To celebrate national cinema day yesterday, my daughter took me to see the Barbie Movie. I was immediately struck at how the film pitted two halves of the population against each other, yet not in a way you might think.

I’m not talking about men against women, or young against old, I’m talking about setting care-free happy extroverts against those of us who are plagued with constant, impending thoughts of death – those with thanataphobia.

The director, in her pouring with irony but not really style, eloquently gets the most out of sending up some obvious tropes, but it is the way that she brings the darkness to it that really caught my eye. When the film’s turning point sees Barbie bothered by intrusive thoughts and doubts, I realised that, surrounded by pink-clad kids as I was, this film wasn’t for them, it was for me.

But was the film dark enough? No one dies in the film, and aside from Barbie’s flat feet, no one is injured. No one gets eaten by a tentacled monster, and no one summons the dread lord Cthulhu from his watery grave, yet someone does manage to open a portal between worlds, through which oozes darkness and destruction.

Both Barbie and Ken are the same, chirpy, approachable, personalities in the human world that they are in their own. A far cry from the dark doll sub-genre, like Chucky or Annabelle. Yet, this is only a pink camouflage. The filmmaker allows our thanataphobic Barbie to explore the darker side of humanity, dragging it from the shadows and out into broad daylight. Impressively done.

So if you prefer the nighttime to the day, darkness to light, Harrison to McCartney, then you might give this a try. It’s proof that pink is the new black.

Death in broad daylight. Three other works that beautifully expose thanaphobia.

Peter Pan by J M Barrie

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Peter doesn’t want to grow up, and with the wonderful world he conjures with his powerful dark magic, who can blame him?

Never Let me Go / Klara and the Sun by Kazou Ishiguro
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Both powerfully evocative of childhood death anxiety, but rich in humanity, there’s nothing between these masterpieces.

Recursion by David J Harrison

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Haruki’s desire to defeat death, motivates his attempt to re-set the timeline, with cosmic repercussions.

^{The author needs to get back in his box}

Dolls photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels.com