Harry Styles: Feminist?

So as we all sluggishly dragged ourselves to work after a no-doubt indulgent long bank-holiday weekend, we were treated to a rude awakening call; a general election.

However, rather than wallow in this impending doom I call Great Britain’s future I kept scrolling through Twitter for the meme’s and the will to live.

When I came across this little snippet of an interview by everyone’s fave babe, Harry Styles.

Now, I am well versed in white boys getting more credit than they’re due just for saying basic things like ‘women deserve human rights’ and shit. But I was actually genuinely a little impressed by Harry’s comments.

It is true that teen heart-throb boyband types grow up and suddenly want to be perceived as a srs tortured soul who has more srs things to be interested in than screaming girl fans.

However, Harry brings up an increasingly interesting comparison that I’ve seen used before. The Beatles were (are?) considered the greatest and most successful band of all time. They are considered the epitome of musical talent. Yet who were their core fanbase? You guessed it; teenage girls.

You’ll get many a male hipster these days though shouting at teenage girls wearing Beatles t-shirts that they’ve no right to be wearing it and to name Ringo Starr’s neighbours cat in order to prove herself worthy.

Is it probable that Harry Styles’ manager or agent may wish to tap into a new fan demographic? Is it really understandable that their marketing/PR team want to appeal to a new audience?

There is so much money in teenage girls. They have so much disposable income. Why would anyone want to move away and leave that? Unless they thought that teenage girls and their opinions weren’t credible. Unless they considered teenage girls and their opinions dismissive.

Which largely as a society, sadly, we do.

Beatlemania allowed women of that time to break free from society’s expected gender norms. However ‘mania’ and teen fanatics has now, after 50 years, become the norm that society expects from teenage girls and now ridicules it.

We need to demand respect of teenage girls and their interests. Demand respect from our parents, brothers, grandparents and most of all journalists and the media. Continually speaking of teenage girls interests as if they are ‘stupid’ or ‘silly’ and ultimately aren’t credible is terribly dismissive of teenage girls themselves. And this should not be acceptable.

Jurassic Park – 24 years on

There are defining films for each generation that children tend to grow up with and look back at with delightful nostalgia. Some with Star Wars in the 70s, others with Ghostbusters in the 80s. I grew up with Jurassic Park. I was only 2 when it was released in the cinema but it soon found its way into our household in VHS form (oh god, do I have the right to feel old right now? There could be people reading this who have never even seen a VHS!) And so instead of watching The Lion King on repeat, I watched Jurassic Park. Seriously. On repeat! Look at the state of the video now…

Yep, I did manage to root that out and find it for the purpose of this article. You’re welcome. (Please ignore the chewed edges, I think that was how my 4 year old self dealt with those T-Rex scenes).

The characters in JP are essential to its success. As an impressionable pre-teen, Lex was the clever computer hacker who I pretended to be when I ran around the garden looking for dinosaur bones. In addition Ellie Sattler was the girl I wanted to be when I grew up- actually, I still want to be Ellie when I grow up. She quickly became a type of feminist icon to me when I was younger and taught me that women can be scientists and intelligent and ‘inherit the Earth’ and not have to be half naked while they do it.

Over 20 years on and JP is still a pop culture phenomenon. Those special effects aren’t outdated in the least. JP shows the difference between films which rely on CGI and ones who use it to simply enhance particular moments. Using Star Wars as an example, the original trilogy was heralded as a success in 1977 as far as CGI was concerned- however the same cannot be said for the prequel. Six years on from Jurassic Park and The Phantom Menace exhausts its use of CGI to the point where it is no longer seamless or used for enhancement; you are brought out from the narrative because the special effects are so obvious.

I went to see the 20th anniversary re-release of the film in 3D and the feelings of wonder and awe that I felt all those years ago were still present- the theatre was sold-out which helped intensify the feelings of an event. Spielberg used 3D as brilliantly as he used simple CGI 20 years ago- at essential moments to enhance the spectacle. With Jurassic Park feeling so timeless 20 years later, can we say the same for a modern day success such as The Avengers. Will that still be relevant and timeless in 2033? I doubt kids would have been chewing their DVD case with tension thats for sure.

