Discussing
Fear Not! A Christian Appreciation of Horror Movies

An excerpt from TC editor Josh Larsen’s book on the theological resonance to be found in the horror genre.

Horror films face an evil with other evil things. Like, someone wants to overcome a demon and uses mysticism, mediums, clarvoyance, spiritism rituals, communicating with the spirits and many other things to do it. Many people even claim that the characters who do these things are "Christian", but how can they be if they are using things that go directly against Christianity and not Christianity itself to overcome the evil? The fact that there is a side of dark things that is portrayed as the enemy, doesn't mean that the side portrayed as the hero is doing right things either. That's Hollywood. It will make you think that you overcome evil by using magic against magic, superstition against superstition, not real faith against all of this... not God against all of this... it's always somehow to glorify the characters themselves and the elements they use to win, not the God and the faith themselves who won. The result is exactly the opposite of what people can say... people go out thinking about the side who "won" as the good, when it is also evil desguised as good. It's not Christianity winning, it's a false Christianity that goes directly against real Christianity winning... and the audience goes out misguided, and honestly, it's better that Hollywood doesn't portray Christianity AT ALL, than portraying it all backwards. It has a much worse effects, for evil desguised as good leads much more people to wrong than evil that is obviously evil. Of course no one will think the enemy side of any genre of films is the good one... the problem is that the modern world inverts things as to destroy and corrupt the good, desguising an even worse evil as the correct side in people's minds. Guys, come on! That's exactly how the devil works! Do you think he appears as an obviously bad thing? He appears desguised as the good guy. He makes down right evil things seem good and cool in people's eyes. He makes them think they are overcoming an evil, using the actual evil for it. Also, the misconceptions horror movies cause about how the spiritual world works and looks like in real life very much work on the devil's benefit, and the way they show God on these movies always make it seem like He is weaker than the devil... like if sometimes God struggles against the demons, and even when they claim to show the "good overcoming evil" thing, somehow the demons always come back, making it seem like God is unnefective and "not enough". It's all for the horror and the drama, of course, and that's horror movies.


- That's not the thing about horror movies... of course no one will morally accept the "evil side" of the movie as doing right things, that's obvious. In any genre of films or books, what is showed as the "obvious evil" will obviously look evil for everyone. People won't accept it in REAL LIFE, but the thing that is clear about it is that most people who enjoy horror stuff, the fans and obssessed with the genre, like to watch the scary, the diabolical, the violence... they are interested or entertained by it, or at least unnafected by it, which is also weird, otherwise they wouldn't be watching it. Liking to feel scared just to then feel protected in real life doesn't make much sense. The people behind these movies KNOW their audiences are looking for those exact things, so they make the movie with these purposes, to entertain the audience with this stuff, which are, to be fair, the idea of the horror genre in the first place. If you want to see good overcoming evil, you can watch anything superhero or fantasy that have this finale but were not produced to enhance and highlight the violence like if it was what makes the movie good. Also, the main problem reagarding Christianity is that these movies literally make use of religion as a factor of enhancing the fear and the desperation of the characters and the plot, while completely destroying it but claiming to see it as "an inspiration, a positive thing". C'mon, the "Christians" on horror movies go around trusting objects and amulets to protect them, instead of showing faith in God... they are always the heroes, not God... they use mysticism, rituals, superstition, mediums, clarvoyance and all sorts of stuff that go DIRECTLY AGAINST Christianity, that are clearly condemned in the bible, while claiming to be "people of God" and stuff... God and religion is always showed like if it was just a tool, a mean to get rid of bad stuff... people are desperate, so out of nothing they show up with a crucifix when they have never once had anything to do with God in their lives or built a relantionship with Him, or learned anything about Him before, but suddenly they have enough faith to overcome monsters and demons. And after the scary events, where is God? Where is the religion, the faith, the commitment, the relantionship with God in your life? Oh yeah, they were just useful when you needed protection, and you can ignore God your whole life without problem because when you face the next monster or demon (which should actually be a sign that you are the most away from God possible) He is just gonna rescue you anyways. But wait, if they are showing that good and love overcome evil, why did the bad things come back? Oh yeah, they are not focusing on good overcoming evil, they are using religion to enhance the scary and then just make it seem like the devil is stronger than God, that God struggles against demons, that the evil comes back and the "Christians" have to appeal to psychism, superstition and witchcraft because God is just "not enough". If He was, there would be no movie. And the creatures they show on the films either don't exist or don't work like that at all in the real spiritual world, leading people to dangerous misconceptions that obviously benefit the devil himself. People get out thinking that God and Christianity are on board with things that are exactly totally against it, and then you question if that's an uncommon thing in Hollywood. Christians would prefer to not see Christianity addressed on anything Hollywood, rather than have it be completely corrupted and God used for convenience... literally guys, do you think the devil comes with a devil face to people? Of course people won't agree with evil that is obviously evil! The devil comes desguised as good, and that's exactly what Hollywood does. That's how you truly misguide people, not showing something that is obvious they won't agree, but making them think they are overcoming something bad while putting them to use evil itself for it. Seriously, it's just so heartbreaking to see how Christianity is showed in these movies... how they mix everything up, Christianity with magic, with psychism, with witchcraft... it's so obvious that it is an even worse way of destroying real faith and misguiding people... it's literally the most effective way to get even Christians to do things against Christianity, thinking that they are nice and cool by the way they were showed on a "good light" and how they represent a "God that protects" when the "God" is actually ego, mysticism, rituals, faith on objects, consulting spirits, and not God Himself acting, not one single second of faith ON HIM.









