ABSTRACT
While The Babadook was released prior to Donald Trump’s inauguration, its theme of repression in the domestic sphere has recently resonated with LGBT audiences and has become emblematic of the anti-LGBT politics fermented by Trump. The film’s plot unfolds around the tense relationship between Amelie Vanek, whose husband was killed in a car accident taking her to hospital to give birth, and her son, Samuel. Initially, it appears that Samuel is suffering from anxiety. In addition, lighting, mise-en-scène, and sound effects, generated from his perspective, visually and acoustically suggest that he is traumatised. Indeed, the film’s narrative trajectory encourages the belief that Samuel is suffering from the loss of his father. It soon transpires that Amelie is the one who is suffering traumatic grief and is projecting her loss onto her son. Engaging with theorists of trauma and ambiguous loss, including Richard McNally (2003) and Roger Luckhurst (2008), critical works pertaining to sexual identity, as well as horror theorist Robin Wood’s (2003) account of the return of the repressed, this chapter textually analyses the film’s theme of restrained grief and traumatic disorder. It considers these aspects through the film’s visual and narrative tropes and connects them to the repression that LGBT individuals may experience, focussing on Trump-era politics and the Babadook as gay icon.
