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LGBT Movement Adopts Horror Movie Demon as “Icon”

Photo: Entertainment One/IFC Films

In a series of articles hitting the Internet over the past week, something surreal is being served up as though it is perfectly normal. A repugnant creature that terrifies and possesses its victims in a 2014 Australian horror movie has, for some reason, been adopted as an “LGBT icon”. The headlines are almost breathless with excitement:

Image Source: Twitter

“The Babadook: how the horror movie monster became a gay icon”- The Guardian

“The Secret Gay History of the Babadook”- NYMag.com

“People Are Dressing Up As The Babadook For Pride And It’s Beautiful” – Buzzfeed

And perhaps most explicitly:

“How the Babadook became the LGBTQ icon we didn’t know we needed: How terrorizing a white Australian family became an act of queer defiance.” – Vox

The plot synopsis for the film on Wikipedia is predictably disturbing. A widow whose husband died in an accident as he drove her to give birth to her now six-year old son begins seeing the child’s behavior change as he grows obsessed with an imaginary monster. The synopsis continues:

One night, Sam asks his mother to read a pop-up storybook: Mister Babadook. It describes the titular monster, the Babadook, a tall pale-faced humanoid in a top hat with pointed fingers who torments its victims after they become aware of its existence. Amelia is disturbed by the book and its mysterious appearance, while Sam becomes convinced that the Babadook is real. Sam’s persistence about the Babadook leads Amelia to often have sleepless nights as she tries to comfort him.

Soon after, strange events occur: doors open and close mysteriously by themselves, strange sounds are heard and Amelia finds glass shards in her food. She attributes the events to Sam’s behaviour, but he blames the Babadook. Amelia rips up the book and disposes of it. At Sam’s cousin Ruby’s birthday party, Ruby bullies Sam for not having a father, in response to which he pushes her out of her tree house and breaks her nose in two places. Amelia’s sister Claire admits she cannot bear Sam to which Amelia takes great offence. On the drive home, Sam has another vision of the Babadook and suffers a febrile seizure, after which Amelia makes a successful plea for sedatives to a paediatrician.

The following morning, Amelia finds the Mister Babadook book reassembled on the front door step. New words taunt her by saying that the Babadook will become stronger if she continues to deny its existence, containing pop-ups of her killing her dog Bugsy, Samuel and then herself. Terrified, Amelia burns the book and runs to the police after a disturbing phone call. However, Amelia has no proof of the stalking, and when she then sees the Babadook’s suit hung up behind the front desk, she leaves. Amelia starts to become more isolated and shut-in, being more impatient, shouting at Samuel for ‘disobeying’ her constantly, and having frequent visions of the Babadook once again.

One night, Amelia sees a vision of Oskar, who agrees to return if she gives him Sam. Fleeing, Amelia is stalked by the Babadook through the house until it takes over her and finally possesses her, breaking Bugsy’s neck, and attempting to kill Sam. Eventually luring her into the basement, Sam knocks her out. Amelia awakens, tied up in the basement, with a terrified Sam nearby. When she tries to strangle him, he lovingly caresses her face, causing her to throw up an inky black substance, an action which seemingly expels the Babadook. When Sam reminds Amelia that “you can’t get rid of the Babadook”, an unseen force drags him into Amelia’s bedroom. After saving Sam, Amelia is forced by the Babadook to rewatch a vision of her husband’s death, to her utter despair. She then furiously confronts the Babadook, and is then able to make the beast retreat into the basement, where she locks the door behind it.

After the ordeal, Amelia and Samuel have managed to recover. Amelia is attentive and caring toward him, encouraging him with the weapons he makes and being impressed at Sam’s magic tricks. They gather earthworms in a bowl and Amelia takes them to the basement, where the Babadook resides. She places the bowl on the floor for the Babadook to eat. However, as the beast tries to attack her, Amelia calms it down, and it retreats to the corner taking the earthworms along with it. Amelia returns to the yard to celebrate Sam’s birthday. [emphasis added]

Pleasant, isn’t it? And yet in the sentences I emphasized, you can see the theme beginning to emerge: You can’t deny the existence of gays. If you try to ignore us we’ll only assert ourselves more. You may run from us at first, but eventually you will be taken over by our cause, whether you like it or not. You can’t ever put us back in the closet.

Am I reading too much into it? I don’t think so. Why else would the gay “movement” adopt something so repellent to represent them? The Babadook has been showing up at “Gay Pride” events this year, the ironic juxtaposition of the words and image on signs like this one apparently lost on the crowd:

So how did this happen?

