The Message Behind the Movie

"People say that God is dead. But how can they think that if I show them the devil?"

Although it is probably the least favored by Christians due to the genre’s style elements, horror can communicate messages in a powerful way that others cannot. Hollywood has certainly churned out movies designed to frighten rather than enlighten. According to box office dollars (and allowing for inflation) only three of the top fifty ranking films of all time are horror films (although they are close to the top, with the 7^th and 9^th spots: Jaws and The Exorcist respectively). They also tend to be almost non-existent at the Academy Awards (a notable exception being The Silence of the Lambs). However, there are many books, websites and magazines devoted to horror, and horror fans are quite devoted. So, is there any redeeming value to horror films? Should all horror movies be avoided by Christians? I would argue that in many cases what horror lacks in stylistic appeal it can make up for in suppositions and significance. Truth can often be communicated clearly through terror.

Horror movies date back to the close of the 19^th Century with Georges Melies’ Le Manoir Du Diable (The Devil’s Castle), making the horror genre one of the oldest. What is notable is how quickly horror was used as a cultural commentary. 1920′s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari contained some bizarre commentary on the Scopes Trial over evolution and provided a “political parable of unchecked authoritarianism following the cataclysm of the war.” [i] World War I had an important impact on the depiction of terror on screen and several 1920′s movies reflect the horrors of war. Technology was not only increasing warfare’s means of destroying the human body, it also was producing medical treatments allowing disfigurement victims to survive. This time period also saw the birth of quasi-human monsters like vampires, golems, werewolves, etc. Actor Lon Chaney alone played a wide range of characters such as the Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, a criminal ventriloquist, an amputee, as well as the famous Hollywood vampire.

The 1930′s saw the Great Depression as well as the classic era of horror films. In a time people needed to escape their fears, horror movies came to the rescue with the release of the original Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931),The Mummy (1932), King Kong (1933), The Invisible Man (1933), and The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). The enduring mythos of Frankenstein and Dracula is another indication of horror’s ability to speak to cultural concerns. Both stories deal with man’s quest to overcome death apart from God – one replacing God with science and the other with heightened humanistic powers. Frankenstein represents modernism’s obsession with scientific progress unchecked by morality, as well as fear of the mechanical overthrow of humanity. Dracula deals with the effects of man’s willingness to take other’s lives in support of his own (not to mention addiction to ‘drink’ – another large issue of the day!). These two themes are so powerful that they have been remade more than any others.

The 1940′s gave us more classics such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941),The Wolf Man (1941), and The Phantom of the Opera (1943), with sequels galore. Of cultural interest in these films is the theme of a basically good person being turned into a monster. World War II introduced mankind to an almost unstoppable evil in the form of Hitler’s Nazism, strongly calling into question the basic goodness of mankind and the wolf-man became the horror icon of America’s involvement in the war. This time also saw a rise in the popularity of madmen and mad scientists – the connection to Hitler and the Nazis’ sadistic surgical experimentation hardly needs to be mentioned.

In the 1950′s horror started sliding in quality with countless remakes, sequels, and low budget slapsticks. The beginings of the Cold War and a general fear of foreigners was also the time when invasions from aliens became a popular theme of many films like Invaders from Mars (1953), This Island Earth (1955), and Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957). The threat of massive destruction through atomic warfare also changed the way monsters were made – big and bad. This became the era of the Japanese Godzilla (1954) – a monster literally created by nuclear means. This ruination of nature which comes to terrorize humanity is a clear picture of the underlying fear of nuclear holocaust. This was followed by giant octopi, spiders, birds, crabs, and even human monsters. Communist paranoia came to a head with Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) decrying blind conformity that communism represents, and fears of spies might be seen as the impetus for The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955), The Cyclops (1957), and The Crawling Eye (1958).

By the 1960′s the genre had started to go in many different directions, some good and some bad. Several had truly terrifying themes such as Haunting, Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, The Birds and the Living Dead series. As the teenage generation became known for rebellion several horror flicks were released that paralleled the theme of “scary kids” such as and Village of the Damned (1960) – which also called reproductive technology into question the same year that the birth control pill was introduced. Pregnancy issues also surfaced in Rosemary’s Baby (1968). This trend continued into the 1970′s with the release of Carrie (1974), It’s Alive (1974), Salem’s Lot (1975), The Omen (1976), The Shining (1977), The Brood, Prophecy, and Humanoids from the Deep (all 1979), and one of the most terrifying films of all time – 1973′s The Exorcist. Even the science fiction-horror hybrid Alien (1979) used ‘birth’ as a means of conveying horror. In the 1970′s a new movie rating system was introduced, in part as a response to the subversive, violent themes of horror films. 1978′s Halloween provided a segue into one of horror’s most notable subgenres – the “slasher” films.

Despite some notably high quality horror like The Fly (1986),The Shining (1980), An American Werewolf in London (1981), or The Thing (1982), the 1980′s will be remembered for slasher film series like Friday the 13^th (1980), Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), and Child’s Play (1988). [ii] Many of the slasher series began well but devolved into increasingly cheesy, seemingly never-ending sequels (e.g., 2003′s Freddy vs. Jason). Most of these films featured a supernatural psychopath who could not be (permanently) killed, gratuitous gore and violence, and victims made up of mostly promiscuous teenagers. This is not surprising during the rise of the AIDS epidemic where sex was literally killing people. Slasher films did splash over into the 1990′s, but by then the sub-genre had become rather campy.

