Babadook

I felt like there was definitely a strong correlation between horror and gender in the first half of this movie. I felt that once the mother became possessed by Babadook the movie lost the correlation between gender and horror and became almost funny to me at times. But I felt the beginning of the movie was very effective for multiple reasons. Because the mother is a single mother of a young boy there is a feeling of helplessness that makes the future terrors in the movie seem inevitable. When a father passes away, the role of "man of the family" usually falls to the eldest son. This person takes on the responsibility of provider and protector of the family. Unfortunately for the mother, her eldest and only son is a young helpless boy. Instead of providing comfort and safety, the boy seems as more of a burden for the mother. Also, women are stereotypically seen as the weaker sex, and therefore in need of protection from the stronger sex, males. So here is this single mother, defenseless, unable to protect herself. This provides the viewer with a feeling off helplessness and an inability to control and or change the undesirable path that you are headed down. The young boy attempts to help protect the mother through his own inventions, a crossbow that shoots a dart, firecrackers (not his own invention), and a catapult that launches a softball. All these "weapons" prove to merely be a hindrance to the danger he is faced with later in the film, once again proving that a young little boy is unable to protect his mother or even himself for that matter. The mother is essentially presented as a "damsel in distress" who has no prince charming coming to save her on his big white horse in his shiny silver armor. She is up shit creek without a paddle.