The Shape of Water was the most heralded, award-winning film of 2017, winning a slew of accolades including 13 Oscar nominations and 4 Oscar awards – among them Best Director and Best Film. The movie – which centers on a romance between a reptilian-human hybrid creature and a woman, has been a runway hit despite its bizarre premise and graphic depiction of interspecies intimacy. Based on the explanation of the film from writer and director Guillermo Del Toro whose prior films have invoked numerous references to Satan and the occult, the movie makes many subtle Biblical allusions. Most notably, the account of Genesis 6 when fallen angels took human women as wives and gave birth to the Nephilim.

A “Fairytale Romance”

Here is the trailer for the film:



VIDEO LINK

And here is the synopsis:

“Elisa is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank. As Elisa develops a unique bond with her new friend, she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.”

The movie is a long, drawn out love story between Elisa and “the Asset” – a reptilian-human hybrid. As she spends every day around the creature Elisa develops a friendship that quickly turns to romance. In describing the Asset, Del Toro was very clear that the creature was in fact a god:

“He’s not an animal, he’s an elemental river god,” says del Toro. “It’s a movie where a woman falls in love with an elemental god of the water. The creature is not a slimy monster from a B-movie. He’s the shape of water. He’s a representation of a river, of the water as a force. And he’s gorgeous. He’s – we jokingly used to say, we’re going to create the Michelangelo’s David of amphibian men.” (source).

The movie also goes out of its way to emphasize the notion that the Asset is a deity. “The natives in the Amazon worshiped it as a god,” says project leader Colonel Richard Strickland in the film.

In Brazilian mythology there are many gods but Boiuna, is known as the “personification of the Amazonian rivers.” It is a serpent creature that can change its shape and form to frighten unsuspecting travelers and destroy them. In the Bible the Devil is known as: “… the great dragon…that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Revelation 12:9).

In the movie the Asset has superhuman abilities. It can understand and communicate in sign language. It restores the hair of a balding character and later its own blood is shown to heal that man of a wound. When the villainous Strickland shoots the Asset multiple times, it falls to the ground only to stand up again – fully healed. At this point Strickland responds “…you are a god” before the reptilian hybrid kills him.

But rather than being a monster, the Asset is a sympathetic figure who deeply loves Elisa. She remarks on how it knows her on a level that surpasses any human being. She no longer feels ashamed of her scars or muteness around him. They have touching, heart-felt moments together as she attempts to introduce the hybrid creature to human culture. And the movie shows graphic depictions of their intimacy. Leaving no doubt that Elisa and the god-like amphibian creature have a sexual relationship.

Knowing how depraved humanity can become absent the Holy Spirit, God in the Old Testament made strict prohibitions against bestiality – or animal-human intimacy:

“Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.” – Deuteronomy 27:21. “Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.” – Exodus 22:19. “Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.” – Leviticus 18:23. [B&E: special thanks to our reader Holly for these references]

In an age where so many people have moved away sound Biblical doctrine and faith in God’s Word, Hollywood can not only graphically show human-beast relations, but celebrate it. And thus the moral boundaries of society get pushed even further towards unhinged “anything goes” rebellion.

All this also bears striking resemblance to the account of Genesis 6 when rebellious angels entered the earthly realm and took human women as wives:

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” – Genesis 6:1-5.

As covered in the Beginning And End Nephilim Series, the incursion by the fallen Sons of God led to intimate relations with human women and the birth of the Nephilim – human-angelic hybrid giants who dominated the antediluvian world and brought humanity to the brink of destruction (necessitating the global flood which restarted humanity with Noah and his family).

As shown in our article ‘The Nephilim And Pop Culture’ in recent years there have been numerous books, TV shows and movies which reference the account of Genesis 6 and the Nephilim. But in each instance the message of the Bible is distorted. The illicit relations between humans and angels led to the humanity becoming genetically and spiritually corrupted. The giants were a threat to the redemption of humanity itself as they had the potential to corrupt the gene pool and the birth of the Promised Messiah.

Yet in pop culture, the romance between the gods and humans or hybrid creatures and humans are depicted as beautiful, touching romances where the Nephilim are often heroic and even Messianic figures. All the while, God is portrayed as an angry, irrational despot trying to ruin “true love.”

In The Shape of Water, the Asset in addition to his healing powers, resurrects Elisa from the dead after she is shot by Strickland. He turns the scars on her neck into gills so that she can breathe underwater and they can remain together forever. Thus, he bestows immortality upon her. This is precisely the point made in our article The Nephilim And The Great Secret Of The Occult, where Beginning And End detailed the expectation in the New Age and the occult for the fallen angelic host to return to Earth and endow humanity with all manner of supernatural abilities.

Guillermo Del Toro – A History of Occult Movies

It is important to understand the history of The Shape of Water’s writer and director Guillermo Del Toro. This is not the first movie he has made about a romance between a god-like figure and a human being. His 2006 film Pan’s Labyrinth, centered on a 12-year old girl who falls in love with a goat-human hybrid demonic creature, who turns out to be the pagan god Pan. The labyrinth represents a portal to the underworld, or hell, which Pan informs the girl she will be given access to “meet her real parents.” But to gain access, Pan gives the girl 3 tasks – one which includes offering her own younger brother as a human sacrifice (in the original version of the script Del Toro had the lead character as a pregnant woman who falls in love with Pan and offers her own baby as a sacrifice).

