Themes and symbolism\n\n Writing for The Daily Beast, Tim Teeman contends that grief is the "real monster" in The Babadook, and that the film is "about the aftermath of death; how its remnants destroy long after the dead body has been buried or burned".

In the last sequence of "The Babadook," the earthworms are often interpreted as a symbol of the repressed trauma and grief that the characters have been dealing with throughout the film.