Satan-baby film
Satan-baby films are films which are premised on late 20th century Christian mythology and eschatology: the idea that evil incarnates in a demonic being, who seeks to bring about the end of the world by fathering a child on a human woman. See also alien impregnation.
They involve numerous gender-specific tropes, many of which are explicitly or implicitly sexist, including:
- womankind bringing about the fall of humankind
- women as a vessel for evil
- women as passive, acted upon
- women's agency as directed through their fertility and reproductiveness, particularly through giving birth to male heirs
- abortion as a "sin" is often an implicit view
- women as deluded by their hormones
- women as pawns who need to be protected, rescued, manipulated, have decisions made for them
Note that some films in the genre occasionally tweak some of these tropes, suggesting or partially instantiating a feminist perspective.
Films (and occasional other works) in this genre include:
- "Rosemary's Baby" (and the novel by Ira Levin)
- "End of Days"
- "Terms of Endearment" (X-Files episode with a twist)