Cults, Christianity, and Other Cultures: Religion in Horror
A small deep dive into the world of religion depicted in various Western horror films.
Spoiler warning: There are spoilers ahead for Midsommar, The Wicker Man, The Exorcist, The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, Apostle, and Rosemary’s Baby. Proceed with caution if you haven’t seen those.
Introduction:
The horror genre has so many elements to it that make it what it is, and so many elements that are iconic and near constants in the genre. While taking a class on horror films, I noticed one element in particular: References to religion. This isn’t to say that all horror movies are about religion or even reference it, but many of them could fit under that description. Some of the most iconic and recognizable horror films focus on religion. Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Wicker Man (1974), and The Exorcist (1973) are all obvious examples of this. What also struck me, is the use of non-Abrahamic religions in horror – or, more specifically, Christianity. Christianity is a large part of the horror landscape, yes, but folk horror is a subgenre of its own and is just as prevalent. Midsommar is one of the best recent examples, involving a Swedish pagan culture and some Americans who unknowingly infiltrate it.
In this essay, I will be focusing on the depiction of religion in Western horror films, particularly dissecting the similarities and differences to how filmmakers depict Christian versus pagan religion in these films. I am focusing on Western filmmaking, as other countries and parts of the world may have vastly different ways of treating these topics based on their own histories. This essay will be split into four sections. The first will examine depiction and treatment of paganism, the second will look into that of Christian religion, the third will look at films that include both or are a little more ambiguous, and the final section will discuss backlash that some films have received from religious groups. Each of the films to be discussed here has something very specific to say about religion, and the way Western societies view it.
Treatment of pagan religions:
Let’s look first at pagan religions in horror. Anyone who regularly watches horror can likely name several films that depict pagan religion and rituals, but only a few will be referenced here. The first of these is Midsommar (2019).
Midsommar is a film that terrifies many, and for a lot of different reasons. What started as a film that I was too scared to watch, ended up being one that fascinates me endlessly. The film follows a group of Americans, particularly the protagonist Dani, who follow their friend to visit the Swedish commune where he grew up. The most important thing to note here is that the community – the Härga – are a community that has traditions rooted in pagan religion. The characters all react to these traditions in different ways, some with pure terror and some with fascination, but one thing is clear: Don’t mess with or judge traditions you know nothing about.
This film occupies an interesting place in the horror genre. Instead of simply letting the audience be terrified of this community the way that most films would, it makes a point about judging others based on your own ideals. Christian (the aptly named boyfriend of Dani) makes a comment that boils down to: We’re disgusted by them, but if they saw what we do to elderly people, they’d be disgusted by us. Christian’s point is a funny one to make here, because he’s saying it in order to calm down Dani so that he can stay and study the Härga for his academic thesis. The meaning behind what he’s saying is a little ironic because of it, but the words he says make an interesting point whether he means them or not. He says this after the group of Americans witness the traumatic deaths of two of the community’s elders. One of the characters explains that this is simply what everyone in the community goes through when their life cycle is over, and it is not a strange or horrifying occurrence to them. However, Dani and the others react to it with terror due to their own upbringing and what their society has taught them to believe in. Despite the violence of the act, it is hard to know if the Härga are correct in their ways, or if the Westerners are. That is up to the audience to decide, and there are many different opinions of it. In this sense, this movie could be featured in the later section regarding ambiguity, but I think the shock and horror of the Härga’s actions is a lot stronger here than in the example I use in that section, and I think we are – as audience members – supposed to be scared of it.