Emma Stone vs Emma Watson

I’m sure you all saw that incident at the Oscar’s this year. You know which one I mean. The bit where the Best Picture Oscar went to La La Land for a good 2 or 3 minutes before it was correctly awarded to Moonlight. Eek.

That event took center stage this year and I think slightly stole the limelight from the other winners which was a shame. One of the other winners of the night was Emma Stone who (correctly) won for Best Actress.

Take a look at this video where at around 6 minutes in, Emma Stone is asked an interesting question.

A journalist asks Stone if she is going to take Emma Watson out for dinner after turning down the role. Stone, quite rightly, states that Watson is doing pretty well regardless of what she’s insinuating.

Can we please stop pitting actresses, women, against each other!?

I certainly haven’t seen Brad Pitt asked to thank a fellow actor for a presumptuous ‘bad career move’ that assisted his own.

Furthermore, the internet is now filled with the casting drama regarding Watson simply turning ‘La La Land’ down as she was already connected to ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Both of which requiring lengthy singing and dancing training. Not to mention one being filmed in La La Land itself, L.A. and BatB being shot in London. It was pretty unfeasible.

However, the media continues to run with this ‘battle of the Emmas’. And nowhere near as much media hype has been made regarding the Miles Teller/Ryan Gosling ‘feud’; will Ryan be taking Miles out to dinner to thank him for turning down his La La Land role I wonder. The fact is this happens every single day. It is extremely rare that any job only ever gets one applicant and someone isn’t beaten to it.

The journalist asking Stone this question was a woman and we are definitely not innocent parties here. Women are some of the worst when it comes to pitting females against each other.

Both Stone and Watson are in two of the biggest films of 2017 and I’m pretty sure they’ll both be fine regardless of their choices. And, dare I say it, happy for each other. Good roles for women are rare in Hollywood and we need to start celebrating successful women in the industry.

 

 

 

 

Kia Ora -Could Thor: Ragnarok not have had a female director?

We’ve had our first look at the new Thor installment ‘Ragnarok’ this week with the release of some images from Entertainment Weekly. (Off on a tangent already but… immediately noticeable is that there’s a new look for Thor; his delicate blonde locks have been chopped off. The horror.) ‘Ragnarok’ is the third of the franchise with each of Thor’s films receiving a new director each time. ‘Thor’ was directed by Kenneth Branagh, ‘The Dark World’ by Alan Taylor and ‘Ragnarok’ will be helmed by New Zealand’s Taika Waititi.

 

When it was announced that Waititi got the job back in 2015, I was a little apprehensive if I’m honest. At that point Waititi had only directed three feature films including ‘What We Do In The Shadows’ (a fave of mine tbh) and a handful of TV episodes including axed USA remake of ‘The Inbetweeners’.

Yet he’s being handed one of the biggest jobs in Hollywood as far as budget, hype and bums-on-seats is concerned.

Could they not have found someone more qualified? Or were all other male directors busy? Could Marvel not have chosen *gasp* a female director?

By choosing Waititi what do we think Marvel are trying to get him to bring to the table with Ragnarok? Waititi’s films such as WWDITS and ‘The Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ have incredible comedic elements to them. Perhaps Marvel want to bring some more comedy to Thor’s third outing; especially considering the success of the Team Thor flatmate short’s.

Perhaps Marvel could have contacted Elizabeth Banks – as the first name off the top of my head. Other female directors with a focus on comedic elements could have included Amy Heckerling, Marjane Satrapi or Gurinder Chadha. Banks is extremely funny and current who has recently directed Pitch Perfect 2 and will be directing the new Charlie’s Angels. Nope, these movies aren’t similar to a film such as Thor, but neither is The Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Marvel have also been setting their sights on becoming more diversified by green-lighting Captain Marvel and Black Panther stand-alone movies. Perhaps Marvel were also looking to bring more diversity behind the cameras as well?

Perhaps Marvel could have asked Ava DuVernay? Interestingly DuVernay was scouted to direct the Black Panther movie however ‘creative differences’ was cited and she eventually left the project before even beginning.

Have Marvel hired Waititi based off of the fact that he is what some would call an ‘up and coming’ director? This makes me wonder if Marvel could retain more creative control over Waititi and his decisions for Ragnarok.