Most likely, the film’s monster was intended to be a visceral representation of the oppressive nature of grief or depression. But like refracted light, LGBT advocates co-opted The Babadook, taking to the Internet to identify it as a gay metaphor (warning: some coarse language at the link):

One of the earliest, most popular queer readings of The Babadook surfaced in October 2016, when Tumblr user Ianstagram posted a thought complaint: “Whenever someone says the Babadook isn’t openly gay it’s like?? Did you even watch the movie???”

[…]

A couple of months later, BuzzFeed’s Ryan Broderick posted a somewhat mocking appraisal of Tumblr’s “Babadiscourse” on Twitter. But Ianstagram defended his reading: “A movie about a gay man who just wants to live his life in a small Australian suburb?” he wrote. “It may be ‘just a movie’ to you, but to the LGBT community, the Babadook is a symbol of our journey.”

The question on every sane person’s mind is: Why

Image Source: Twitter

Why use something horrifying and evil to represent your cause, particularly when you’ve been trying for quite some time to shrug off accusations that your cause is…horrifying and evil?

The Babadook isn’t a nuisance. It isn’t cute. It isn’t even a run-of-the-mill monster. It is an active threat. It terrorizes a widow and her young son. It causes violence. It eventually takes possession of a human being, compelling her to do horrible things.

In other words, it is essentially a demon.

As bizarre as it seems, a social movement that promotes sodomy and other depravity and corrupting our youth with their ideology has now chosen as an icon a creature that appears and acts like a demon visiting torture upon the innocent. The logic behind identifying with such an abhorrent being makes a perverse sort of sense, but it always worries me when the enemy becomes too obvious and overt in making his presence known rather than hiding in the shadows.

Then again, maybe they’re just too far gone to care what anyone else thinks. St. Peter Damian asserts that the sin of sodomy “surpasses the enormity of all others” because:

“Without fail, it brings death to the body and destruction to the soul. It pollutes the flesh, extinguishes the light of the mind, expels the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart, and gives entrance to the devil, the stimulator of lust. It leads to error, totally removes truth from the deluded mind … It opens up hell and closes the gates of paradise … It is this vice that violates temperance, slays modesty, strangles chastity, and slaughters virginity … It defiles all things, sullies all things, pollutes all things …

“This vice excludes a man from the assembled choir of the Church … it separates the soul from God to associate it with demons…. Unmindful of God, he also forgets his own identity. This disease erodes the foundation of faith, saps the vitality of hope, dissolves the bond of love. It makes way with justice, demolishes fortitude, removes temperance, and blunts the edge of prudence.

If you’ve listened to my podcasts (here and here) with Joseph Sciambra, you have some idea of the darkness into which those in the LGBT “community” inevitably sink. It takes them to places — physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally — that must make horror movies pale in comparison. Perhaps to them, The Babadook is a relatively harmless figure, no more frightening than their own reflection.

Joseph’s testimony about the importance of his father praying the rosary for him to come out of the darkness is a powerful and moving story of another kind. It reminds us that we, too, should be praying and asking Our Lady to obtain the grace to free these poor, wounded souls from the clutches of the enemy and the ravages of one of the sins that “cries out to heaven for vengeance”.

There is no end in sight to the war against purity, and it will continue to get worse before it gets better. May God have mercy on our souls.

53 thoughts on “LGBT Movement Adopts Horror Movie Demon as “Icon””

  1. The mask is starting to slip perhaps?

    Interesting, considering your mention of Mr. Sciambra praying for his wayward son, that demon targets a family that is vulnerable because the father is gone

    Reply
    • As do child molesters. As did the Babadook in the movie. But of course (polite cough) there’s no parallel. I have to wonder at their choosing this, since that part seemed more obvious once I knew the demonic figure had been appropriated by the homosexual community.

      Reply
  2. I have begun to listen to talks by Father Chad Ripperger on Generational Spirits and Spiritual Warfare. I had never heard of this priest up until a couple of weeks ago. I have never heard any of this material before. So much makes sense that never made sense to me before. The battle is against powers and principalities — spiritual dominions in high places. If we were to look through those lenses, I think we would see what is unfolding in our world today in a very different light.

    Reply
  3. I can’t comment as to why homosexuals identify so much with this without asking them,
    But the movie is most definitely meant as a metaphor for the destructive nature of grief not dealt with. The demon is just a trope. This is realized clearly at the end of the film.

