It’s appreciation of a horror movie that turned into whisper of a joke that is now a well-established meme. (Several times throughout the day, my spirit yearns to Photoshop the Babadook, jaunty top hat and all, with its finger claws wrapped around a brick, into old pictures of the Stonewall Riots.) But it’s also a fascinating reminder how everything you think is strange and funny on the internet is probably the invention of a bored teenager - and could be co-opted and destroyed at any moment.īut while the Babadook might be a queer hero for the ages, and its ascension as an LGBTQ icon has been almost a year in the making, the fleeting nature of internet-born and bred phenomena suggests that we should appreciate its queer legacy while we still can. In writer-director Jennifer Kent’s movie, the Babadook manifests itself in a baba-book called Mister Babadook. It’s unclear how the book got there, but Amelia, a widow and the movie’s protagonist, reads it to her son Sam anyway. As she reads the book, she realizes that it’s actually terrifying, but it’s too late - she’s conjured up the menacing supernatural figure known as Babadook.
(Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t seen The Babadook.