-- Everyone knows the bible addresses the spiritual world and demons and stuff as something that exists... that's not the question. But horror movies not only do focus on enhancing the violence as if it made the movie good because that's what the audience is looking for, but they also cause misconceptions about how the spiritual world really works on a way that can benefit the devil by the wrong ideas people will get, but they also show religion as just a convenience and Christians not being Christians at all! They use mysticism, superstition, mediums, clarvoyance, rituals, faith on objects and on amulets to "overcome the evil" as if those were the "good things" and claim it to be "showing religion and Christianity on a positive side". That's literally corrupting and destroying Christianity! Those things go directly against God and are condemned in the bible, so Hollywood does exactly what the devil himself does and desguises evil as good, not only showing things that are just as evil as the obvious evil in the movie as if they were good, but also leading people to believe that's part of Christianity. It literally help the devil's work, making people think Christianity works with magic, witchcraft, superstition, mysticism, and rituals of repeated words and special objects. It LITERALLY make devil's work. And exactly something the bible warned about. Christians themselves being fooled.







They don't make people more aware, they do quite the opposite. There are always A LOT of misconceptions about the spiritual world and demons and stuff, and those will work on the devil's benefit when it comes to how things happen in real life. And they only use religion for convenience, it enhances the desperation and the dcary factor of the villains. They never mean to show God Himself protecting people or people's faith on God being represented, it's always stuff like faith on objects, amulets, mysticism, psychism, mediums, clarvoyance and stuff that goes DIRECTLY AGAINST God and the bible, they are just as evil as the thing portrayed as the obvious evil side, and they try to make it be like Christianity, they distort Christianity at the very core... they make those things be the "good side" when mixing it up with Christianity is exactly what the devil would do... desguise bad things as good and make it seem like it is against an other clear evil. Of course no one will think it is meant to glorify the obvious evil monsters and stuff, that's not the problem... the problem is that while the obvious evil everyone can see, the evil that works the devil's way is always hidden, meant to fool people and even Christians themselves. It doesn't ever aim to portray God as the hero, it's always using these bad stuff that go against God, making the humans seem like the heroes and end up making God seem weak actually. They always struggle too long against the evil, even when "God" is called (which is only for convenience, they are never "Christians" in other moments beside when they need something) and it makes it looks like God is weaker than the devil, the demons always come back and the good never wins for definitive... "God alone is not enough", they need mysticism, superstition, witchcraft, special objects and repeated words rituals. It's never God, it's never real Christianity and it ends up making the devil's work by misguiding the whole thing... the devil loves mixed up stuff, loves to see people being fooled by darkness desguised as light since of course people only pay attention to the obvious, not how the spiritual world really works in real life.

Hollywood loves to disguise people as "Christians", but it is exactly to destroy it and show the "Christians" doing anti-Christians things. I don't know what kind of Christianity you know, but the one I know is not what the characters do in those movies, basing themselves on mysticism, mediums, clarvoyance, communicating with spirits, spirits of people and from the dead, using psychism, superstition, witchcraft, spiritism, repeated words and rituals, only ever using God as a tool while the "faith" is only placed on objects and the bible as an amulet, and showing God struggling against demons, a God that seems weaker than the devil... I don't know what kind of Christianity you've encountered but that's definitely NOT it. And that's Hollywood messing Christianity on the worst way.The whole thing goes exactly AGAINST the very basic core of Christianity, God and the bible directly condemn all of that stuff they use. WHERE is Christianity on that???
The idea that people who never had anything to do with God before, never buit any kind of relantionship with Him, never brought Him INTO their lives or developed real knowledge and faith besides starting to carry wood crucifixes around for fear of bad things and trusting the object itself suddently "have the job" to go around casting out demons is ABSURD. Even the apostles who had Jesus right there once struggled with this... not even people who have real faith ON GOD, not themselves or amulets, and dedicated their whole life to actually being a Christian and KNOWING God go around being specialists on overcoming demons.
The absolute misconceptions horror movies cause about the spiritual world and good X evil itself works very much and well in the devil's benefit.
Showcasing religion in these films makes the evil stuff seem even more dangerous and scary, the people desperate and terrified, which is obviously exactly what they want, do they use religious elements for convenience, to make it look extreme and use the already xommon aesthetic of horror stuff. It desestabilizes even people's faith. It ends up making use of matters that are important to people and playing with serious things. The "good overcoming evil" factor is always all backwards, and good is never definitive or enough... the demons always come back and they always need magic and superstition because pure faith and God Himself are just "not enough".
It's not showing anything on a "good light", it does exactly the opposite. It doesn't only corrupt, misguide and mislead people about Christianity, leading them directly to mistake, but it is not Christianity in the first place... it leads people directly towards what goes exactly AGAINST it. Honestly, any Christian actually prefere Hollywood to not address them at all... it's better, leave it to who knows, lives and cares about it, instead of completely corrupting and destroying it and leading people to the wrong path even more easily. The evil that is clearly noticeable or the complete absence of things that look like good elements is obviously not going to make much people be fooled, what works best for the devil himself is evil desguised as good, absolute evil that has the audacity to dress up as coming from God and fooling MANY. That's how the bible says the devil works. That's what Hollywood does.