The horror genre kicked 2024 off with an anomaly: two films, made by two completely different studios, with similar premises, released mere weeks from each other. Immaculate and The First Omen ushered in horror with a bang of demonic babies, corrupt nunneries, and fears of unwanted parenthood. Then, after much anticipation, Longlegs was released. Beyond its absolutely fantastic marketing campaign was a story of demonic children, false nuns, and fears of parenting.
The double-hitter of Immaculate and The First Omen inspired talks of a nunsploitation revival or an uptick in Catholicism in horror–especially after the previous year’s The Pope’s Exorcist. But, the timing is less than coincidental. These three films–with their confluence of corrupted religious iconography, the Devil as a demonic sperm donor, and the horrors inherent in pregnancy, parenthood, and the patriarchy–all began development in a tumultuous time for reproductive rights and gender politics.
What is with Devil Baby Horror?
What I deem “Devil Baby Horror” is a small subset within the supernatural subgenre of horror, adjacent to the “Creepy Kids” subgenre. It’s the rare kind of supernatural horror where the dread is personal rather than a sweeping fear of ghosts and ghouls. To a degree, a lot of horror comes from personal dread, especially regarding bodily autonomy and personhood. But there’s a simultaneous push and pull between the lack of control inherent in the implication of an all-powerful entity and the extremely intimate violation of an unwanted but, for whatever reason, interminable pregnancy.
Unlike regular demonic possession, which tends to highlight “corruption” in society, horror revolving around the spawn of the Devil centers more on the horror of the patriarchy, the nuclear family, and pregnancy/childbirth. The most popular iterations of this premise — like Rosemary’s Baby, Possession, and The Omen — were released during the rise, fall, and midpoint of second-wave feminism; it’s no coincidence that all three films receive some level of homage in modern Devil Baby offerings. The cultural context, particularly surrounding the push for reproductive rights, made the fears of a demonic pregnancy more prescient.
2024 in Devil Babies
So, the most well-known offerings in Devil Baby Horror emerged during the initial fight for reproductive rights. It’s no wonder that the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 spurned a second wave of Devil Baby Horror. Immaculate, The First Omen, and Longlegs each tackle the idea of Satanic spawn but with some subtle nuances.
Immaculate is much more in the vein of traditional “Devil Baby” films; director Michael Mohan explicitly cited both Possession and Rosemary’s Baby as inspirations. Naturally, the film has a lot to do with the fears surrounding pregnancy and childbirth; the film doesn’t shy away from showing the sheer level of bodily deterioration Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) experiences–all with real pregnancy symptoms too. Obviously, given the location and subject matter, the film also indicts the Catholic Church and its brand of restrictive, dogmatic patriarchy.
However, the somewhat ironic twist of the film makes Immaculate a fairly unique entry into the “Devil Baby” pantheon. Instead of the assumed immaculate conception via Satan, Cecilia’s pregnancy is the result of a non-consensual IUI done by Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte). This twist shifts the focus of the film away from just the fear of unwanted pregnancy and a loss of bodily autonomy to an indictment of dehumanizing those who can get pregnant. While the final scene of the film implies that the child is of the Devil, the actual bodily violation of unwanted pregnancy is done by another human. The Devil is just an excuse for the misogynistic attitudes of the clergy.
On the surface, The First Omen shares a lot with Immaculate. The fear of pregnancy and childbirth, the Devil as a deadbeat father (for real this time), and the meddling of the Catholic Church in the bodily autonomy of women. Director and co-writer Arkasha Stevenson also cites similar cinematic inspirations for the film–notably Possession, which also receives an homage in the final act of the film.
In contrast to Immaculate, the motivation for the convent invoking the birth of the Antichrist is somewhat unique. The film is set during the Years of Lead, a period of intense political upheaval between leftist youth movements and the dregs of fascists. Cardinal Lawrence (Bill Nighy) believes that the only way to end the troubles is to inspire faith in the Church again, thus the scheme to bring back the Antichrist. Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) and her half-sister Carlita (Nicole Sorace), both marked as children of the Devil by the classic 666 birthmark, are then coerced and–in Carlita’s case–abused by the Church to benefit the Church and the patriarchy. Apart from the Devil spawn, which is largely relegated to the last act of the film, Margaret is tossed around, gaslit, and reduced to just a womb to benefit only the Church. The sisters face subjugation to fit the whims of the outdated mode of patriarchy, looking to return to the ways of the old.
Longlegs is the outlier in this Devil Baby triple feature–mostly because there are no actual babies to speak of. However, thematically, it’s a Devil Baby movie. While Satan may not be conventionally creating spawn, the Devil is still a corrupting force in the home and the body, screwing with the dynamics and autonomy of multiple families.
In multiple interviews, writer/director Osgood Perkins remarks that the film is very personal, particularly with its use of Satan and religious imagery. He mentions that the film is a way of working through growing up, intentionally kept in the dark about his father’s sexuality by his mother’s homophobic shame. Much in the same way, Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is kept in the dark by her mother about the circumstances of her continued existence, after a fateful meeting with the enigmatic freak that is Longlegs (Nicolas Cage). Ruth (Alicia Witt) willingly disguised herself as a woman of the cloth and left several girls, including her own daughter, under the influence of Satan. She also sacrificed both Lee’s and her bodily autonomy. The fear of losing her child to the outside world led Ruth to corrupt her daughter, subjecting her to the Devil’s influence.
The trio of Devil Baby films released this year coincides with a new low in reproductive rights. Each film touches on a facet of how the patriarchy, either embodied by the Devil or by using the Devil as a cover, views and violates the bodies of those deemed “subordinate” in the patriarchal order. The hat trick of Immaculate, The First Omen, and Longlegs releasing so close to each other is just the horror genre doing what it does best: magnifying and reflecting societal anxieties to audiences.
Editorial Courtesy of Red Broadwell
Feature Image from ‘The First Omen,’ Credit to 20th Centruy Studios via Variety