How the Babadook Became a Gay Icon

June is the month of Pride and the LGBTQ community has a new queer icon to celebrate: The Babadook.

You may know this Dada-esque mouthful as the title character of the 2014 horror film by Australian director Jennifer Kent. In the movie, the Babadook is a monster that haunts the house of a widow and her 6-year-old son. The father died in a car accident while the mother was in labor, and his death hangs over the family. The son acts out in school, and the mom is beleaguered. At some point, he asks his mom to read this new pop-up book called Mister Babadook that mysteriously appears out of nowhere. That brings in the monster.

Now, a boring heterosexual’s interpretation of The Babadook is that the monster is a devastating manifestation of grief: Even as we learn to survive traumatic loss, it lives on as a part of us. How literal! Meanwhile, gay Twitter and Tumblr advanced a much more elegant theory of the Babadook, which is that he’s a gay man. It all started back in October with this discussion on Tumblr. A true critical tête-à-tête... Read more via Vulture