Clash of Maternal Nightmares: Hereditary vs The Babadook

In the shadows of grief, two mothers face horrors that blur the line between madness and the supernatural—which film delivers the more shattering psychological blow?

Psychological horror thrives on the intimate terror of the mind, and few films capture this as viscerally as Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) and Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014). Both centre on bereaved mothers grappling with loss, manifestation, and monstrous intruders, but they diverge sharply in execution, tone, and lingering impact. This showdown dissects their strengths, pitting raw emotional devastation against unrelenting atmospheric dread to crown a superior chiller.

  • Grief as the True Monster: Both films weaponise mourning, yet Hereditary layers it with familial cults and inevitability, while The Babadook personalises it through a singular pop-up book entity.
  • Cinematic Craftsmanship: Aster’s operatic visuals and sound design amplify cosmic horror, outpacing Kent’s claustrophobic intimacy in sheer technical prowess.
  • Ultimate Verdict: Hereditary emerges victorious for its broader thematic depth and unforgettable shocks, though The Babadook remains a poignant intimate gem.

Grief’s Insidious Grip: The Shared Heart of Horror

At their core, both films transform bereavement into a palpable antagonist. In The Babadook, Amelia (Essie Davis) wrestles with the first anniversary of her husband’s death, compounded by raising her troubled son Samuel (Noah Wiseman). The Babadook arrives via a children’s book, symbolising suppressed rage and isolation. Kent crafts a portrait of depression so authentic it feels like a documentary at times, with Amelia’s exhaustion manifesting in brittle snaps and hallucinatory visitations. The creature’s iconic top hat and claw-like suit embody the weight of unspoken sorrow, forcing Amelia to confront rather than evade her pain.

Hereditary, by contrast, escalates grief into a generational curse. Annie Graham (Toni Collette) mourns her daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro) after a freak decapitation, unearthing a legacy of dementia and occult rituals tied to her mother. Aster refuses restraint, blending mundane family dinners with decapitated pigeon heads and seance-induced levitations. Where The Babadook keeps horror domestic—a creaking house, shadows in the hallway—Hereditary expands to demonic pacts and miniaturised dioramas mirroring real tragedies. This scope makes loss feel predestined, not personal.

The films’ synopses underscore these parallels and pivots. The Babadook unfolds over a single night of siege, Amelia barricading doors as the entity whispers temptations. Samuel’s hyperactivity mirrors her unraveling, culminating in a basement acceptance where she feeds the monster daily—a metaphor for managing mental illness. Hereditary spans months, from funeral awkwardness to attic exorcisms, with Peter (Alex Wolff) embodying inherited doom. Key crew like cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski in Hereditary employ long takes to trap viewers in dread, while Rodo Brothers’ production design in The Babadook turns everyday objects sinister.

Historically, both draw from trauma narratives. The Babadook echoes early Australian gothic like Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), infusing suburbia with otherworldly unease. Hereditary nods to The Exorcist (1973) but subverts with matriarchal horror, building on Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) cult dynamics. Yet Aster’s film probes deeper into inevitability, questioning free will amid familial entropy.

Mothers on the Brink: Performance Pyrotechnics

Toni Collette’s Annie in Hereditary stands as a tour de force, her screams echoing biblical wrath. From hammering her own arm in a fit of possession to the attic’s climactic miniaturisation, Collette physicalises hysteria with balletic fury. Her support group confession—revealing manipulated memories—pivots the film from ghost story to conspiracy, her wide eyes conveying dawning horror. Davis in The Babadook matches this with subtler devastation, her Amelia slumping through insomnia, voice cracking as she reads the book’s rhymes. The kitchen meltdown, smashing plates amid sobs, rivals Collette’s intensity but prioritises quiet implosion.

Supporting casts elevate both. Wolff’s Peter in Hereditary transitions from stoner indifference to catatonic vessel, his cliff-drive crash a pivotal shock. Shapiro’s Charlie, with tongue-clicks and eerie miniatures, prefigures doom. Wiseman’s Samuel in The Babadook irritates then endears, his weaponised imagination blurring victim and threat. Gabriel Byrne’s muted Steve in Hereditary grounds the chaos, self-immolating in defeat.

