"Ghost Book" is the first film written and directed by Australian female director Jennifer Kent in 2014. It is adapted from the short film "Monster" she made in 2005. The protagonist in the film is a mentally distressed anxiety. Single mother, she threw one of the baby's dolls into the locker, and the doll turned into a monster.
The movie "Ghost Book" is similar to the story of the short film. As a typical horror film, "Ghost Book" has created a very successful monster image. The name of the monster is Baba-Duke. It makes a long note and then uses the voice squeezed out of the throat in "The Shining". It comes from a picture book called "Mr. Babaduk". Since opening the picture book, the family has suffered bad things. What's more terrifying is that no matter how to tear or discard it, the crippled picture book will still reappear. Under the pressure, the warmth between mother and daughter began to collapse.
The freshness of this slice on rotten tomatoes is as high as 98%.
Buffalo News called it "one of the best horror films of 2014."
But I prefer to classify "Ghost Book" as a psychological film, a psychological film exploring the spiritual level under the guise of a horror film. I think this film is good-looking or brilliant at successfully replacing a serious psychiatric case with a horror story full of gimmicks. The monster's image is so successful, in addition to the weird image, it's because none of us can get rid of it.
As it says in the book:
You can't get rid of me, I will be parasitic under your skin, and I will scare you.
This film strictly follows the linear structure of traditional drama films, with four paragraphs at the beginning, development, climax, and ending clearly distinct.
The beginning: The son is neurotic. He always yells horribly with "mother" and "mother" all day long. Every night before going to bed, he checks the wardrobe and bed for monsters. There is no trace of anger at the beginning of his work.
Development: Mother also began to have hallucinations, mentally on the verge of collapse.
Climax: The mother is possessed by a monster and wants to kill her own son all night.
Ending: The monster is subdued by the mother and son, and the relationship between mother and son is bridged.
A main thread runs through this structure, that is, the bereaved single mother has never been out of the gloom in seven years, and the two days of the son's birthday are the most uncomfortable days of the year. Seven years ago, in a car accident, her husband was taking her to the hospital to give birth. On the same day, her husband died and his son gave birth.
How painful is it to leave the loved ones? Other people's reconciliation is only treated as an event that has passed and passed by the wind. However, Kieslowski tells us that it is a kind of pain that no longer feels pain when the flesh is worn away. "Ghost Book" tells us that when the pain is forcibly hidden in the smiling face for many years, it becomes Baba-Duke.
Freud likened the human psychological structure to an iceberg. A small part floating on the water is consciousness, and the subject of the dark iceberg under the water is the subconscious. It was a cauldron of instinct, desire, and impulse. Corresponding to this triple personality structure, the subconsciously corresponding id is imprisoned by the ego and the superego, waiting to escape from prison at any time.
In this film, Baba-Duke is some dark things that are forcibly suppressed, controlled, and imprisoned by his mother. Dressed in black and wearing a black hat, it appeared in the deadly darkness, as black as the water surface, so unfathomable.
The son was the first to perceive the existence of Baba-Duke. He repeatedly repeated "Mom, don't leave me" and "Mom, I will protect you". His mother thought he was worried that his mother would repeat the fate of his father and make him an orphan. In fact, what he was worried about was another kind of departure, that is, the departure of love, and his mother became the terrifying Baba-Duke. What he wanted to express was "Mom, don't not love me". He wants to protect his mother from being occupied by Baba Duke, and always be his tender and dear mother.
Why can the son be the first to notice it? Because the sensitive things of son and mother are different. He didn't need to hide the past that his mother avoided mentioning. What he was sensitive to was only his mother's attitude towards him. The son's neuroticism in the opening paragraph is also in response to this sensitivity.
In the development paragraph, the mother rejected the existence of monsters rationally, but rushed in subconsciously, so the torn books were glued by herself when she was not aware of it, and supplemented with more bloody and violent content, and even, as A children’s literature writer, Baba Duke’s picture book may have been created by herself, and then completely hidden in the subconscious.
In the climax, Baba-Duke only possesses his mother, not his son. That night of horror was a complete release of her years of depression, and it was also her true relief of her husband's death. How can we forget the dead? When the longing for the dead prevents the living from living, perhaps only by demonizing this longing can we die and accept life positively.
It cannot be said that Baba-Duke is evil, and thinking of the dead is by no means a forbidden zone, but the living order of the living world. When Baba-Duke is too strong, it will break the tranquility of life. Life and death must be reconciled, Baba-Duke can only live in the cellar, hidden in the dark, and return to where he should go. But Baba-Duke did not disappear, it could not disappear, and there was no need to disappear. Because no one can get rid of and there is no need to get rid of the id. After all, the id, ego and superego are not in opposition to each other. To some extent, the former is the source of power for the latter two, while the latter two continue to grow. , In order to ensure the safe existence of the former.
Therefore, each of us has been struggling to do one thing throughout our lives, and that is to reconcile perfectly with our own Baba-Duke.
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