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In the new horror film, “Heretic,” Hugh Grant plays a satanic religious skeptic who traps two frightened missionaries in his home and tries to violently shake their faith.
What begins as a theological studies lecture slowly turns into a bloody escape room for two door-knocking members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who underline That religion can be so suitable for seeking terrifying and entertaining thrills. movie goers
“I think it’s a fascinating religion-related horror because it raises questions about the institution of religion, the patriarchy of religion,” said Stacey Abbott, a film professor at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, whose research interests include horror. , vampires and zombies.
“But it also questions the nature of belief and confronts audiences with debates about choice, belief and free will.”
Horror has had a decades-long fascination with Christianity, particularly in America, with the 1970s films “The Exorcist” and “The Omen” being prime examples. Beyond the jump scares, Abbott said, the supernatural element of horror and its sublime nature connects easily with faith and spirituality – and the exploration of religion’s larger existential questions. Terror is destructive. Real-life taboo topics and cultural concerns are fair game.
“It’s a rich canvas for social criticism and it can also be a place to reassert traditional values,” Abbott said in an email.
Religion and terrorism deal with similar questions of what it means to be human — how people relate to each other and the world, said Brandon Graphious, professor of biblical studies at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit and an expert on Christianity and terrorism. .
“A lot of religion is about how we grapple with the reality of death. …Helping us make meaning even in the face of that reality,” Graffius said. “Horror actually implements that same process, as a way to contemplate death.”
Christianity is not only good for American audiences, he said, but it also provides a lot of raw material for filmmakers to work with.
Graphius said, “Christianity emerged as a strongly dualistic religion, where the forces are either good or bad.” “Even though America is moving away from a country dominated by Christianity, we still have that dualism in our bones.”
Recent religion-based horror films, including “The Nun” films and “The Conjuring” franchise, have featured paranormal investigators fighting demons, Abbott said, while “The First Omen” and “Immaculate” have been about controlling women. Offers a critique of patriarchal efforts. Dead body.
“These films seem to be a direct response to many of the debates taking place in America these days,” Abbott wrote in an email. Live debate around religion or more specifically how religion is being used to establish control.
Grant, who plays Mr. Reed in the new film, told the Associated Press that he shared some of his “heretical” character’s skepticism, though not necessarily from a religious perspective:
“There’s a part of me – maybe not a very attractive part of me – that likes to break people’s statues. I think I don’t like to see anyone who is too self-righteous or too pretentious. I just like to keep them a little different.
Horror can be daunting. It acts as a dark mirror that can reveal things people don’t want to admit and fears they don’t want to face, said the Rev. Ryan Dunn, a Jesuit priest and theology chair at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Said.
He said, if done well, both religion and terrorism are troublesome.
“Religion, when it is unstable, asks us whether I am living the person I am called to be or whether I am complicit in systems of violence, oppression, injustice, going along with the status quo,” ” Dunn, who wrote “theology,” said. of horror” and also teaches a course on it. “In the horror film, the monster threatens normality—threatens to destroy our status quo.”
But they go astray from there. Out of fear, there’s no way, Dunn said. He explained that defeating a movie’s monster doesn’t prevent sequels, hence “Jaws 2,” “Terrifier 3,” “Return of the Killer Tomatoes” and more.
In Christianity, he said, Jesus and the gospel threaten the status quo, but they offer hope and a way out.
TI West mixes religion into the story of his new movie, “MaXXXine,” a horror film about an adult film star trying to break into mainstream movies. West, who also wrote and directed “The Sacrament,” a horror film inspired by the Jonestown massacre in 1978, said he’s not ready to actively tell stories with major religion narratives, but might be ready to mine religion. Is.
“It kind of depends on the story,” West said, “anything that involves morality, they go hand in hand a lot of times. And it seems like religion is such a big part of the culture everywhere. That… I feel like sometimes it’s such a big part of life that gets sidelined in movies.
Lisa Morton, an award-winning horror author who has written books on Halloween and paranormal history, said that in addition to poor storytelling, mixing horror and religion can go wrong if the film’s purpose is to offend believers of a particular religion.
But this may actually be true. Morton’s all-time favorite film is “The Exorcist”, a hallowed horror icon and an extreme example of the genre. “The Omen” followed it.
“All contemporary genealogy traces back through both of them,” Morton said. “It’s interesting how they keep getting rebooted over and over again.”
Abbott agrees that religion should be portrayed respectfully, just as she expects accuracy and respect for science in films, although not every detail needs to be perfect. “But some horror movies, like exorcism movies, are built on the fact that they depict real rituals and then take them to a more extreme conclusion,” he said.
Osgood Perkins, who wrote and directed “Longlegs,” a horror film about a occult serial killer, invented religious content in his film that felt right from his imagination and real life.
“I’m just making it up,” Perkins said. “But then you grab something like a Bible verse and you say, ‘Wow, that’s really rich.’ The animals coming out of the sea with heads and horns and crowns and things like that, I didn’t make it.
For Dunn, accurate depiction of religious rituals and symbols – without going overboard – can add charm to a scene.
“The rituals of the churches have been stylized and animated over the centuries,” Dunn said. “When films are silly or sloppy, the power of gesture and the power of symbols are lost.”
Reporter Christa Fauria contributed to this report.
Associated Press religion coverage is supported by an association with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. Solely responsible for this content.
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