Are horror movies prophetic?
I am often asked for movie recommendations from students. Maybe this is because they have seen all of the contemporary ones and want to try something old from, like, the 90s. They are always surprised when I recommend a horror movie or two. Perhaps there is still some sense of scandal in the young who gravitate towards their own taboos carried over from polite, suburban American culture. The better part of me says it is because the horror genre is often considered to glorify evil and seems antithetical to Christianity, of which a theology teacher represents.
After their initial shock I have to explain what motivates these literally horrific recommendations. I have distilled this to three reasons why the horror genre is not just acceptable, but even edifying for Christians. First, like the scandalizing Old Testament and Christian prophet, the horror genre shakes us loose of our conventions. Second, horror is the only genre that is allowed to take the reality of the supernatural seriously. Finally, horror is the only acceptable place for the didactic moral myth.
In an era of reboots and sequels, where the narrative has become so self-referential and cynical, the common lament among purveyors of film is that there is no room for truly original stories to succeed. The risk is too steep and the threshold for financial stability too high. However, every year there seems to be some overwhelmingly successful horror movie that inevitably spurs a franchise that itself often becomes bloated and the victim of its own success. But, there is always that first little movie that could and did on a shoe string budget somehow break through.
How this success must come, because the budgets are so low they cannot compete with the action movies or necessary name recognition of comedies, is through the inventiveness of the story itself or the execution of that story. What made The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Paranormal Activity basically create their own subgenres was their ability to authentically replicate the firsthand experiences of fear. Their subject matter was not unique, but their presentations were groundbreaking. This is the basic outline of the New Evangelization, which is the same Gospel but “new in ardor, methods and expression” (Ecclesia in America, 6).
This is usually reduced to the cliched “twist” that many horror movies include with continual escalations of this trope as time goes on. The epic twist had almost become a parody in-and-of itself as director M. Night Shamaylan’s career progressed. The kernel of truth carried within this storytelling element though is that the prophetic voice must shake its hearers loose in a dramatic way. As the biblical prophets and holy fools like St. Francis of Assisi show us this cannot just be with their words but with their lives.
Another shocking, but easily distorted, element of the genre is the gore that can accompany these movies. This is not a defense of the unfortunate “gore-porn” that one can find in far too many examples. While one can acknowledge the sin of presenting violence for violence’s sake, there has been a purpose in the grotesquerie of many well-made horror stories. How effective would the eucharistic imagery of Dracula be without its visible bloodlust?
Why the shock of gore resonates with us is because of the extreme witness that our blood, our life, inherently holds. This follows with the Church’s ancient veneration of the martyrs. No, it was not simply for their blood’s sake that their witness was valuable, but it was their blood that sacramentalized, incarnated, the gifts of their lives for Christ. The blood of the martyrs shocked even those who spilled that blood. God wants blood to shake us loose. If, according to the biblical adage, the life is in the blood (Lev 17:11), then blood is what moves us. It should move us when we witness it in film as well.
I am not the first to notice that unless the movie is an “exorcism” movie, 99 out of 100 times if there is a priest in the movie he will be depicted as a fraud, a monster or a naive joke. Only in an exorcism movie is there a decent chance of a priest being canny and virtuous. In the classic, The Exorcist (1973), and the more contemporary The Rite (2011), the struggle between faith and doubt is affirmed in intelligent protagonists, the first a priest and the second a seminarian, and Faith of both is confirmed by the end of each respective film.
What is striking about both is that it is largely because of the presence of the Devil in the possessed characters that the protagonists’ Christian faith is restored and both of them have a hand in fighting the good fight in this spiritual battle. While it is obvious that demons and possessions only “work” in the horror genre, there is no need for the stories to lead characters toward a life of faith. It is no surprise that the Catechism of the Catholic Church associates exorcisms with Christ’s “redemption” (517) and that they prepare one to “confess the faith of the Church” (1237). This faith, and its applications, are unacceptable to the wider modern audience under normal circumstances.
The most shocking takeaway from the surprising hit It Follows (2014) were none of the grippingly tense scenes or jump scares but that you essentially had a movie presenting the Christian ethic on sexual intercourse delivered in a powerful, non-preachy way to a primarily young adult audience. Briefly, the “curse” is passed along through sexual intercourse and sex then becomes a means by which characters transfer their own pain and fear, sometimes unwittingly, to other people to presumably save themselves from it.
The only resolution two characters find is when they break the cycle and promise monogamy amongst themselves, passing this “curse” back and forth until it dies with them. While this oversimplification is not the perfect summary of the Christian view of sex, one can see how this unique treatment illustrates the dangers of hook-up cultures and contradicts the fantasy of “safe-sex” that the modern world presents.
In what world would a presentation on reducing one’s “body count” and finding one partner for life captivate an audience of young people? Apparently, the world of It Follows.
Similarly, it is rare for an audience to gladly reflect on the distorted image of our voyeuristic culture of sex and violence. It is rare when we accept that our tastes may be the issue. However, when the horror satire Cabin in the Woods (2011) dramatizes the demands for flesh in both capacities by simultaneously directing the movie at the horror genre as well as our appetite for its unsavory contents, we unironically devour it repeatedly.
My students have not yet convinced me to show one of my recommended horror features in class. I want to keep my job after all. Hopefully the brief conversation with them, like this brief article, provides some reconsiderations of our expectations of how we consume media as Christians. A reorientation of our understanding of Christianity can actually help sanctify that media.
Horror films, when done thoughtfully and well, can shake us loose and reorient us like the prophets and Saints. They take seriously the supernatural, both the good and the bad. Horror also appears to be the acceptable means to deliver Christian morality without the smear of pedantry to an audience suspicious of lessons. May we enjoy a good scare, and an even better reflection, in light of the Spirit that guides and sanctifies us.
