In my analysis, I classified The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak as “haunted house films.” Haunted houses have been present throughout film history and originated from gothic literature. Identifying the use of this trope was one of the ways I connected the films to the gothic horror genre. As I explained in the previous chapter, haunted houses are a trope that has been seen since the very first horror film. It is a setting that presents as familiar and comforting as well as dangerous and uncanny. Historically, haunted houses in horror cinema are used to propose a threat to the traditional family unit and domestic life. The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak all disrupt the family unit by featuring chaos and violence in the home. Additionally, they depict this disruption through painful memories that haunt the characters and their settings. A haunted house is a personified location that the plot of these films centers around as if it were a character. The houses reflect the mental state and personalities of their owners while also being the primary setting for most of their trauma. “Hauntings” are depicted as memories that linger in the house and trigger the inhabitants to remember. These factors are why I categorize the films as haunted house narratives.  

What I find unique about The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak is that they focus on how being haunted by memories and trauma affects the mental health of the characters. This is a new trend for the genre. The films I analyzed are not only about scaring the characters, rather, the thing to fear is the everyday horror of living after a traumatic event. Furthermore, it is significant that this message occurs in a domestic setting for the texts are communicating that trauma is the threat to the family. In each film, trauma does not just disappear. Instead, only the characters who acknowledge their grief and become open about their mental health are able to survive. It is a point of the films to encourage an open confrontation of trauma in order to begin the healing process.  

In The Babadook, Amelia and Samuel become open about their pain and recognize grief as a normal human reaction. The Babadook may never fully go away, but by standing up to him and enacting change the family is able to take control of their lives and drastically improve their mental health. The film ends on a hopeful note and with a happy family. The Invitation ends on a more somber note but similarly explores grief as part of the human condition. The film shows that everyone experiences a sense of pain and grief and that there are many people hurting badly enough to crave an escape. As part of the suicide pact, David lights a red lantern in his yard. At the very end of the film, Kira and Will look out over the hills to see hundreds of red lights. The Invitation’s ending highlights the widespread effects of trauma and the suffering many people experience. Kusama is commenting on a growing and widespread epidemic of miserable people looking for direction, something society was grappling with in the 2010s. Crimson Peak displays this suffering through Edith’s communication with the ghosts of Allerdale Hall. By seeking out the ghosts of the past, Edith acknowledges the pain and grief that has taken place within the estate. She is able to survive by listening and being empathic. Although the ghosts are not the result of Edith’s trauma, they are characters whom she can relate to as they are all victims of the Sharp siblings. Edith connects with the ghosts and makes it out alive because of it. 

In the three films, we also see the punishment of characters that do not confront their demons. When Amelia tried to ignore the Babadook he just grew stronger and the characters in The Invitation believed that the only way for them to escape their ghosts was to die. Finally, Lucille and Thomas struggle throughout Crimson Peak to let go of their house of horrors, a symbol of their trauma bond, which in the end is their downfall. These films, by punishing repression and embracing openness, advocate for the de-stigmatization of mental health. I argue in my thematic analysis that this message is also promoted through the shared themes of the three films, specifically the concept of isolation. I classify isolation into two categories: physical and emotional. In the films, characters are trapped physically within the walls of the houses, but they are also haunted by the memories of traumatic events. For the characters I examined, escaping their setting would not necessarily be their salvation because their “hauntings'' are intangible and based on their memories. The films argue that it is not enough to run away from a monster, but rather, the message is to treat mental suffering with the same sense of urgency as physical suffering. The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak create a new understanding of what it means to be trapped, for they illustrate how isolation is about more than setting.  

In conclusion, I argue that 2010s horror cinema, as seen in The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak, uses the haunted house trope to change and challenge the genre and society. The “haunted house” is an intertextual concept and setting that audiences are familiar with as part of gothic iconography. The films expand upon the haunted house narrative by presenting emotional perils as incredibly dangerous. The “new” threat to the family and society, as depicted in 2010s horror cinema, is a lack of conversation surrounding grief, trauma, and mental health. 

The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak start their stories in the aftermath of the traumatic events inflicted upon the character. The films usher in a trend that unpacks the implications of tragedy, loss, and unexpected trauma. Beyond this, the films also present a call to action: an argument that we as a society need to acknowledge our trauma as the first step of healing. The subsequent conversations about grief and mental illness are identifiable in the films I analyzed and in society. The 2010s saw a rise in the effort to de-stigmatize mental health (Guttuso). We saw this in popular culture, politics, and our personal lives. Social media helped to foster communities that were supportive of mental health struggles and as a result more individuals became open about their mental illness (Koelliker). Celebrities and prominent figures also started to share their experiences and help normalize mental health disorders. Mental health became a conversation of public health as medical professionals and politicians began to acknowledge stigma as a barrier to emerging within health care (Parcesepe and Cabassa). The era began an understanding of the widespread effects of mental illness on society. It was time to treat mental illness as seriously as physical illness. The decade continued these conversations to the point where there is much less stigma around mental illness than before. In the last ten years, Americans in particular saw a rise in the accessibility of mental health care due to the increased affordability of care and the expansion of healthcare assistance programs (Guttuso). More than 20 million Americans gained health insurance through the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Nova). The ACA kicked off the decade with millions of Americans now having potential access to mental health care for the first time in their lives, which was a major factor in the national conversation about mental health (Koelliker). The Babadook, The Invitation, and Crimson Peak are participating in this dialogue. Like many films and television shows from the 2010s (Holmes), they use themes surrounding mental health, de-stigmatization, and the implications of trauma because those topics were trending in popular culture. Mental health is a theme that audiences would have been discussing in their lives as a new and sometimes frightening idea to confront. The films I analyzed use audience fears surrounding conversations about mental health to create impactful narratives that connect to viewers' anxieties.   

My major findings highlighted that the overarching theme of all three films is the concept of being trapped, both emotionally and physically. The films show characters who are trapped by their trauma and within the confines of their home. I propose that this theme is a metaphor for the burden that mental illness can put on someone’s life if they do not receive the help and support they need. This metaphor is visible in my analysis of the films and in cultural conversation of the 2010s. Moreover, the theme of being trapped has only expanded in our cultural dialogue. We are now seeing, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, frustration with both physical isolation due to necessary safety measures, and the massive inequalities that exist in society which forces individuals into immobility. Through my research I have gained an understanding of America’s political relationship to horror films. Horror films use the real anxieties facing a society to comment on those fears. I predict that in the next decade horror films will tackle systems of oppression as forms of isolation and restriction. The continuation of the theme of isolation is a continuation of gothic influences, but so is commenting on society and class structure. Both themes are carried through each wave of horror and are able to adapt to the times.