Can some of us evolve—change ourselves from uncaring, angry individuals to empathetic, compassionate people? I feel that some of us can…with a lot of work and help.
These questions are part of what I want to get into, in different films that moved me for different reasons. I may not be the same person who loved them years ago. I’m not gonna lie—maybe earlier on I watched them only to see revenge, or maybe just blood and gore.
But might it be possible to go back in time and hug that younger, angry kid; then ask him why he craved that blood—but might want to see something else now?
Ask him what turned him into the monster—ask him if the monster might still be able to take a different path? It’s way too late for the monsters in Silence of the Lambs. But watch The Babadook and see what insight and forgiveness can do.
In reviewing The Babadook, for example, I don’t want to write a point-by-point analysis (How mother, son and monster worked things out—nine steps). But maybe I can give you an idea how it happens…leave you with something more than shaking your head, asking what the fuck? How did this despairing mother bring herself back from the edge of hell?
That journey back is a story we might see for ourselves—just one thread of many.
Let me trace for you some of many. Some monsters may end up like Norman Bates in a jail cell. His past identity gone—destroyed by the worst parts of himself. And no way back.
But for other characters—a way to find a path back from the cliff’s edge…