Gadgetory

here with us today is Jennifer Kent writer and director of new Australian horror film the babadook Jennifer the Babbitt Rock was actually born from a short film he did called the monster the monster is really different in tone how did you progress it from that really but that almost playful tone to something that's quite a bit darker yeah well I didn't intend to write the babadook when I made monster at all I wasn't thinking I want to make this into a feature film it was just the idea at the core of my short really stuck with me this idea of you know the importance of facing your dark side facing your shadow side and so I was working on a number of films after my short and I couldn't like and they kept I couldn't get them made basically and and so I kept coming back to this idea and then eventually years later I started writing a film about it this idea of yeah facing your dark side I guess so yeah it's a much more complex story obviously being a feature but it is a lot darker I'd say what made you think of Kickstarter as a method of funding the film we fortunately already been funded by Screen Australia and the South Australian film corporation so we had a you know a small but tidy package of money to make the film but we didn't have enough for our design department and there's a real world to this film and we knew that we needed to create it so we thought we'd you know we'd put it out there and see what support we could get back and the support was phenomenal and it also generated a really strong fan base for us and people that felt involved and that was really important for us and we've kept them informed and they're up they came to our premieres all around Australia so yeah it's been a really positive experience for us I did notice however that you only just made your funding goal did you have a plan B if that had fallen through no we did not have a plan B and you know I was on set directing and then I go off and I'd be checking my phone and thinking no era you know will we make it and it was really touch and go but I think that people just you know pulled out all stops and at the eleventh hour and we had extraordinary support from really quite high-profile people you know Miriam margulies and Tom Stoppard and just incredible people so they brought a lot of publicity to our campaign you seem to just not care about the tropes at all for example you've got a film with a parent and a child and normally the child is the creepy one you flip that on its head an interestingly for an Australian film it's all set inside a house where as Australian horror is typically located in wide open spaces as a filmmaker I really can only do something that I feel very drawn to so there wasn't a sense of thinking I should make a film like this or I should make a film like that it was very much going from that core idea of facing your dark side and I guess I love horror I've loved her since I was a kid so I know all those tropes very well but I certainly didn't feel reined in by them I didn't feel like I had to be a good horror film maker and make a film that horror fans would like you know in with all due respect to them I really didn't care I just needed to tell this story in the best way possible so yeah maybe that's what makes it a little bit different to some of the other horror out there I really love the characters of Amelia at am and I found it interesting that the biggest fear that the film seemed to speak to was a maternal one which is what if I can't stand my own child how did that become a story you wanted to tell well it's interesting you know because when I started to write this I was googling women who hate their children or women who can't love their children and it was very telling to me that I could find nothing but yeah so people think that that that's not a reality that you know we would all like to think that every mother comes into the world with this innate sense of love for them for their offspring but it's disturbingly common for women to struggle with that and I've also seen every woman that I know I don't have children but I've seen every woman that I know say you know I'm sure was a better mother and feel like they're not a good mother even if they're extraordinary lovers so I really wanted to touch on that you know I really wanted to be honest about Mother Love and the shadow side of that and it's had a wonderful response from from women who who felt this collective sigh of relief there's others that aren't perfect out there as well and I think that's one of the really important things about the film actually one thing but it can also be very treacherous magic tricks to surprise shock your family and friends so you mentioned that you've always loved horror since you're a little girl so did you start off wanting to make a horror film or did you start off wanting to tell a story about a mother I think they came together so I think that the idea came and the whole point of facing something you know and that you can't face and it gets bigger and bigger is terrifying for most people and to put it in a drama context in a dramatic context didn't seem to make sense and I think it would have become melodramatic and it wouldn't have reached people and grab people the way that it is now so I think horror allows us as an audience to really enter into a heightened world and it also allows us to explore me and these things really they may seem unreal on the surface or heightened but the emotions running through them are very real and I guess hora is a gift in that way to tell this kind of story