Waititi and Hemsworth

Bottom line – I’m kinda pissed that there’s extremely talented female directors out there who have more than proved their worth with incredible CVs that are just overlooked. Women and POC are only ever in the running for jobs if the source material concerns women or POC.

Captain Marvel looks like it will be directed by a woman, however no announcement has been made yet of Marvel’s final decision. Similarly, the Black Panther job went to Ryan Coogler.

White men direct films about POC and women all the time. Therefore I’m kinda glad that Waititi, a New Zealand born part-Maori, is at the helm of a movie which is essentially just about another white guy saving the world.

Marvel can take chances and make changes as they have such a huge platform. I’m still waiting for them to look outside of the box and be brave. People will go to their movies regardless and they can encourage some real change in Hollywood if they only had the balls.

Pop-Culture Lover

I have no shame in a lot of things if I’m completely honest and loving pop-culture is something I will never be embarrassed about.

I don’t believe in ‘guilty pleasures’ and I think the phrase ‘sell out’ should have died a death 15 years ago.

This blog post will be mostly relatable to music but can be applied across most of the arts.

I have this very vivid memory of myself sitting in General Studies in College (that’s 16-18 years old for any non-English people reading). It’s a well known sit-off lesson in the UK and so a few class mates and I were sat around chatting. Some of them had been to Leeds festival the previous summer.

I then witnessed what I can only describe as one of the most face-Palm moments of my life so far. This came from a skinny, slightly spotty boy with his wrist adorned with all of the festival wristbands he’d visited the previous summer up and down his arms.

He proceeded to say that he’d seen his once-favourite band Kings of Leon live and that there were thousands of people at their stage and they’d become ‘such sell outs’.

I asked him what he meant by this. He explained that they’d become too popular and no one appreciated their old stuff like he did.

In my mind, surely a band that you loved so much becoming popular and garnering so much attention is a good thing? Surely you want the best for them and to get to become the best of their profession? Which assuming in the music world is becoming number 1 which therefore in extension means becoming more popular and selling more records.

Apparently to some people there is something unattractive about popularity, about pop-culture that is something to be sniffed at, that the uneducated masses flock to because they can’t make their own decisions about their tastes and preferences. This is where songs and films become guilty pleasures. Ever noticed that guilty pleasures are always something really popular?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do see where people like this are coming from. Harry Potter is my baby. I was just the right age when The Philosopher’s Stone was released and was able to grow up absorbing everything that world had to offer.

Now with the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them being released I do feel like my ‘baby’ is being prised from my arms and being thrown to millions of pre-teens who won’t appreciate him. Young-un’s who don’t get it, who don’t know what it was like to grow up with Harry and have him and his world comfort you when you were experiencing some terrible teenage crisis.

But the best thing about pop-culture is getting to share those experiences. Those new fans of Fantastic Beasts will now go back and experience Harry for the first time and that is amazing because I believe it is worth experiencing.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently travelling in Asia for a few months. If I snubbed things that I deemed ‘sell-outs’ and too popular, I would have nothing to talk to any of my new friends in hostels or bars about.

Pop-culture connects you to people. It gives you things to talk about and bond over. I own a deathly hallows necklace (obviously) and you would not believe the amount of conversations that has started.

Don’t get me wrong, supporting independent, less popular, music and film is good and commendable. But then the point I’m trying to make is, when your favourite independent film becomes super famous, don’t abandon it for some hypothetical moral highground. You liked it for a reason, and so do the other thousands or millions of people that are now sharing this experience with you.

That is nothing to be ashamed about. Pop-culture is amazing and becomes a comment on our society at the time and a reflection of our shared interests and lives.

Embrace shitty pop music and the next big blockbuster- it’ll at least give you something to discuss when you’re next at the pub that’s for sure!

Personal Update

Hello everyone. Happy New Year! With the new year I thought I’d do a bit of an update. 

I have taken a small absence lately. This is due to some very exciting personal endeavours. I spent a lot of 2016 saving lots of money and working really hard with crazy hours. That’s due to the fact that I’m now currently travelling South East Asia which is incredible and worth all of the missed social events last year! However I have still been putting ‘hands to keyboard’ so to speak. 

