too hard, she gets angry.

You know when he says, "I love you,"

she says, "Me too."

[Laughter]

So The Babadook is that voice inside her

saying, "Kill Samuel. Get rid of Samuel.

You'll get your life back."

And she's going crazy with guilt and with anger,

and she writes that Babadook book to exorcise these demons.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Remember at one point, Samuel says,

"She won't let me have a birthday

and she won't let me have a dad."

And that's true.

She's never let him celebrate his birthday on the actual day,

because that day belongs to her husband.

How do you know that she wrote the book?

Well, remember the scene at Ruby's birthday party,

where the other women are judging her

and they talk about her writing and she says,

"I used to write stuff for children."

I went, "Whoa."

She's a children's book writer?

She wrote "Mister Babadook."

And look at it -- it looks homemade.

There are blank pages at the back of that book.

It's a sketchbook. It's a one-of-a-kind book.

She did it to work out her demons.

Yes, she tore it up because she felt guilty about it.

But then one night she went out to the rubbish bin

and she pieced it back together.

And her subconscious has given her the key line in the book,

"You can't get rid of The Babadook,"

because it's true.

You can't get rid of trauma like that.

You can only manage the trauma.

So at the end of the story, that's what she's doing.

She's managing The Babadook. She's controlling it.

She's not giving it power by denying it's there.

She's just leaving it in the basement.

But aren't there scenes where they both see The Babadook?

Yes, because Sam knows when she's in crazy mode.

All Sam wants is to have a mother,

and to a lesser extent, to be acknowledged

as the son of the dead husband.

So when she's in "I have to get rid of this kid" mode,

he knows it, and that's when he sees The Babadook.

You know, they're crazy together in those scenes.

He feels the separation from his mom,

and that's The Babadook for him.

When she starts working out her sexual frustrations,

he's all over that.

I mean, he interrupts her when she's using the vibrator.

I mean, he's climbing up -- up on her in bed.

Um...

There's a hole in the wall that looks like a vagina

with cockroaches coming out of it.

Only that doesn't exist, either.

The social workers don't see that.

Only Sam sees that.

So, the whole thing is Freudian?

I think so.

I mean, the movie was controversial

when it first came out because there were some mothers

who claim that no mother ever would do

what Amelia does to that kid,

no mother would ever feel that way.

That there's some kind of supernatural mother gene

that prevents you from ever wanting to be

separated from your kid.

Not true. We know that's not true.

I agree with that, as a mom.

You agree with the -- with the other moms?

No, I agree with you.Oh, okay.

You can love them and still fantasize about things

being a little different.Right.

So, do I love him or do I hate him?

Both.

I mean, it's not even a new idea in movies,

'cause remember that movie "Ordinary People"

from the early '80s?

Why do we hate Mary Tyler Moore so much?

Because ultimately we see that she doesn't love her son

and she doesn't want her son, played by Timothy Hutton.

Remember that? But when you do that in a drama,

it's not as interesting as doing it in horror.

And actually, Amelia in this movie

is ready to kill the kid.

She tells him, she says, "I want you to meet your dad.

It's beautiful there. You'll be happy."

And that's when he stabs her in the leg.

That's when he gets aggressive.

But the kid never says, "You wanted to kill me."

He says, "You let it in," meaning The Babadook.

He always recognizes when she's off her gourd.

Okay. I think we...

I pretty much ran that into the ground.

But most critics don't agree with me,

so I'm sure we'll get mail, but...

But wait, we were gonna talk about the ending.

Okay, well, the ending is just what I said.

They're -- They're managing The Babadook.

She still feels the trauma. She's still in PTSD, um...

'cause Sam, in that last scene, he says to her,

"How was it today?"

"It" being The Babadook, a feeling that she can't cope.

She wants Sam to die and she wants to kill herself.

And her answer is, "Quiet today."

Not feeling that too much, just a twinge.

So it's like a 12-step scene, 12-step ending.

She's gonna deal with it the rest of her life.

And actually, Sam is gonna deal with it, too,

'cause notice, he's still practicing with his dart gun.

Man, I'm gonna have to rewatch it.

I thought their troubles didn't start

until she read the Babadook book.

Their troubles had been buried for six years,

ever since the husband died.

And now they're gonna get real, though,

because of the Babadook book,

which, again, Mom wrote that book.