That being said, Cassidy Crane makes a different but also interesting point in “Midsommar (2019): Is ‘Good for Her’ the New Final Girl?”. In her article, she talks about Dani as a subversion of the Final Girl trope, and perhaps a new version of it. It’s an interesting look at our expectations and biases that we have in the back of our minds as we watch the film. One of the things she takes the time to look into is how we end up viewing the pagan community through Dani’s eyes. She states, “Dani is never treated badly by the cult, only the other foreigners are. As Dani never steps out of line, she is accepted and even crowned as May Queen. The only man that is sympathetic to her is Pelle, the man that might be right for her over her own boyfriend... So in this sense, we sympathize with the cult because we sympathize with Dani” (Crane). Arguably, the Härga are still portrayed in a negative light for the majority of the film, but Crane’s point perfectly explains the horror of it. When thinking about the film from Dani’s perspective, it really is hard to watch the end and be on one side or the other after one watch. The Härga honor their elderly and the elderly do not burden society, but their deaths are brutal and violent. The Härga committed acts of violence towards the outsiders of the village, but the outsiders were disrespectful and ultimately put the community at risk. Dani chose to sacrifice her boyfriend in a very violent manner, but he was unsupportive and incredibly selfish towards those around him. While none of these things can fully justify the violence (at least in our opinions as Western viewers), they do offer a new layer to it.
All of this being said, the audience is ultimately horrified by the actions of the Härga, thus portraying this pagan community as a bad thing, as the evil-doers.
Another film that portrays pagans in a bad light – though not necessarily the entity they worship – is Apostle (2018). In this film, a Christian missionary named Thomas – who no longer believes in his faith – ends up trying to rescue his sister from a cult. The cult commits unspeakable acts of violence against the former missionary and against the cult’s own people if they disobey. The entity being worshiped here – known as The Goddess – is not necessarily evil herself. In fact, she is held captive by the cult and wishes to be set free. Regardless, the cult itself is most certainly has sinister and rather evil intentions. Although Thomas takes the place of The Goddess at the end of the film, it is very clear that the cult was the antagonist and the villain here. If anything, it portrays the cult as self-serving and power-hungry.
While there may be some examples out there in which pagans are portrayed as good overall, they’re hard to come across. The vast majority of horror films that depict these kinds of religions tend to depict them in a heavily negative light.
Treatment of Christianity:
More often than not, Christianity is depicted as being the hero of any horror scenario. When there’s paranormal trouble brewing, a priest is usually the person who gets called in to help. When it comes to Christian saviorism, some of the best examples are The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Conjuring (2013).
The Conjuring – and its following franchise – follows two real people, Ed and Lorraine Warren. Despite what people may actually believe about them, they presented themselves to the world as paranormal investigators who could help to exorcise demons. The film depicts them this way, as well. It is important to note that Ed and Lorraine were not just demonologists, but were Catholics and therefore that was where they drew their practices from. The film makes explicitly clear that not only are Christians the heroes, but good Christains in particular are. The Warrens’ belief in God is what gives them the power to do what they do, real or not. This essay is not going to comment on whether or not their powers were real, but it will look at exactly how they are presented in the film itself, and what it says about belief in a Christian god.
The film portrays these two specific Christians as if they are in some way oppressed. The “skeptics” who speak against the Warrens are portrayed as being close-minded, ignorant, and sometimes quite mean. In The Conjuring 2, Ed and Lorraine appear on a live television show, presumably for an interview. One of the other guests gets quite aggressive when he mentions one of their previous cases being a hoax. There are many other characters sprinkled throughout the films that show non-believers in a negative light. Granted, with Christians as the main characters, it makes sense that some of the conflict would come in that form. But, it almost feels a little egregious at times. There’s already demons involved, that’s plenty of conflict for the Warrens without getting atheists involved.
Zachary Dioron discusses the relationship between the vulnerable families in these films and Evangelical Christianity in “Possession, Politics, and Patriotism: The Influence of Christian Nationalism and Evangelical Horror Tropes on The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2. Dioron explores several of these Evangelical horror tropes, one of them being the trope of Anti-Skepticism and Evangelical “Truth” (Dioron). As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the skeptics are portrayed in a very negative light, but it doesn’t stop there. Even those who are preoccupied with other things and are unable to go to church find themselves vulnerable to the demons. There are many examples of this throughout these two films, and Dioron mentions several. One of these is that having religious symbols around can keep these families safe. In The Conjuring 2, this is clearly shown when Ed walks into a room that is supposedly haunted, to find that it is covered in crucifixes on the wall to protect it. Additionally, a common example of this trope used in these films is that the demon will turn the crucifixes upside down. This has essentially become a visual code for “there is an evil presence here”. There are plenty of other horror movies that use this image as well, it isn’t only used in this franchise. It has become a symbol in our culture that when you see it, you know what it means. The messaging here is so clearly that Christian equals good and non-Christian equals evil/vulnerable/bad.