I have been writing a few pieces for a friends blog and group; Funko Rocks. It’s all about Funko figures and by extension the worlds they exist in. I’ve written a few pieces about what we had to look forward to in the new Star Wars offering ‘Rogue One’. As well as a few other tid-bits. 

You can read my countdown to Star Wars here. You can also follow Funko Rocks’ blog here and on Facebook here. You can expect lots of fun material such as interesting art work and of course all the new Funko releases. 

I’m two months into my trip and it turns out there are a lot of 24 hour bus rides involved. Therefore it would be rude of me not to usefully spend my time writing a few little things! 

Until next time! X

You’re not feministing correctly!

Following the ruling that pop artist Kesha Rose could not leave her contract with Dr. Luke after her accusations towards him of sexual assault, the internet went a little crazy sparking the hashtag #FreeKesha. Across social media there was outcry and an immediate dialogue was opened regarding the matter, the fact that this was causing a discussion surrounding sexual violence itself is a pretty good thing. 

However, with this came social media users querying where any form of solidarity or discussion was from Kesha’s peers; other pop artists. Not just any artists, but female artists.

Suddenly twitter became a-blaze with people asking where Lady Gaga’s feminist views were now when it really mattered. Or why America’s sweetheart Taylor Swift had yet to make a comment. Almost every high profile celebrity had come under fire for not speaking up for Kesha. Initially, this was kind of great thing. High profile celebrities have a huge voice in society and the more they condemn this ruling and the entire stigma surrounding sexual violence the more educated their fans can hopefully become.

This however, just felt more like witch-hunting. Where was the call for male celebrities to stand united with Kesha? People like Jay-Z, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber have just as big a fan-base to make an influence with their comments. Especially in an industry that clearly favours men over women, could they not have had even more power if they made comment? Celebrities, predominantly female, did eventually step forward and proclaim their solidarity with Kesha, with one notable exception of Taylor Swift.

Swift did however make a donation to Kesha of $250,000 following the news that legal bills had put Kesha in some financial troubles. This led to quite a stir with fellow pop star Demi Lovato who decided that this wasn’t ‘good enough’ and that money doesn’t solve everything and made this abundantly clear on her Instagram and Twitter accounts. The media took this and ran with it and Taylor vs Demi was massive news for a good few days.

This caused a big problem. Although feminism has now finally reached the masses and has become rather mainstream, we see here that now instead of being the most popular or getting the most likes on Instagram, celebrities also have to be the most feminist. Celebrities were being judged for how they contributed, exactly what they said, or how they said it with regards to social and feminist issues. Whereas male celebrities were nowhere to be seen or heard.

It is great that Demi Lovato is so passionately vocal about this issue and feminism in general. It is also great that Taylor Swift donated money to Kesha’s cause and that she perhaps did this without speaking out to make sure the spotlight was not directed at her during this important time.

The entire debacle that ensued completely took away from the issue at hand. Whilst everyone was deciding which celebrity has been the most feminist or the more supportive friend, people like Chris Brown are still releasing music. It is great that celebrities are becoming more and more aware and vocal regarding feminism, but society should not condemn female artists for not speaking about every single social issue.

This is not a competition. This is a real person who is suffering. We need to instead collectively condemn Dr. Luke and the entire system that is currently in place which seems to value money above women’s lives.

 

The Zika Virus

The ‘World Health Organisation’ (WHO) have just days ago announced that the Zika virus is now a global emergency. Margaret Chan, the director general, held a press conference on Monday.

I am now declaring that the recent cluster of microcephaly and other neurological abnormalities reported in Latin America following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014 constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.

The Zika Virus is spread via mosquitoes and is currently being found predominantly in South America, although it has recently spread further afield. At the moment, there is a lot of speculation as to exactly what is happening. Common symptoms of the virus are rashes and joint pains. However, it is being widely discussed that if a pregnant woman is infected with the virus, her unborn child will then develop something called microcephaly, a type of brain damage. Normally in Brazil, just 150 cases of microcephaly are reported each year. However, since October 2015 it is now investigating nearly 4,000.

The Zika Virus has been a main topic of debate on all news channels recently, and there has been much coverage of it online and on social media. However, I’m yet to see any specific reporting of the effects and repercussions that this will have on female lives. This is a massive issue for women and women’s rights.

