Relevant Magazine has an interesting essay asking whether the horror genre can be used to explore serious spiritual themes. The article focuses on Scott Derrickson, the horror filmmaker and Christian who directed The Exorcism of Emily Rose and who is working on a remake of Hitchcock’s The Birds. (You may recall that Emily Rose received some attention in Christian circles for its serious engagement of the topic of spiritual warfare.)
The piece spends a lot of time talking about Derrickson’s seemingly strange decision to direct Hellraiser: Inferno back in 2000. Inferno is the fifth installment in the exceptionally violent, extremely disturbing B-horror Hellraiser series—not the place you’d usually turn to for spiritual insight. But despite the series’ ultra-violent, lowbrow legacy, Derrickson tried to shape a spiritually insightful tale out of very unlikely elements. His inspiration was CS Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, which he saw as an example of how dark story elements lend themselves well to serious spiritual musing:
When Derrickson mentioned he had found inspiration in The Screwtape Letters when working on the movie, it seemed like strange company for Hellraiser: Inferno, and yet somehow exactly right.“I love the horror genre for how cinematic it is,” Derrickson says. “I gravitated, I think initially, toward the horror genre because, of all the genres, I think it is the genre that is most friendly to the subject matter of faith and belief in religion. The more frightening and sort of dark and oppressive a movie is, the more free you are to explore the supernatural and explore faith. The two just somehow go hand-in-hand really nicely. I became very interested in it for that reason, and The Screwtape Letters was the beacon.”
Bizarre as it may seem, I’ll definitely vouch for Inferno’s earnest spiritual explorations. I normally dislike super-violent horror films, but I took a chance and rented it after reading a review at Hollywood Jesus that pointed out the film’s unexpectedly serious moral message. It was violent and disturbing, but I agree with reviewer Chris Hudak, who lamented that Inferno was
...too hard-core and powerful for the audience that would, in the safe light of day, argue many of its uncomfortable points about obsession, morality, ‘goodness,’ and—let’s just say it, shall we?—damnation. With a few key cuts (one or two ‘red’ scenes, and some general profanity), Inferno would be an ideal, high-caliber, weapons-grade substitute to most of those milquetoast Rapture-scare films many churchgoers saw in the basement of their local parish on Thursday night; sometimes, the best way to put the desire for Heaven into someone truly is to simply scare the Hell out of them.
I’m not suggesting that you should go watch Inferno or Derrickson’s other horror films without knowing what you’re getting into. But what do you think of his strategy of using the horror genre—and specifically, the often gruesome B-horror genre—as a way to speak spiritual truth? Are fear, violence, and other aspects of the genre too dark to be used in this manner, no matter how lofty the intended message? Or is this an example of somebody turning the tables on evil by putting these elements to noble purpose?
And here’s a bonus question: while you’re thinking about it, consider how evangelicals’ own historical use of fear and horror, in the form of scary gospel tracts, rapture movies, sermons about sin and judgment, etc., fits into this issue.
(Also of note on this topic: an essay at Breakpoint about spiritual lessons in classic monster movies.)
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December 28, 2007 at 10:56
Ted Dekker’s movie “Three” was well done. It’s good to see someone trying to make good Christian movies for this genre. I think Christians should let horror movies be what they are and not try to find some hidden meaning in it to justify us watching it. On the bonus question. I think evangelicals did use a bit of “scare them to Heaven” tacticts. The idea of Hell should scare “the…hell” out of them. But we often get the wrong ideas accrossed sometimes. I once got a job serving tables while at Bible School and the manager asked me what denomination I was and I said Southern Baptist…his first response “you gonna scare me with some hellfire and brimstone sermon?”
December 28, 2007 at 12:25
Thanks for these thoughts, Andy.
A couple responses:
First, you are certainly right in pointing to the historic use of “fear and horrer” by Evangelicals in evangelistic efforts, but not many today see that as a good idea or see it as effective. First, I think fear is a poor motivator in this context. It harks back to the old cliche “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Screaming Hell-fire and brimstone does not come across as loving (no matter what claims the speaker makes to the contrary), and the younger generations have no interest in listening to that (The NOOMA video “Bullhorn” by Rob Bell is a great commentary on this truth).
I don’t have a problem with talking about Hell, but in the proper contexts, and not as an evangelistic tool.
Lastly, to answer your question, I would tend to lean toward saying that “fear, violence, and other aspects of the genre [are] too dark to be used in this manner, no matter how lofty the intended message.” I may be a poor one to chime in, because I’m not a fan of B-horrer movies, but it seems hard to reconcile that with Jesus’ message of love and peace.
December 28, 2007 at 14:50
I’ve noticed spiritual themes in horror movies a few times. In “Deep Blue Sea”, a cook/preacher, LL Cool-J, is the only one that lives. That’s not really a spiritual theme, but it’s interesting to note that spirituality seems more fair-game in that genre, even by atheist directors.
So I would love to start watching horror movies with spiritual themes. What an interesting way to reach culture!
December 29, 2007 at 01:41
There has long been a level of morality in horror flicks, even to the point of self-reference (cf. Scream). I’m referring, of course, to the fact that virgins never die, and the men/women of loose morals always die gruesome deaths. (Who else remembers Kevin Bacon getting the knife through the throat in the original Friday the 13th? And all because he couldn’t keep it in his pants…) This is, admittedly, a minor point, but a not-insignificant one. I’d argue that even Hollywood (or whoever really makes these B-grade horror flicks) recognizes an agreed-upon “good” and that is virginity over licentiousness.
Another example would be the death of conniving characters in favor of the honest characters. See, for example, The Descent, or any other movie in which a character gets his comeuppance.
None of these presents a rigorous argument for horror movies as morality lessons. However, it’s curious to note that many horror movies, especially the low-budget variety, tend to value a Christian definition of “the good guys” while killing off all of what is the Christian definition of “the bad guys” or “sinners” (if you will). May not be terribly effective as an evangelistic tool or anything, but definitely interesting.
December 31, 2007 at 14:50
Not a fan of horror films myself, especially the latest wave of gruesome films like Hostel, although I did enjoy Candyman 1 and 2. The previous commenters have highlighted good points though. Horror films are in one sense just another medium of culture and because all these films are made by people, they are on some level, whether consciously or not spiritual. They may be atheistic or a bit more grey, but the point is that there is a viewpoint promoted that can then be debated, much in the same way as sci-fi, soaps or rap music. e.g. why do vampires cower before a crucifix? Was it Blade that did away with crucifixes? I know they still had power over vampires in the excellent British TV series Ultraviolet in the mid-90s, even though no real reference was made to God or Jesus.