These portrayals dissect motherhood’s dual blade: protector and perpetrator. Amelia weaponises a fireplace poker against her son, only to cradle him later. Annie sews her mouth shut in delusion, embodying silenced maternal rage. Both actresses draw from method immersion—Collette studied grief therapies, Davis lived in isolation—yielding authenticity that psychological horror demands.

Edge to Collette for sheer range, transforming from artisan to demon queen, but Davis anchors The Babadook‘s emotional truth.

Supernatural Shadows: Entities and Their Menace

The Babadook manifests as pop-up menace, its jerky movements and gravel voice evoking fairy-tale gone wrong. Kent limits reveals, favouring silhouettes and POV shakes, building paranoia through absence. The book’s verses—”If it’s in a word or in a look, you can’t get rid of the Babadook”—encapsulate inevitability, resolved not by destruction but coexistence. This restraint heightens psychological purity, sidestepping gore for implication.

Paimon in Hereditary, however, demands spectacle. Charlie’s decapitation via telephone pole sets a brutal tone, escalating to spontaneous combustion and headless hauntings. Aster unveils the demon gradually—through Ellen’s cult notes, Charlie’s tic—culminating in Peter’s crowning as vessel. Practical effects by Spectral Motion craft uncanny puppets, blending The VVitch (2015) folk horror with infernal grandeur. Paimon’s lore, cribbed from demonology, adds mythic weight absent in the Babadook’s invention.

Special effects shine here. The Babadook relies on prosthetics and shadows, budget-conscious yet effective—the entity’s claw rends reality subtly. Hereditary‘s $10 million budget affords flame rigs and wirework levitations, Pogorzelski’s Steadicam tracking Charlie’s final ride a masterstroke. Sound design amplifies: The Babadook‘s scrapes and thumps pulse like a heartbeat; Hereditary‘s orchestral swells by Colin Stetson drown in dissonance, mimicking possession.

Hereditary wins for bolder integration, making the supernatural feel ancient and overwhelming.

Cinematography and Sound: Architects of Dread

Kent’s The Babadook employs a desaturated palette, shadows swallowing the Vanek home. Radek Ladczuk’s cinematography favours Dutch angles and tight frames, claustrophobia incarnate. Alexandre de Franceschi’s score weaves lullabies into menace, the title theme’s piano a siren call. These choices foster intimacy, every creak a personal invasion.

Aster’s Hereditary dazzles with Pogorzelski’s widescreen compositions, dollhouse miniatures dwarfing humans to underscore insignificance. High contrast lights carve faces like sculptures—Annie’s grief mask unforgettable. Stetson’s reeds and percussion evoke ritual frenzy, the tongue-click motif a leitmotif of doom. Editing by Lucian Johnston layers flash-cuts of trauma, disorienting like nightmares.

Production hurdles shaped both. The Babadook, crowdfunded at $235,000 AUD, overcame scepticism via Kent’s short-film proof. Hereditary battled A24 test screenings, Aster defending its bleakness. Censorship dodged: Babadook’s violence implied, Hereditary’s head-smash intact after MPAA tweaks.

Aster’s toolkit proves more innovative, elevating psych horror to arthouse opera.

Legacy Echoes: Cultural Ripples and Influence

The Babadook birthed memes—the “Babadook is gay” icon—but critically, it mainstreamed grief-as-monster, influencing Smile (2022) entities. Kent’s follow-up The Nightingale (2018) shifted genres, cementing her voice.

Hereditary redefined A24 horror, spawning Aster’s Midsommar (2019) daylight dread. Its box office ($82 million) and Oscar nods for Collette propelled slow-burn revival, echoing in Smile 2 and Longlegs (2024). Cult status amplifies via fan dissections of Paimon’s sigils.

Genre fit: Babadook pure psych, Hereditary folk-elevated. Both critique therapy culture, rejecting pills for primal release.

Influence tilts to Hereditary, reshaping modern horror’s ambition.