More than 1 million people have been infected with the Zika Virus in Brazil, and the NY Times have reported that in Colombia alone over 2100 pregnant women are now infected (this number having doubled in a week). As a result of this, several authorities of various South American countries have now urged women to avoid getting pregnant until further notice. With El Salvador going as far as to discourage pregnancies until 2018.

How is it exactly that these authorities expect women to be able to do this? Religion in in South America is predominantly Roman Catholic; although perhaps a comfort in these times, presents increasing challenges for women. Birth control is practically non-existent in these countries, and abortion is illegal.

For many women in South America being told ‘don’t get pregnant’ just is not feasible advice. They are not socially able to take this advice on board, they don’t have the facilities, the education or information, nor the money to make the advice a reality. This TIME article references the fact that 50% of births in Latin America are unplanned. These figures really put into perspective how hypocritical and ludicrous it is of authorities to simply say ‘don’t get pregnant’ and furthermore expect this statement to be the end of that discussion.

Even if, as a last resort, women attempted abstinence as a precaution, sexual violence is so pervasive that many women may become pregnant against their will. A WHO study (which can be found here) shows that the Americas have a very high percentage of sexual violence cases in the world, with over 36%. These figures are exactly the things that the governments of these countries should be taking into consideration when attempting to help these women.

WHO sexual violence figures.

We have to look at the social and cultural infrastructure and institutional gender politics that is in place within these countries in order to help these women and halt the spread of the Zika virus. The advice that is currently being publicised will not be good long-term. Where the only option is to give birth to and raise a disabled child in unideal conditions, we could end up with a potential rise in deaths from illegal abortions, by women who feel that they have no other choice.

Imposter Syndrome

Over the past year I’ve read Bossypants by Tina Fey, Yes Please by Amy Poehler, #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso and Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. And if memory serves, I remember every single one of them describing struggling with something called Imposter Syndrome.

A quick wiki describes Imposter Syndrome as

a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. Despite external evidence of their competence, those with the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved… [it] is particularly common among high-achieving women.”

Before I even start, I just cannot with this. That we have people like Adam Sandler walking around without a care in the world, who hasn’t made a good film since I was still in nappies, and these extremely hard working and evidently successful women feel this way. It makes me kinda mad. The feeling manifests in very different ways- women saying that their achievements aren’t good enough, or aren’t as good as their peers, as well as expressing shock and dismissiveness when praised with good work claiming that the success was merely luck or they had a lot of help.

Emma Watson is another extremely successful celebrity who has admitted to being plagued with this. As well as being a world famous actress, she is now an ambassador for UN Women and an incredible role model. However, she still seems to be coming to grips with her incredible success and achievements; all of which she is very deserving of. In British Vogue’s September issue she explains that, “when I receive recognition for my acting, I feel incredibly uncomfortable. I tend to turn in on myself. I feel like an imposter.” She also describes in an interview with Rookie Mag that you can read here about how she felt that “any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved. I can’t possibly live up to what everyone thinks I am and what everyone’s expectations of me are.”

The Imposter Syndrome originates from a study conducted by Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes back in 1978 called ‘The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention’, you can read the study here. They explain that the Imposter Syndrome itself could manifest in “societal sex-role stereotyping” which would explain why the syndrome appears a lot more in women than in men. Girls grow up in societies which encourage them to be pretty and not play in the dirt, to not be bossy, to be ambitious but not too ambitious as to make men feel emasculated. As Clance and Imes go on to say, “a woman’s femininity is called into question by her success”- no wonder women are so quick to dismiss their successes. Being a ‘go-getter’ and ambitious are attractive qualities in men, it is a shame the same cannot be said for women. This article describes how the word ambition is a ‘dirty word’ and is practically an insult and when “applied to women, it’s almost a slur – the subtext somehow being that ambitious women are out to trample colleagues on the ladder to success, with family and friends littered somewhere down the bottom of the life priorities list.”

Similarly, the media have continuously portrayed successful women as being extremely unnattractive. Think Sarah Jessica Parker in ‘I Don’t Know How She Does It’, or Sandra Bullock in ‘The Proposal’. It would be nice if women were encouraged to be successful and own it. Not to be described as ‘full of herself’ or ‘bitchy’ for knowing she’s a badass business woman and a successful woman period, whether she has two kids and a dog waiting for her at home or Netflix and popcorn.

