From Good and Evil to Something Darker
John Doyle, a Catholic political commentator, recently discussed horror movies on his show in response to a controversy on X involving the blowback his fellow Blaze commentator and Baptist Allie Beth Stuckey received for suggesting that Christians should not watch horror films.
One point Doyle makes that I think is worth repeating is that early horror movies contained a good-versus-evil element that was both stark and comforting. In films like Dracula (1931), The Mummy (1932), and The Wolf Man (1941), good ultimately triumphs over evil, and that good was often associated with Christian symbols and beliefs. In the battle between God and Satan (Revelation 20:10), God ultimately wins, and relying on Him is the only real option in fighting evil (James 4:7).
Doyle chronicles how the genre changed, especially in the late sixties and seventies, as social upheaval inspired horror films to portray the masses’ fears in movies like Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Night of the Living Dead (1968), and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). What transpired after this brings us to the world of today.
Films became increasingly dark and violent. The Halloween movies (beginning in 1978), Friday the 13th (1980), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Hellraiser (1987), just to name a few, showed gruesome death sequences that ultimately communicated the philosophy that human beings were mere body parts, playthings of higher levels of spiritual life that they could not contend with. Just like a young child might abuse a toy, humans were the toys of dark forces that they had no recourse against.
The Absence of God
While Christians have mostly focused on the grotesque violence of the genre, the greater problem is the absence of God. Someone will judge people for their sins, such as sexual deviance, as portrayed in the teenage horror subgenre in movies like Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), where teenagers pursuing sexual encounters are often among the victims. But that someone is not the loving God of the universe. It is a cruel, unusual creature.
Some directors are self-aware that they are portraying religious authority as the evil menace in an attempt to show people that what they associate with God is actually the bad guy. Films like The Witch (2015) and The Lodge (2019) portray religious fear and fanaticism as destructive forces. In other films, God is simply absent, leaving evil without any apparent higher authority to restrain it.
Horror director Clive Barker once described the spiritual condition of modern society this way:
“We are a society without God, and yet a little animal part of us still wants that God, needs those gods.”
This perhaps gets closer to the spiritual attraction of modern horror than the violence itself.
The Evolution of Horror
What does all this mean? Certainly, the emergence of the horror genre in literature during the nineteenth century through authors like Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe, and their more sanitized movie depictions, is far different from many of the horror films of today. In fact, I am not sure they even belong in the same category.
If horror films reflect our fears as a people, then, in a sense, there has always been horror. People tell stories about what they are afraid of, from The Brothers Grimm to The Hunger Games, which portrays fears of totalitarian government, social collapse, and the exploitation of children. What makes modern horror stories unique is something more significant.
Horror as a Reverse Christian Narrative
Modern horror is a reverse Christian narrative. If Christians believe in a story of sin, redemption, and restoration, horror films now portray a state of innocence marred by sin, but redeemed by attacking creation and destroying man altogether. In its place reigns what man should ultimately give himself to: unbridled nihilistic evil.
Many superhero movies go halfway toward this narrative by fighting villains with the aim of destroying mankind for their flaws and sins. Films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and The Batman (2022) feature villains who view humanity as corrupt, destructive, or deserving of punishment. At the end, the audience is convinced that man actually is good, however flawed, and worth protecting. The fact this even needs to be argued is a tell.
Most horror films go an extra step. They ask, what if man is not actually worth protecting? What if there is no ultimate purpose for him?
This is why, at the end of the day, Allie Beth Stuckey is right in her assessment. Christians should recognize that these modern horror stories are not ours, and they conflict with our view of the world at a basic level.
It is not simply that people want to be afraid, but the reason behind why they want to be afraid that makes them concerning. There is a twisted reverse redemption that takes place as humans are given over to overwhelming forces they cannot understand, only to be tortured and killed by them.
It is a return to paganism, and humans are attracted to this because it helps them believe that, in comparison with others. They are not so bad after all; judgment is coming, even for the hypocrites who think themselves to be good, and there is a power beyond them that perhaps they can learn to manipulate.
The Christian Story Ends Differently
With no higher purpose for man, man becomes the purpose for himself, each one individually. Scripture tells a different story. Man is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26–28), endowed with purpose for stewarding His creation, and redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ to a relationship with his Creator (Ephesians 2:8–10).
Things are trending toward a consummation where all will be made well (Revelation 21:1–5). The note will end without dissonance. Horror movies leave you with nothing but dissonance.
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