Horror Religion-Based Horror Movies?

[Tom]

I watch a lot of horror movies.
My favorite (as I said many times) are monster & creature movies.

This month, I watched movies from my Shoctober playlist and many were religion-based, having to do with possession, hauntings, demons and clergy doing battle in God's name.

My GF is terrified of these movies but I find them funny or boring.

I'm just wondering if others are scared while watching religion-based horror movies?

I find the exorcism battles comical, the demons comical and the methods comical.

Is there a religion-based movie you can't watch because it is too scary?

It would be interesting for me to discuss why you feel this way?

If you are afraid of some types of movies but not others, which types are the scariest for you?

Happy Halloween!

 

[screenersam]

not much of a fan of the genre
I like the Hammer vampire stuff with church references
'Santos and the Vampire Women' had some interesting spiritual content. MST3K did that.
speaking of MST there was a Canadian flick about cultists chasing a boy; he was rescued by some guy with a mustache (Lansdale?)

 

[Tom]

For those that are fans of the genre,
Which is most scary to you:

Exorcist
Conjuring
Omen
Prophecy
Left Behind
Insidious
Demonic
Satanic
Drag Me To Hell
Legion
Ouija
Witchboard
Witchcraft
The Exorcism of _________(pick one)
The Haunting of_________(pick one)

Can you say why it is the scariest?

 

[screenersam]

probly Prophecy / Left Behind
I believe it will come down reeeeeal soon like

 

[screenersam]

'Final Sacrifice' was the MST3K cult movie. hero was Rowsdower.

 

[returntojetstream3000]

Great to see some MST3K refs here.

I was going to say "Exorcist, Omen" but Tom beat me to it (and then some...), but I think I can contribute a few worthy examples of the genre.

I enjoyed the 2005 film Constantine (Directed by Francis Lawrence, starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf) and think it at least deserves the "Creepy" designation. It is based on an Alan Moore comic and took liberties which some fans didn't like; there's a Netflix-or-telvision series I didn't watch. I came to it without knowledge of the comics. It deals with the topic of excorcism, heaven, hell, suicide from a Catholic perspective. I'm not a believer but found it dealt with the subject in an entertaining manner. Roger Ebert hated it, but he harped on things that I thought should have been enjoyed humorously or tongue-in-cheek, or nitpicked things I didn't feel were overly important (he didn't like the film's depiction of hell).

The 1972 giallo film Don't Torture a Duckling deals with\criticizes religious excesses. It is directed by Lucio Fulci, early in his career before he was that Lucio Fulci who made Zombi, The Beyond, and some other Italian gorriest-films-ever-made (though it is gory...). There's no paranormal element, it's a murder mystery with some violence\adult content (nudity) that might not be to everyone's taste. An worthy film if you want something unusual, and it offers a different view of Fulci as a social and religious critic.

The 1989 film Begotten is a black and white experimental film using an unusual style producing a weird, grainy look. There is no dialogue. It follows the deaths\murders and rebirths of God, Mother Earth, and the Son of Earth. It's weird, it's violent, and though I saw it only once years ago it stuck with me.

So...creepy? Funny? Absolutely terrifying? Tastes here differ of course (and I'm not sure we're talking about anything but tastes!), but the field is so varied I'm sure just about anyone can find examples of each category if they look hard enough. I think my selection fairly falls in the "creepy" category, I find it hard to imagine Don't Torture a Duckling and Begotten as terrifying or funny, and Constantine has a great creepy atmosphere but at times injects a fair amount of comic relief.

 

[Tom]

So...creepy? Funny? Absolutely terrifying? Tastes here differ of course (and I'm not sure we're talking about anything but tastes!), but the field is so varied I'm sure just about anyone can find examples of each category if they look hard enough.

Nice addition but its more about whether religion-based horror movies are scary to you.

Most are just boring to me.
Some are pretty good, filled with jump scares or creepy looking manifestations but the religious context is comical to me.
Even ghosts are rooted in religion.

Some rather interesting films imply a religion-based context but reveal a scientific fictional source.
I find these types of films interesting.

NetFlix did a film called Spectral that implied ghosts but they turned out to be something else.

Discarnate (2018) - IMDb on the other hand flips science into religion-based beliefs.
Sorta like Event Horizon uses science fiction to tell a story about Hell.

Any film that implies an afterlife is religion-based because afterlife is a concept rooted in religion.
Flatliners
Box of Shadows
The Lazarus Effect
The Drownsman
and so on depend on one's ability to believe an afterlife occurs.

An example of a non-religion based horror movie is
The Darkest Hour
The Collector/Collection
The Burrowers
The Belko Experiment
Charlie's Farm
Primeval
Splinter
and so on...

Zombie movies based on the pretense of
"When there is no more room in Hell the dead will walk the Earth"
are religion-based.
The Mummy and Vampires are religion-based 'undead' concepts.
There are however, movies that portray reanimated dead people without a religious context.
The movie Undead (2003) comes right to mind.
Night of the Creeps
Night of the Comet
Slither
even Resident Evil.

The poll is geared only towards religion-based horror and how they make you feel when you watch them.

Consider:
* does Satanic symbology freak you out?
Have you seen The Devil's Candy? Jug Face?
* do you fear judgement?
Have you seen Let Us Prey? Southbound?
* does the rise of the Anti-Christ terrify you?
Have you seen The Exorcism of Emily Rose? The Vatican Tapes?

Having once been religious I understand how religion-based horror can be unsettling.
Having now put religion out of my mind, I find the most humorous aspect of religion-based movies to be the divine battles portrayed between the priest and the demon or devil.
Knowing what I know about protection thru faith, these films portray priests with poor faith.
In the religion I was taught, faith gave you the strength of God.
When a priest arrives on scene, the demon should flee. It wouldn't be a test of will or methodology. It wouldn't require artifacts and holy water. There would be no battle.
If those battle scenes terrify you, your faith in your God is not very strong.

As realist (someone who believes in right here, right now) I find it very amusing to see people react to these films. Sometimes my GF's reaction is more entertaining than the movie.
These films just terrorize her.

This poll is to try to understand how other's see religion-based horror.
BTW, when I was religious, I couldn't watch them. Too scary. LOL

 

[screenersam]

most of what little I watch bores me. a few years ago one called 'The Order' with Brian Thompson (bounty hunter from X-Files, among other things), just stupid and obviously done by people with no knowledge of Bible / Christianity.