The Babadook

I have already mentioned on this blog about my preferred way of watching horror films. I like to be in a fun group of people who are all about as much of a wuss as myself, and I’ll do anything to avoid sleeping alone that night. Bingo! August 22nd I went to my friends house for wine, take-out and films. I had been meaning to watch The Babadook for months, however as I am a massive wuss, I usually wait for events like these to roll around to tick off a horror movie.

Thankfully, my two friends and viewing partners that evening love horror films and are both just as big a scaredy cat as I am.

We had an insane amount of technical difficulties in order to get the film to even start. Netflix was down, then the laptop we were using was too slow to stream anywhere else online, and the download speed was dire also. By the time we got the film going, I was praying that it was going to be worth all that faff.

‘The Babadook’ centers on Amelia who is a single mum (as her beloved husband died years earlier) and her son, Sam. Early on we are shown that the son is extremely difficult, getting himself in trouble at school and at birthday parties as well as continuously not sleeping complaining of the monster in his bedroom – this all leads to Amelia becoming increasingly stressed and exhausted. One night when Sam can’t sleep, Sam picks a book from the bookshelf which Amelia proceeds to read to him: Mister Babadook. From then on, the Babadook is ever present in both their minds and their home.

Amelia is a truly incredible character. I do realise that I am suffering from my usual ‘honeymoon syndrome’ which I experience with films, where I love everything about them until something better comes along. I can’t help it; I’m fickle. But honestly, Amelia may be one of my favourite female characters to date. Definitely my favourite horror film character. She is presented as an actual complex character. This is a gift usually only bestowed upon male characters, especially in horror. Female characters are continuously presented as the victim and/or the sexual object. Amelia is a mother, neighbour, sister, colleague, potential love interest as well as being a messy character in that she ruins all of these relationships during the course of the film and importantly, there is no male character coming to save her. It is also worth noting that Amelia as a mother is extremely believable – she doesn’t strip off and jump into the shower to ‘wash away her worries’- she is a complex human being who then also happens to be a mother.

The use and presentation of female sexuality and agency is also relatively rare in a horror. Amelia is not branded the ‘slut’ after she is shown using her vibrator, nor does she become the first to die; she doesn’t seem to be punished as a result of her sexuality at all. Similarly, female sexuality is not presented as ‘monstrous’ such as it is in ‘Carrie’ or ‘Alien’ and is regularly another horror stereotype. As mentioned earlier, Amelia’s sister, her sister’s friend, neighbour and female child services officer are all female and they all possess a form of agency and control over the narrative. They are not treated as back seat characters.

The monster itself I found very intriguing and original. Some of the best horror films I’ve ever seen always forgo revealing the ‘monster’ and instead increase tension to the point where I almost start feeling sick. ‘The Babadook’ had this exact affect on me. You’re first shown a drawing of the Babadook in the story book that Amelia reads to Sam. After that the monster is merely hinted at, yet his presence is so overwhelming that that in itself was scary enough and you’re constantly waiting for it to make an actual appearance. Luckily, it does and the wait is worth it. The tension built in ‘The Babadook’ reminded me of ‘Mama’ (I’ve written about ‘Mama’ here), however thankfully once you’re shown the monster, that is where the similarity ended. The payoff in ‘Mama’ was dire and disappointing. Mister Babadook himself appeared looking almost as hand-drawn as he was in the book itself, and moved with a stop-motion effect. It almost makes you continue to use your imagination, and this made the monster creepy and eerier than I expected.

‘The Babadook’ deals with incredibly complex themes such as motherhood, grief and depression. Sadly, I’ve read a lot of Facebook status’ and Tweets which give the impression that the main themes and important issues that the film deals with were missed by a lot of viewers; who in turn rated the film badly. The film transcends entertainment and I found myself actually caring for and fearing for these characters. Usually in horror films, the characters are written so badly that I’m quite excited to see them die.

It turns out that the film was definitely worth all the technical faff and has found itself in my Top 3 films of 2015!

Have you seen ‘The Babadook’? What did you think?