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  4. The diabolic agenda is now so far advanced that the Infernal Powers don’t even bother hide themselves any more. One glaring example would be the vile assembly of pro-abortion rabble outside the Texas Legislature a couple of years ago, with demonstrators openly declaring; “hail satan”. There have been numerous instances of this in recent times. Perhaps the attraction for the LGBTABCKLMXYZ123 brigade is the voodoo-like appearance of “Mr. Babadook”. How long before the they resort to “Mr. Babadook” voodoo dolls with which to curse anyone who doesn’t totally acquiesce to their demands? One need only to have the unhappy experiencing hearing or otherwise reading the vilest expressions of demonic hatred spewing forth the the mouths of such as Dan Savage. And, he is by no means unique.

    Among her many mystical experiences, St. Bridget of Sweden was transported to heaven, purgatory and hell. In this latter place, she observed that off all the demonic spirits, the most terrifyingly repulsive of all were those who tempt humans to lust after others of their own sex. And in his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri placed sodomites in the lowest rung of hell, along with murderers, because they murder divinely-ordained human nature that is created to be the very image and likeness of God.

    Reply
    • That’s actually untrue about Dante. Dante placed the sodomites in the seventh circle of the violent along with murderers, the suicides, and usurers (people who earn through manipulating currency). There are 9 circles total the 8th circle is fraud and the 9th circle is treachery. Sodomy is pretty far down though so your point isn’t lost. However in the Purgatorio repentant homosexuals are put on the same level as repentant heterosexuals on the last cornice of the mountain before entering paradise which is interesting.

      Reply
      • Thanks for pointing out my error with such clarity, Jonathan; it is probably forty years ago at least since I read it, and the cogs of my memory are worn out and rusted. I can still remember my name, but not a great deal else!

        Reply
      • Doesn’t Dante meet his old teacher there in the Inferno and he’s aghast and sad to see his old mentor in such a state. (but like Stewart it is several years since I’ve read the Inferno)

        Reply
  5. The link between sodomy, lesbianism and the Satanic powers is well described in this excellent article.

    In “The Rite of Sodomy” the author Randy Engel shows how sodomy is seen by homosexuals as the “Homosexual Sacrament”. It’s horrifying.

    In the current mad world in which we live, more and more the devil shows himself.

    Randy Engel wrote an impassioned letter to Bergoglio about clerical homosexuality early in his Pontificate, and received no reply.

    Reply
    • Of course, comrade. Sodomy, like abortion, is a demonic, ‘sacramental’ ritual. Abortion is a satanic eucharist; one in which the most innocent of human life is offered in blood sacrifice to the Evil One. It is my belief that in the beginning, in its uncorrupted form as ordained by God, the procreative union of husband and wife was a sacramental union. When Eve conceived, she conceived in ecstasy, since she felt in her very soul the fecund love of God being transmitted into her through her husband, Adam, thus generating life. Sodomy is a grotesque satanic mockery of this procreative gift; one which places the seed of life into a place of corruption and death. It is unspeakably vile.

      Reply
        • He meant the Pope did not reply to Engel. As an aside, why do you call Stalin great, and why name yourself after him on here?

          Reply
          • It seems odd that a Catholic (I presume, since this is a Catholic blog) would admire Stalin, a man who did an incredible amount of evil. The Church hasn’t been a great fan of Communism either.

          • David, I have explained endless times here but people still ask. Look back at my posting history if you are so interested, eventually you will find the answers to your questions.

          • Can you get in touch please? I want an answer to my question about your choice of name. If you don’t I will have to report you.

          • You’ve been asked to explain why you use the name of a mass murderer for your discus ID. It’s a pretty twisted thing to do if you ask me.

          • the only Challenge for you is the one that you are ignoring which is to explain why you chose a mass murderer as your identity on this comment section

          • You’re acting like a troll with a name designed to cause scandal and controversy on a Catholic site. Not very Catholic of you. You know that your use of the name will draw attention to you and you tease others with your behaviour when confronted about it. You can’t answer a straight question when asked and direct me to search through thousands of comments to find some answer. I read through lots and found nothing about your name. Yet you play the good traditional Catholic card on here. It doesn’t convince me of your authentic Catholic credentials.

          • David,

            No one is required to explain their user name to you. Nor are you the authority to determine whether a poster on here is Catholic. Please keep it civil. I deleted one of your posts because in it you use an unacceptable derogatory term.

