Athens Ciné Athens, GA
Philip Holmes
Chair of the Neuroscience Program and Professor in the Psychology Department and the Medical Partnership at UGA
andKaren Smith
Child Clinical Psychologist
The Babadook— Come out, come out, wherever you are!
Program Description
Two speakers give an overview of the current science of brain mechanisms underlying fear, stress, and the processing of traumatic events and interventions for stress and trauma-related disorders.
Presented At
Athens Ciné Athens, GA
Film Synopsis
A mysterious and unsettling children's book forces a grieving widow to confront her resentment of her imaginative young son—and the possibility that his terrifying nightmares might be real.
Six years after the violent death of her husband, Amelia is at a loss. She struggles to discipline her 'out of control' six-year-old, Samuel, a son she finds impossible to love. Samuel's dreams are plagued by a monster he believes is coming to kill them both. When a disturbing storybook called The Babadook turns up at their house, Samuel is convinced that the Babadook is the creature he's been dreaming about. His hallucinations spiral out of control, he becomes more unpredictable and violent. Amelia, genuinely frightened by her son's behaviour, is forced to medicate him. But when Amelia begins to see glimpses of a sinister presence all around her, it slowly dawns on her that the thing Samuel has been warning her about may be real.
Photo courtesy of PHOTOFEST
About the Speaker
Philip Holmes is Chair of the Neuroscience Program and Professor in the Psychology Department and the Medical Partnership at UGA. His research is in the area of behavioral neuropharmacology, and it focuses on the role of monoamine neurotransmitters in rodent models of stress-related disorders such as anxiety and depression.
Karen Smith is a child clinical psychologist who worked for 20 years as a school counselor before retiring in 2020. She is a graduate of and also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Psychology at UGA. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Athens Film Arts Institute.