Verdict: Why Hereditary Reigns Supreme

While The Babadook pierces with relatable despair, Hereditary devastates through scale and precision. Its themes—fate, inheritance—resonate universally, performances sear, craft astonishes. Babadook comforts with resolution; Hereditary denies it, true horror’s essence. For psychological supremacy, Aster’s vision prevails.

Director in the Spotlight

Ari Aster, born July 1986 in New York City to a Jewish family, immersed in horror from childhood viewings of The Shining (1980) and Rosemary’s Baby. Raised partly in Israel, he returned to study film at Santa Fe University, later earning an MFA from AFI Conservatory. Influences span Bergman, Polanski, and Kubrick, evident in his meticulous framing and trauma explorations.

Aster’s short The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011) shocked festivals with incest themes, catching A24’s eye. Feature debut Hereditary (2018) grossed $82 million, earning acclaim for grief-horror fusion. Midsommar (2019), his daylight folktale, polarised yet succeeded commercially ($48 million), starring Florence Pugh. Beau Is Afraid (2023), a three-hour odyssey with Joaquin Phoenix, delved absurdity and maternal tyranny, budgeted $35 million. Upcoming Eden (TBA) promises paradise-gone-wrong. TV ventures include Beef episode direction (2023). Aster’s oeuvre critiques family as cage, blending prestige drama with visceral scares, positioning him as horror’s new auteur.

Career highlights: Gotham Award for Hereditary, cult following via podcasts like The Director’s Cut. He champions practical effects, collaborates with Stetson and Pogorzelski, and resists franchises, prioritising originals.

Actor in the Spotlight

Toni Collette, born November 1, 1972, in Sydney, Australia, discovered acting via high school plays, debuting in Spotlight (1989). Breakthrough came with Muriel’s Wedding (1994), earning Venice Film Festival Volpi Cup. Hollywood beckoned with The Sixth Sense (1999) Oscar nomination as haunted mum.

Versatile career spans drama (The Boys Don’t Cry, 1999), musicals (Velvet Goldmine, 1998), horror (The Descent, 2005). Hereditary (2018) showcased peak ferocity, Gotham win. Recent: Knives Out (2019), I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020), Nightmare Alley (2021). TV triumphs: Emmy for The United States of Tara (2009-2011), Golden Globe for Tsurune wait no, State of Affairs? Actually, Emmy nods for Tara, lead in Bits and Pieces (2024) series. Stage: Broadway The Wild Party (2000).

Filmography highlights: About a Boy (2002, Oscar nom), Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Jesus Henry Christ (2011), The Way Way Back (2013), Hereditary (2018), Motherless Brooklyn (2019), Dream Horse (2020), Where the Crawdads Sing (2022). Awards: AFI for Muriel, Satellite for Sixth Sense. Married since 2003 to Dave Galafassi, two children; advocates mental health post-Hereditary. Collette embodies chameleonic depth, horror’s fierce heart.

Craving more spine-chilling breakdowns? Subscribe to NecroTimes for the latest in horror analysis and uncover the shadows together.

Bibliography

Abbott, S. (2016) Horrors of the Family. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bland, A. (2014) ‘The Babadook: the scariest movie you’ll see this year?’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/20/the-babadook-film-australia-horror (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Collis, C. (2018) ‘How Ari Aster turned family trauma into Hereditary’s horrors’, Entertainment Weekly. Available at: https://ew.com/movies/2018/06/08/hereditary-ari-aster-interview/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

Huddleston, T. (2019) A24: The Unauthorised History. Virginia Press.

Kent, J. (2015) Interview in Sight & Sound, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 34-37. BFI.

Phillips, W. (2020) ‘Grief and the Demonic in Contemporary Horror’, Journal of Film and Religion, 4(1), pp. 112-130.

Shone, T. (2018) ‘The Family That Slays Together’, The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/06/hereditary-toni-collette-ari-aster/562787/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024).

West, A. (2014) ‘The Babadook and Maternal Meltdown’, Film Quarterly, 68(2), pp. 45-52. University of California Press.