Pan is revered in occult circles as a god of fertility, rampant sexuality and mischief. Albert Pike, an occultist and revered Freemason wrote of Pan:

“Satan is not a black god, but negation of God … this is not a Person, but a Force, created for good, but which may represent evil. It is the instrument of Liberty or Free Will. They represent this Force … under the mythologic and horned form of the God Pan; thence came the he-goat of the Sabbat, brother of the Ancient Serpent, and the Light-bearer. “ – Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 102.

Del Toro also said the movie was influenced by The Great God Pan, a 19th century British horror novel by Arthur Machen. The Great God Pan’s plot centered on a scientist who wanted to experiment on a subject’s brain to allow them to “see the great god Pan” – essentially using brain surgery to open a person’s “third eye” to see into the spirit realm and view the Devil himself. Soon a woman is selected for the experiment and it turns out that in her interactions with Satan she is sexually assaulted, impregnated and gives birth to a hybrid child who later has supernatural abilities. The young girl leads other children into the forest where they return in a state of undress. She also seen playing in the woods with a “naked man.” And as an adult she terrorizes the many men she marries by allowing them to “see Pan” which causes them to commit suicide. And this was Del Toro’s inspiration for Pan’s Labyrinth.

Del Toro also directed Hellboy Parts 1 and 2, which were about a demon summoned from hell to work for the Nazis.

The Bible warns: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

What kind of spirit is guiding movies like Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water? Is it a spirit of God? Do not be deceived.

The Shape of Water Casts Christians As The Villains

The cartoonish, sinister Colonel Strickland is an outspoken Christian in the film. He quotes the Bible regularly, criticizing the Asset by saying that people were “made in God’s image” and the reptilian hybrid clearly was not. He is arrogant, obnoxious and hateful – despite his strong faith. And of course, morally he is a total hypocrite. He beats and electrocutes the Asset mercilessly. Despite being married, he openly lusts for Elisa, stating that the fact that she was mute was attractive to him (because a Christian man – being a total sexist and misogynist, would not want a woman that can speak and have her own voice). He makes racist jabs at Zelda, Elisa’s African American co-worker and friend.

He repeatedly references the account of Samson and Delilah from the book of Judges – viewing himself as Samson – the anointed Judge who God bestowed supernatural strength to. In the Biblical account, Samson was betrayed by Delilah, who told the Philistines of his secret – that his hair could never be cut, or he would lose his strength.

In The Shape of Water, Strickland remarks that Samson was a hero because even after suffering the loss of his hair and strength, he called on God who returned his supernatural might one last time to allow Samson to destroy his enemies (even though it required him losing his own life). In The Shape of Water, Elisa betrays Strickland and is cast as the hero for doing it – turning the Biblical account on its head. In the end, Strickland acknowledges that the Asset is a god – showing that he no longer even had his faith in the God of the Bible in his final moments.

A similar distortion takes place when showing Elisa leaving her apartment building. A movie theater on the first floor of her home is showing the film “The Story Of Ruth.” At one point, the Asset and Elisa are actually in the theater during a screening. In the Book of Ruth, when a famine strikes, the Moabite widow Ruth leaves her pagan homeland out of love for Naomi – her Israelite mother-in-law. It was a daunting trek but Ruth pledged to Naomi that: ” thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” (Ruth 1:16).

Poor and without social status, Ruth ends up meeting and marrying the successful and noble Israelite Boaz. And their family ultimately becomes a part of the lineage of King David and The Lord Jesus Christ. Presumably, The Shape of Water is somehow comparing this wonderful story of faith and love to Elisa’s love affair and fornication with an animal-human hybrid.

In the book of Isaiah, the Bible states:

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” – Isaiah 5:20-23.

Del Toro who describes himself as raised Catholic but now a “raging atheist” creates films that attempt to make sympathetic, heroic figures out of spirits summoned from hell, demonic goat hybrids who prey on children and amphibious hybrid creatures that seek to have illicit relations with human women. All the while Christians and those who actually question such depictions are the villains.

Be Wary of Hollywood’s Message

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” – Romans 12:2.

Time and time again, Hollywood attempts to preach its own message of what is right, moral and praiseworthy. And it rarely ever involves God, The Lord Jesus Christ or the Bible. Movies and media have such a power over the hearts and minds of society it is hard to even grasp how the constant bombardment of pop culture entertainment influences us. Therefore, it is critical to maintain a right relationship with God. The book of 1 John states that: “…the whole world lieth in wickedness.”

We should not look to Hollywood to learn about the meaning of love (especially considering the horrific litany of sexual harassment and assault scandals) or to know who God is. We should look to God’s Word. The true God – the God of The Bible, proved His love by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross and take the punishment for our sins. God’s love for us was not conditioned on our loving Him. It was given even though we did not love Him. God says:

“…Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3).

When Jesus Christ was beaten and mocked on the way to His unjust execution on the cross, He prayed to God the Father to forgive those who were hurting Him. This is what God wants: reconciliation and peace with a people who have run rampant into sinful desires and lusts heaping praises on our works and celebrating our version of love – even if it is between an amphibious demon and a human being. Despite this, God still loves us. Pray that Guillermo Del Toro will spend less time trying to attack God and repent and receive the true love that Hollywood could never fabricate.