Another film of particular note when it comes to Christianity is The Exorcist (1973). It is one of the most recognizable and well-known horror movies of all time, and for good reason. The special effects were outstanding for the time and the story is still one that chills people to this day. The Exorcist chronicles the story of a young girl, Regan, who is possessed by a demon. The demon is then defeated by two Jesuit priests, but not before making both of them martyrs. Something that is quite interesting about this film is that the demon named Pazuzu is not of Christian origin. In fact, it is Mesopotamian. Yet, the hero of the film is a Christian. A Christian priest was the one to defeat a demon that came from an entirely different religion. In fact, as noted by Lucas Eric Harold Bergeson in his thesis “The Devil in the American Horror Film: A Study on the Interfacing of Religion, Myth, and Film”, the exorcism performed in the film is “explicitly displayed as a Catholic exorcism”. There’s an interesting implication there, that while the entities of other religions are apparently real, Christianity is still the strongest and is therefore the correct one. All of this being said, the film does have an answer for this, stating that there are no longer any other religious institutions besides Catholics that perform exorcisms. Therefore, Chris (Regan’s mother) has no choice but to contact a Catholic priest, no matter where Pazuzu originates. To this end, Bergeson also points out that the human/animal hybrid depiction of Pazuzu comes directly from Christian iconography and is a common depiction of the Devil. So, despite the origins of the demon itself being non-Abrahamic, the film is filled to the brim with Christian imagery. The point is clear in this film: Christians are the good guys, and perhaps the only religion that really matters.
When looking at The Conjuring and The Exorcist, one thing to take into consideration is the time period in which they take place: the 1970s. While the Satanic Panic is mostly associated with the 1980s, there were a lot of things in the years leading up to it that certainly contributed to it. The Exorcist was one of those.
The Exorcist came out in 1973, following the release of the book it was based on just two years prior. Five years before that was Rosemary’s Baby (1968), which was more directly linked to Satanism than The Exorcist was, as far as the plot of the film went. A few years after The Exorcist came The Omen (1976), a film about a family that brings home the anti-Christ instead of their own baby. Two out of three of these films were directly about Satanism, but all of them heavily involved Christianity and made an argument that Christians are good while everyone else is evil. And while all three films advocate for Christianity as a whole, showing Satanism at all during this time period most certainly contributed to the moral panic in the 1980s. More and more people were breaking away from Christianity during the 1970s, and two movies heavily featuring Satanism certainly weren’t helping the matter. Rosemary’s Baby in particular makes an interesting case, where the Satanist characters actively criticize the Catholic church, likening it to entertainment. Thorsten Cartensen notes this in his work “Is it Really Happening? The Postmodern Horror of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby”. Cartensen points out a couple of examples of this. First, he notes Roman Castevet’s thought that Catholicism is “mere show business”. He also notes a later scene: “Watching the Pope address a crowded Yankee Stadium, Guy notes striking parallels between this televised speech and ordinary television commercials, further reinforcing the correlation between Catholicism and the realms of entertainment and spectacle” (Cartensen). Though the Castevets are revealed later to be the villains and Satanists later in the film, that isn’t something the audience is aware of when Roman makes his statement. It is also important to know Rosemary and Guy’s own relationship with religion. Guy was raised Protestant but doesn’t follow any religion anymore. Rosemary was raised Catholic, but is non-practicing. Still, given that Roman says this to someone raised as such, it would have been very hard for her to hear. Guy being non-religious is also important when he makes that observation about the Pope’s address to a gigantic crowd. His involvement with the Satanists notwithstanding, it is clear that he is already detached from Catholicism by being a Protestant. The film makes it clear that he is in a vulnerable position because of this. Since he doesn’t have strong religious beliefs, it is easy for him to get caught up in the Satanists’ harmful plan. The film is making a point here, showing that without a specific religious affiliation, Guy and Rosemary are vulnerable and in danger. Perhaps they could have been saved if they were Catholic.