            Fr. RP

          • Fair enough. Apologies Fr. RP for any offense caused to the readers. I just get infuriated by this sort of trollish behaviour, which incidentally, is the objective of the troll.

  6. Anyone notice that while the rainbow has seven colors, the gay rainbow flag only has six? Think about the theological symbolism there.

    Reply
  7. Satan knows his time is running out and he is pulling out all the stops to capture as many as possible before the Lord cries “Enough!” Every possible avenue is being taken in his effort. Scripture tells us that the demons will be released for a time before the Judgment. If you only have a little while, why bother to hide or remain in the shadows – you can’t work as effectively when you’re limited to entrapnent by subtlety. Therefore, send your minions out in the ooen to Proclaim the Lie. Open Satanic worship on the grounds of the Oklahoma state capital, Satan clubs in schools (but Christian clubs are not allowed), disdaining the divine with members of our own Church claiming the devil is only a symbol, members if religious orders claiming heaven doesn’t exist, bishops claiming almost everyone goes to heaven, catechists teaching the Eucharist.is only a symbol and a “suprene pontiff” who is seems far more interested in secular hunanism than in the things of heaven and the Church’s divinely ordained mission to SAVE SOULS. With the weakening of the Church, Satan appears to have the field all to himself (or so he deludes himself, but we know better) and has begun a blitz krieg against the holdouts like us.

    Reply
      • I do believe so and the world, not just the Church and its faithful members, will face very rough times to say the least. What we see now reminds me of a rising tide. Little by little the land gets swallowed by the water until only the highest ground is not submerged. It is sort og analygous to Kevin Costner’s “Water World’. But then will come the storm surge as the. Forces of darkness rage against the elect, trying to wipe all vestiges of light, of faith from the earth. It is then that those days will be shortened lest even the elect turn to evil. Be of good courage, keep the faith, stand firm centered and focussed on God and His Love.

        Reply
  8. SPOILER:

    It’s ironic that Babadook, at the end of the movie, is “put back in the closet” – to be controlled by the mother. Once that was done the mother and child were able to regain their lives back.

    Reply
    • What I find here is among Catholic parents who have a child who outs himself/herself, they suddenly go all supportive and ignore or in some cases leave behind Church teaching. And all their friends do the same in support of this family. 20 years ago this would not have happened!!! Diabolical. It takes some moral courage to stand for the truths of the faith so good on you, Gold Rush. I have been in this situation, and “it ain’t easy!”

      Reply
      • It’s because the parents are intellectually and spiritually lazy. I understand why they do it, but to actually think “Hey, my child is not straight … It’s fine. I can’t wait to meet their significant other of the same sex. The wedding is going to be awesome!” w/o much thought is plain pathetic.

        >It takes some moral courage to stand for the truths of the faith so good on you, Gold Rush. I have been in this situation, and “it ain’t easy!”

        You got that right. It’s one lonely road.

        Also, I can find more hardcore LGBTers (see: my post above about Tim Peacock) than actual racists, sexists and bigots. I’ve come across more Tim Peacocks than KKK members.

        Reply
  9. “The monster, who wears a hat, has a blank stare and his mouth wide open, is seen by many as a symbol of horror and grief from the fathers’ death. But many social media users see through that description of him. Instead, there’s a theory on Twitter and Tumblr that sees The Babadook as a gay man.”

    The quote above, from a Heavy.com article, offers a possible clue to this strange phenomenon. It says Babadook represents anxiety over the loss of the father. Psychologists that still retain logic and common sense identify a father wound as being a key element in the development of same-sex attractions in men and women. Perhaps without even being aware of it the gay community picked up on this and identified strongly with this demon, which closely resembles theirs.

    Reply
  10. So I was on another site and found a comment by a man named Tim Peacock. It was on an article about a Christian football coach being fired for saying a silent prayer on the 50-yard line. His FB avatar was a modified LGBT flag with additional colors being black and brown (guess what they stand for). His post was very, er, “LGBT-esque” when dealing with civil rights — clearly he was fine with the football coach being fired. I clicked on his FB and low and behold I found the Babadook LGBT as his background pic. Take a peak if you dare.

    FB: https://www.facebook.com/TimPeacock

    BOO!

    Reply
  11. This just in: The “Enigma Machine” used in WWII to transmit coded messages by the Germans sent this, L-G-B-T-Q to it’s adherents…..translation S-A-T-A-N.

    Reply
  12. This is great news if you think about it. It is crucial to ID a demon’s name if when youre going to cast him out.

    Reply

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