The 1990′s major contribution to the horror genre was the more serious serial killer story. These films were much more realistic and thought provoking than their slasher predecessors. Although pre-dated by 1986′s Manhunter, this new take on horror really began with 1991′s Silence of the Lambs which spawned so many knockoffs like When the Bough Breaks (1993), Copycat (1995), Kiss the Girls (1997), The Bone Collector (1999), or The Cell (2000), that it almost became its own genre (peaking with 1995′s brilliant Se7en). This decade saw the creation of horror parodies such as Scream (which was then followed by the meta-parody Scary Movie in 2000) and ended with a unique departure from high tech special effects with the release of The Blair Witch Project (1999) – a film shot with no special effects, no musical score, unknown actors, and handheld cameras.

The 21st century took the horror scene seriously with several new themes. Many of its films brought a welcome return to a more gut-level horror rather than simply ‘gorifying’ audiences to death (pun intended). Films such as The Sixth Sense (1999), The Others (2001), Frailty (2001), The Ring (2002), The Mothman Prophecies (2002), Darkness (2002), The Grudge (2004), The Village (2004), The Forgotten (2004), White Noise (2005), Boogeyman (2005), Dark Water (2005), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), and Cloverfield (2008) have shown that audiences are far from bored with being seriously scared (and scared seriously).

As you can see, the genre of horror is more varied than some might think. While much associate horror with promiscuous teens getting mutilated in creative ways by sinister and grotesque monsters. True horror, however, is not gore or shock. Repulsion can be achieved through gore and adrenaline-fed tenseness can be created with shock . . . but true horror is deeper down and more difficult to elicit. Consider these classics: The Shining, Alien, Frankenstein, King Kong, The Amityville Horror, The Haunting, Halloween, Psycho, The Sixth Sense, even the Twilight Zone TV series, . . . most have very little in the way of shock or gore yet they have the power to haunt our thoughts and dreams for years to come. Why? Because true horror is elicited from our nightmares, our childhood fears, the terror of the irrational, the unknown, the unexplainable, or the juxtaposition of innocence and evil. When done well, horror films need not rely on horrifying gore, special effects, or cheap shocks. [iii] The best horror films create deep-down terror in subtle ways, using our imagination rather than spoon-feeding it to us through blatant images. [iv]

One thing nice about the more pure horror movies is that they are simple and archetypal. While there are many sub-genres of horror (thriller, slasher, serial killer, supernatural, satanic, etc.), the storylines are usually pretty easy to follow. The genre is fairly well marked out in terms of themes and artistic elements. The heroes and the villains are obvious which is helpful in a world that often thinks of evil in shades of gray. The best horror will, of course, stretch these basics – but in general you usually know what to expect. This also makes the messages easier to interpret.

Worldview-wise I think horror can be at its best. The fact that good and evil are portrayed in absolute terms is both refreshing and welcome in a time of relativistic idiocy and special interest pandering. In horror evil is real, and the distinction between good and evil is made clear. In stark contrast to the humanistic view of the innate goodness of mankind, horror movies have a unique ability to really show the dark side of man. Famous monsters like the Werewolf and Vampires, as well as specific characters like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, play on the idea of man struggling with inner evil. Almost all of the serial killer films depict the villain not as the crazed lunatic we’d like to think all killers are, but as perfectly rational, intelligent people (a slap in the face to those who think only mentally sick people are evil).

Many horror movies make much out of the power of evil. This can be good in a world that seems to think that evil either does not exist, or that it only exists in intolerance (of course everyone tolerates what they think is tolerable – this is hardly an admirable ethical position). On the down side – the elevation of evil to the point where goodness can just barely overcome it (and rarely in finality) is a poor message. It seems that ultimately good wins battles but never the war. While this can be attributed mostly to the desire for potential sequels, it sends a false message that evil can never be finally eradicated.

Religiously-oriented horror movies, for example, are almost always bad (notable exceptions include many vampire movies e.g., The Addiction [1995]). Religious believers are usually powerless in the face of even moderate evil, and often end up requiring the assistance of occultists to successfully fight paranormal evil. This only gets worse as the villains become more “supernatural.” The idea that there is a legitimate battle between God and the forces of evil is not simply unbiblical. The notion of God struggling or fighting to accomplish something is ludicrous. Good actually has all the power in the universe, because evil is nothing – it is just a privation of goodness. In fact, evil is in a dependant relationship to goodness. Like a hole depends on the doughnut, good can exist without evil, but evil cannot exist without good. Fortunately, goodness is also a very important feature of most horror films. In most horror movies the hero is the most morally pure character. The wise-man figure Randy recognizes this fact in the slasher film parody Scream (1996). While we may object to overly-simplistic presentations of sin, or the fact that the morally pure are often the butt of jokes, Christians should appreciate the fact that moral goodness is often at least recognized as such.

Whether or not horror films can be justified on a theoretical basis, we must always be careful not to cross the line from enjoying a bit of scary fun to developing a fascination with evil. When appropriate, many horror movies do indeed provide a good basis for communicating the truths of sin in the world at many levels (some blatant, some subtle), and this should not be overlooked as well.