The Conjuring itself didn’t come out until 2013, but it took place in the early 1970s, which is the exact time period where the three aforementioned movies were released. Given that The Conjuring is based loosely off of two real people, we can assume as audience members that the world the film exists in is very similar to our own. In other words, Rosemary’s Baby could have existed as a film in that universe and could have contributed to the skepticism that Ed and Lorraine faced.
There are many, many horror movies in existence that include Christianity as a main feature. Because of this, it is pretty much a guarantee that some of them don’t portray Christianity in a positive light. But, for the most part, some of the most iconic and well-known horror movies of all time do.
Ambiguity:
What really fascinated me as I was putting together information for this essay, was the film The Wicker Man. I watched it once when I was a teenager, but didn’t remember much of it. I decided to revisit it after listening to a podcast episode about it, and I was immediately struck by the ambiguity of it. The film revolves around Sergeant Howie, a devout Christian who finds himself to be the sacrifice for a pagan religion on May Day. Most people have very solid opinions on human sacrifice, and that isn’t what the film is trying to sell you on. It’s not trying to tell you that the residents of Summerisle are in the right for human sacrifice, that’s up to your own opinions. The ambiguity of it is that it refuses to tell you which religion is real or not, if either of them.
There’s a lot of horror in what Howie experiences as a fish out of water when he arrives on the island, with or without the sacrifice part of it. He’s a very devout Christian, going so far as to remind Willow that he plans to wait until marriage after she unsuccessfully tries to seduce him. He also berates a school-teacher for teaching the children about “corrupting the youth” with “filth” about the cycle of life in a way that doesn’t align with Christian views. Believing in Christianity as strongly as he does, there was certainly a lot of discomfort that he felt when faced with the beliefs of those that were so different from his. Aside from one’s own personal belief system and biases, one can imagine that he must’ve been in quite an uncomfortable situation. But what did the villagers think of him?
Lord Summerisle himself had some ulterior motivations and did not actually believe in the religion that he preached about. As he explains to Howie, his grandfather was able to create fruit trees on the island that would be able to be successful in Scotland’s climate. Because of this phenomenon, the islanders began to embrace this pagan lifestyle, as Summerisle’s encouragement. On the surface, this seems to be a very pro-Christian take, with the pagans being portrayed as liars. However, if you dig a little deeper, it gets a bit more complex. It seems, for the most part, that the villagers do believe fully in the religion that they practice. That is, every part of it – even the things we might consider horrific – is something that they deem to be for the greater good. The sacrifices are so that they can have a bountiful harvest, appeasing whatever gods they believe in. A less terrifying example would be the scene in the schoolroom that was mentioned previously. Howie’s words to the teacher were harsh and even aggressive simply because he believed Christianity was the right set of beliefs to have. From the teacher’s perspective this is an incredibly awkward, if not uncomfortable, moment.
Stefan Gullatz poses some very interesting thoughts about this in his article “The Wicker Man, The Uncanny, and the Clash of Moral Cultures”. He discusses a lot of deep and thought-provoking ideas as to the content and messaging in The Wicker Man, but this part sums up the differences between the two religions portrayed quite well: “... only modern traditions facilitated by a monotheistic faith impute to man a kind of evil depth, absent from primordial communities that are closer to nature, that remain embedded in the circuit of the eternal return of natural cycles and have therefore not yet been projected onto a historical teleology” (Gullatz). In short, Gullatz is reminding us that while more modern monotheistic faiths often believe in humans having an intrinsic dark side or evilness that they must make up for or be saved from, many older pagan faiths – especially those more in tune with nature – do not see humans this way. With this context in mind, it makes it even more difficult to discern which faith is meant to be good or correct here. Howie believes that everything the islanders are doing to prepare for May Day is wrong. Not just wrong, but morally impure. His upbringing gives him very different feelings towards himself and the inherent evilness of himself as a human being than what the islanders believe. The lines between good and evil – and the debate between Christians vs. Pagans – get even blurrier. That’s where the horror is, and that’s what makes the portrayal of religion in this film so utterly fascinating.
This is what is truly fascinating about this film. For all of the good and the bad of both sides, it’s difficult to decipher who is supposed to be the “good guy”. The bad guy is clearly Summerisle because he manipulated people into believing a religion and committed sacrifices he didn’t even believe in. But the islanders believed in what they were doing, and Howie believed in what he was doing.
