My article Why the Popularity of Horror Movies Might Encourage Christians recently appeared at the popular evangelical site The Gospel Coalition. In it, I explore the ongoing appeal of the horror genre (2017 was the highest-grossing year for horror movies in box-office history) and how its continued popularity in culture might reflect “an intuitive, God-given sense of morality, mortality, and our need to ‘kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.'”
The topic of horror in religious circles can be touchy. While I received a lot of encouragement and positive private response, there was a sizable amount of pushback, most notably at the TGC Facebook page link.
For example, Meghan wrote that watching “supernatural horror films” is
“…opening up a doorway and giving Satan a foothold. Anything with demons, ghosts, spirits all of that ‘paranormal genre’ is a big NO from me. That’s my conviction and where from lots of caution and discernment I have made that choice. I would definitely challenge all Christians to pray about their stance when it comes to paranormal horror.”
Lots of commenters had a similar response and were careful to delineate that while the decision to not watch certain films was a personal decision, it was still an issue that ALL believers should attend to.
However, some commenters followed the more typical tack of “sin by association” believing that simply to watch anything with horror and/or occult elements was to surrender to darkness. Like Em-Ann who called my article flat-out “deception.”
“How did this article end up here in TGC?!!? What happened to ‘What fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?’ 2 Cor.6:14,15 and ‘Come out of them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing…’ 2 Cor. 4:17. This is deception!”
Similarly, in her rebuttal, Sanna quoted the litany of Bible verses equating “holiness” with “abstinence” from various cultural commodities, in this case horror films. She writes,
“What part of these horror movies would God sit down and watch with you?
How are these movies upholding the holiness of God ?I Peter 1:16 ‘For it is written be holy as I am holy’
We are commanded to fill our minds with whatever is good. Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.
We must not find excuses to justify this genre. …One day when we stand before God it will be a far stretch to justify this as God honouring viewing. We must not forget that God is perfectly holy.
As for the cultural argument .. we are to be in the the world but not be the world. I John 2:15-17
‘Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.’
We don’t need horror movies to identify the good and bad in this world .. it is everywhere. Let’s spend more time in the word and we won’t need the world to entertain us.”
No, I wasn’t shocked by these responses. And in some ways, they are understandable and important. However, they’re also rather predictable and subscribe to a notion of “holiness” or “separation” that is potentially unbiblical.
For example, there’s a big difference between what we observe and what we choose to focus on. We have all witnessed evil, ugly, disturbing things. We have seen atrocities and wept over the wreckage of human lives. Verses which tell us to think about things that are “pure” are not telling us to turn away from what is unlovely and impure. Rather, they should not be our focus. In fact, Christians are commanded to NOT turn away from evil, injustice, poverty, hate, bigotry, and pain. Refusing to look upon or acknowledge evil may in fact BE evil.
Yes, we are called to think pure thoughts, meditate on that which is good, and resist the pull of the world. However, that does not mean we should live in denial about the darkness all around us. Nor should we eschew the horrific simply because it is unsettling. In fact, it is this “unsettling” that may make horror stories more efficacious. Prairie romance novels and G-rated feel-good tales should have a place in the Christian catalog, but so should tales of woe. As long as there really is a place like Hell, then horror must inhabit part of the Christian imagination.
The famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa once said, “The role of the artist is to not look away.” I think this is a good principle for Christians to heed.
Of course, this is not a license to imbibe all horror or to be flippant in our approach to films and novels with occult elements. Like any medium, Christians must use discretion in their consumption. However, Christians, perhaps more than any other, should have the ability to not “look away” from evil. I don’t mean that we should delight in evil, be captivated by the macabre, or celebrate darkness (which is the most common charge against “dark” art), but that our perspective of the human condition should be unflinching and particularly acute. Feel-good story-telling may have its place. But artists — especially Christian artists — who only subscribe to a “feel-good” world have violated an essential artistic law… they have “looked away.”
(I have an entire chapter in my book Christian Horror: On the Compatibility of a Biblical Worldview and the Horror Genre in which I answer most of these common objections to Christians and the horror genre.)
I saw those comments, and there were some doozies. But, like you said, they weren’t surprising. It was the same thing they said about Harry Potter, too. I think those particular verses about think on these things get trotted out far more often than they should.