Match 20998 Mama vs. Mr. Babadook

[Culwych1]

Ethan had spent his first twelve years in a house shadowed by anger. His parents had fought constantly, tearing down each other and, inadvertently, tearing at him. Then came that final night, a dreadful blur of shouting and slamming doors, and by morning, both of them were gone, leaving him behind. Alone, he drifted, waiting for something—anything—that could pierce the numbness. And then came the adoption.

The new family was everything he hadn't known he needed. Alice, his adoptive mother, was warm and gentle, always quick to laugh and make his favourite meals. His new father, Tom, had a way of bringing out joy in everything, even mundane things like gardening or fixing the fence. They had a daughter, Lily, who, at eleven, became the sister Ethan had secretly wished for. She pulled him into games, made him laugh, and shared all the things that children in happy homes knew how to share.

For the first time, he felt safe. Loved. Free from the heavy shroud that had always clung to him.

But Ethan's peace was not meant to last.

It started with the cold. A chill settled in his room, no matter how many blankets he piled on or how high he turned up the radiator. Then came the shadows, creeping in from the corners, flickering in his peripheral vision like dark, twitching fingers. He tried to ignore it, pushing down the fear, but the house was coming alive with a presence he couldn’t shake off.

One night, he woke to find her there. HIs mother, or rather what she had become. Her skeletal figure hovered beside his bed, a tattered spectre of her former self. Her face was hollow, a mask twisted with sorrow and obsession, eyes like dark pits of endless longing. She didn’t speak, but he felt her presence like a weight on his chest, her hollow, sorrowful gaze fixated on him.

"Ethan," she whispered, a breath of cold air that made his heart race. Her voice was both pleading and possessive, and her bony, spider-like fingers stretched out towards him, almost lovingly. Her apparition wavered, shimmering like mist, but her desperation was as sharp as a blade.

She reached out, caressing the air around him, her voice echoing in his mind, "I’ll take care of you, Ethan. No one understands you like I do."

Days later, his father came.

Ethan was in the hallway when he felt a suffocating sense of dread, a darkness pressing in, filling the house like poison seeping into its very walls. Turning, he saw the tall, gaunt figure emerging from the shadows. The man wore a dark, tattered coat and a top hat, but his face—oh, his face was a nightmare made flesh. Hollow, wide eyes peered out from his pallid mask, twisted into a sinister grin that froze Ethan in place.

"Ethan..." the figure rasped, his voice a low, guttural growl that scraped against Ethan's spine. He moved with a horrific grace, drifting down the hall, his claw-like hands twitching, eager to grasp.

This was not the father Ethan remembered, but something else; a manifestation of grief, of bitterness, twisted into a form that exuded malice. Where his mother’s ghostly figure seemed bound by an obsessive need to care, his father’s spirit reeked of possessive rage, a wrath that curled through the house like smoke.

Soon, both spirits were woven into the fabric of his new life, each claiming the home and its inhabitants in their own way. His mother would appear at his bedside, her hollow eyes staring down, crooning that no one could protect him like she could. His father lurked in the shadows, his dark laughter filling the hallways at night, whispering that he alone could make Ethan truly strong, truly safe. Their presences clashed, coldness fighting darkness, two spectres bound to him, each tugging for dominance.

Then, one night, Ethan heard them both. The hallway was dense with a silence thick as tar, and he felt them there; his mother’s twisted love and his father’s insidious anger. Their apparitions flickered into view, each confronting the other for the first time.

The mother-spirit’s hollow eyes narrowed, her mouth stretching in a silent scream, rage etched across her decayed face. "Stay away from him!" she rasped, her voice like cracked glass, every word dripping with venomous maternal instinct. "He needs love. He needs me."

The father’s grin twisted wider, his jagged limbs twitching in mock amusement. "He needs strength," he growled, a taunting menace lacing his words. "You would make him weak. You would smother him like you did before." He took a step forward, looming, his hands reaching as if to tear away her grip on their son.

And in that moment, the air around them grew dense with an almost electric malice, the two spirits preparing to clash. His mother’s spectral limbs stretched, clawing through the dark, while his father’s twisted grin widened, his figure flickering in and out of the shadows like a nightmare given life. Their hatred of each other, buried for years, now surged to the surface, raw and unrestrained.

The two spirits stood at the edge of a battle, each poised to tear the other apart, their twisted love and corrupted rage culminating in a deadly standoff. And Ethan, caught between them, felt the terrible weight of their unfinished business, knowing that his peace—and perhaps his new family’s survival—depended on the resolution of their spectral feud.

[Callisto]

Learn More About
Mama
Read more about Mama at Wikipedia
Official Site: Universal Studios Links: Wikipedia Villains Wikia Horror Movies Wikia

Mr. Babadook
Read more about Mr. Babadook at Wikipedia
Official Site: Entertainment One Links: Wikipedia

[JohnnyChany]

I appreciate the creative twist to get these two in a match against each other. Poor Ethan. From what I can tell by reading the synopsis of both movies I think I'm going with Mama. She is more threatening, especially in mama bear mode. 

[Macklemore]

3 hours ago, JohnnyChany said:

I appreciate the creative twist to get these two in a match against each other. Poor Ethan. From what I can tell by reading the synopsis of both movies I think I'm going with Mama. She is more threatening, especially in mama bear mode. 

She 100% is. Babadook, by virtue of the way he operates, is more fit to beat humans psychologically. Mama won't ever be in trouble here, especially since she's showcased the usual Spectre powers before, something the Babadook lacks.