This is such a different outlook than many horror movies that feature religion at all. There is usually a clear message of who you’re meant to side with, but The Wicker Man is more nuanced than that.
Backlash:
Whether these movies gave people positive associations with Christianity or not, they were often condemned by Catholics regardless. This came in the form of The National Legion of Decency (renamed in 1965 as the National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, or NCOMP). NCOMP’s purpose was to rate films based on how morally objectionable they were. Originally, there were three grades each film could possibly receive. If it received an “A”, it was morally unobjectionable and there was nothing wrong with it. If it received a “B”, there were parts of it that were morally objectionable, but not the whole thing. If it received a “C”, it was condemned (Kelly and Ford). While the Legion of Decency and NCOMP were not officially a branch of the Catholic church, many Catholics and Protestants followed their rulings anyway. By the time it ceased operations in 1980, the organization as a whole had reviewed over 15,00 feature films over the course of forty-five years. Rosemary’s Baby received condemnation from this organization, which isn’t all that surprising. Though the film doesn’t exactly advocate for Satanism, it certainly features it heavily and includes critiques of Catholicism. It also, of course, includes nudity and explicit sexual content. 1976’s Carrie was also condemned and considered religiously offensive. Dawn of the Dead (1978) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) are other notable examples of horror and horror-adjacent films that were condemned.
Unfortunately, because the organization was disbanded by 1980 – before horror movies got as popular as they are today – it’s hard to say how they would have felt about today’s horror films. It’s not hard to imagine, though.
Conclusion:
With all of this information in mind, it’s very clear that religious horror is perhaps one of the most iconic and most popular subgenres when it comes to Western horror films. It’s been there from the beginning, even in the days of silent films, and it isn’t going away anytime soon. Religion of any kind is clearly something that fascinates and even terrifies filmmakers, enough for them to make endless art and films about it. While it is impossible for anyone to say that every horror film portrays Christianity as “good” and everything else as “bad”, the trends are visible. Some films do have more ambiguity to them as well, and it will be interesting to see how these trends change in the future.
Citations:
Aster, Ari, director. Midsommar. Lionsgate, 2019, Accessed 2024.
Carstensen, Thorsten. “Is It Really Happening? The Postmodern Horror of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby.” American Studies in Scandinavia, vol. 55, no. 2, Dec. 2023, https://doi.org/10.22439/asca.v55i2.7039.
Crane, Cassidy. “Midsommar (2019): Is ‘Good for Her’ the New Final Girl?” Denison Digital Commons, digitalcommons.denison.edu/articulate/vol28/iss1/7.
Doiron, Zachary. “Possession, Politics, and Patriotism: The Influence of Christian Nationalism and Evangelical Horror Tropes onThe ConjuringandThe Conjuring 2.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, vol. 35, no. 3, Feb. 2023, pp. 119–35. https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.2021-0004.
Evans, Gareth, director. Apostle. Netflix, 2018, Accessed 2024.
Friedkin, William, director. The Exorcist. Warner Bros. Pictures, Accessed 2024.
Gullatz, Stefan (2005) 'The Wicker Man', The Uncanny, and the Clash of Moral Cultures. In: Franks, B., Harper, S., Murray, J., Stevenson, L. (eds), 'Constructing the Wicker Man: Film and Cultural Studies Perspectives'. University of Glasgow Crichton Publications, Dumfries, pp. 189-205.
Hardy, Robin, director. The Wicker Man. British Lion Films, Accessed 2024.
Kelly, Gerald, and John C. Ford. “The Legion of Decency.” Theological Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, Sept. 1957, pp. 387–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/004056395701800303.
Craig, Steve. “Out of Eden: The Legion of Decency, the FCC, and Mae West’s 1937 Appearance on The Chase & Sanborn Hour.” Journal of Radio Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, 2006, pp. 232–48, https://doi.org/10.1080/10955040701313388.
Wan, James, director. The Conjuring. Warner Bros. Pictures, Accessed 2024.
Wan, James, director. The Conjuring 2. Warner Bros. Pictures, Accessed 2024.