But that's the part that doesn't make sense to me.

Why -- Why would she write the book?

Well, I can think of a lot of reasons why somebody

with post-traumatic stress disorder

for six years who never deals with it

would act out in strange ways.

And "Mister Babadook" is generic.

She -- She, um...

She stole him from other boogeymen in the movies.

You know, it's just a symbol of her greatest fear.

She doesn't give the book to Sam.

Sam finds the book in the basement.

She -- That's not intended for him.

Reading the book to Sam

just means that now Sam knows what to call it.

He knows the name Babadook.

He already knew it was there.

Again, nobody agrees with me, so go read some other critics.

Or we could ask Jennifer Kent.

Well, no, we can't ask Jennifer Kent.

The writer's intentions don't matter.

I have this argument with people all the time.

The writer is not always aware of her own intentions.

So, that's called the intentional fallacy.

So we're not gonna do that.

Man, I'm just gonna miss the monster.

You know where that monster belongs?Where?

At the Pride parade!Whoo! Yeah!

[Cheers and applause]Go for it.

All right. Do we have mail?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I want to make one more point.

[Laughter]Of course you do.

We know from the book that the more you ignore

The Babadook, the stronger it gets,

which is the way people go into depression.

You know, we know that what she wants is in the basement.

She wants her husband back.

And that's where all Oskar's things are kept,

and she doesn't like Sam playing down there.

She wants to keep him away from that.

And we know that Sam has this obsession with building weapons,

and she downplays that.

Like, he doesn't really need those,

because she's the potential killer.

And so, it's a shared trauma.

And that means the only way you can defeat The Babadook

is they have to work together on it.

And that's why you need that extra action sequence

where Sam is getting bashed against the wall

because the bed is flying around

and she has to come in and help him out.

'Cause Amelia has two demons -- kill the kid

and kill herself to be with the dead husband.

And she has to get rid of both of those.

And the "kill the kid" exorcism has to be done with the kid.

It's an odd little movie.

True.[Laughter]

It's a small movie.

It was -- It was made for $2.5 million

and it grossed around $10.5 million worldwide.

And by the way, you can buy

the "Mister Babadook" pop-up book.

I have one.

They printed up about 9,000 of those

when the movie came out.

People sell them on eBay.

I just hope that there's more Babadook in "Babadook 2."

[Laughter]

Well, The Babadook

would have to escape from the basement,

so I don't think you can do "Babadook 2,"

because now you already know how The Babadook works.

How?

Darcy, I just spent the last half hour

explaining how it works![Laughter]

Besides, Jennifer Kent is not gonna make "Babadook 2."

Her follow-up movie was "The Nightingale" in 2018.

Dark thriller, also very good.

All right, please, let's do mail.

Honestly, we can't.

You used up all the time talking about shared trauma.

We'll have to do it after "The Muthers."

Okay.

[Laughs] Sorry.

[Laughter]

Out of the steaming slave markets

come the ravaging sea savages --

The Muthers. [Laughs]

Sorry.

You know, the good thing about showing "The Muthers"

as our second feature

is that there will be absolutely no disagreement

about what's happening in that movie.

Happy Mother's Day, Darcy.

Thank you.All right.

You should cosplay The Muthers.

I'll see what I can do.

Buxom girls with machine guns in the jungle.

I never get tired of that.

I got something planned for you.

Meanwhile, this is Joe Bob Briggs

reminding you that Jesus is coming,

so everybody look busy.

[Laughter]

And the drive-in will never die.

Three guys are drinking in a bar.

This drunk comes in and he staggers up to the counter

and he points at the guy in the middle and he says,

"Your mom's the best sex in town."

And everybody expects a fight.

But the guy just kind of ignores him.

So the drunk wanders off and he bellies up to the bar

at the far end of the bar.

Ten minutes later, the drunk comes back

and he points at the same guy and he says,

"I just did your mom, and it was sweeeeet!"

[Laughter]

Again, the guy refuses to take the bait.

The drunk goes back to the far end of the bar.

Ten minutes later, comes back again and he announces,

"Your mom loved it.

She was screaming with pleasure."

And finally the guy interrupts him and says,

"Go home, Dad, you're drunk."

[Laughter]

Toast to that. That was good.

[Laughter]

Man: All right. Yeah.