His friends were aiming only to be able to laugh and say, “Made you look!” Yet Alypius would go a lot farther than one look. As his friends dragged poor, pious Alypius to the gladiator games, he assured them that, fine, he would go with them—but he would keep his eyes shut the whole time.
But he hadn’t resolved to shut his ears.
When a gladiator fell, fatally stabbed, the cheer from the Coliseum crowd was so loud that curiosity overtook Alypius. He opened his eyes and found himself mesmerized by the blood and savagery. He couldn’t look away. After that day, he kept coming back again and again to the gladiator games, “drunken with the bloody pastime.”[1]
Eventually, Alypius would go on to renounce the games. Joining him in repentance would be his friend and mentor Augustine, as he renounced his own addiction to sexual immorality. It’s in Augustine’s book The Confessions that we are introduced to Alypius and a first-taste-of-blood that awakened a dark obsession.
So, which version of Alypius had it right? When it comes to spectacles that are fascinatingly frightening, should we keep our eyes closed or is it okay to consume what we can stomach?
“Should Christians watch horror movies?” is a hairy, complicated question, and it won’t help us to pretend that it’s simpler than it is. But if we can navigate the complexities, I believe past that threshold we can arrive at a couple helpful principles that will guide us when it comes to horror movies and beyond. Sound good? Let’s first look at what makes this a complicated question.
What Is a Horror Movie?
One complexity is that it can be difficult to define a horror movie. Can a movie be both action/adventure and horror? Is it a horror movie if the gore is more ridiculous than realistic? Can a movie be all suspense, little-to-no violence, and still be considered a horror film?
Nearly every non-Hallmark movie contains scary scenes (I still get wiped out by the spinning wheel scene in Sleeping Beauty), but horror movies merit the label when their primary intention is to cause fear and repulsion. Any scenario ripe for causing fear can do the trick, and thus we see horror movies based on anything from aliens to chainsaws, split personalities to sharks, demon possession to medical experiments, being killed in your dreams to becoming a living dead.
It’s possible that a horror movie might have a higher purpose than merely to scare you, such as to scare you into something. For example, this might be to scare you into reducing your carbon footprint (as in the otherwise insightful M. Night Shyamalan’s grotesque The Happening) or into saying the sinner’s prayer (as in the 1970s Rapture movies). This can be done tastefully, as in the 2023 Christian horror film Nefarious, which artfully opens our eyes to demonic tactics for maximal human destruction.
“Any scenario ripe for causing fear can do the trick, and thus we see horror movies based on anything from aliens to chainsaws, split personalities to sharks, demon possession to medical experiments, being killed in your dreams to becoming a living dead.”
Why Are People Drawn to Horror Movies?
Horror films seem to be the reverse of Hallmark movies, in that one is watched in order to feel cozy while the other is watched in order to feel shocked and scared. There can be something novel, stimulating, and even mesmerizing to seeing the unseeable, something which would make you recoil and run away in real life.
There can be a paradox in seeking out what’s scary in that some find it empowering to lean into their fears. Maybe if they face their darkest imaginable fears through the screen, the familiarity can give whatever they’re scared of less power over them. A parallel would be how, in the pagan festival Samhain (one of the precursors to Halloween), you would dress up as a scary spirit in order to trick actual spirits into thinking you were one of them. Participating in what was fearful could give you a protective layer of familiarity.
A drawback though is that the goalpost for thrills can keep an unhealthy distance, such that it’ll take more jump scares, more macabre, more chainsaw decapitations, more titillation. What’s more is that bloodlust usually demands more of what’s innocent and beautiful to corrupt, such that societal and sacred lines need crossed, for example, into killer dolls, antichrist babies, and possessed children and nuns. We would need to see those tasked with making us smile (i.e., clowns) instead to make us bleed while smiling at us. We would need those tasked with healing us (i.e., doctors) to use their tools of healing instead to mutilate us.
“There can be something novel, stimulating, and even mesmerizing to seeing the unseeable, something which would make you recoil and run away in real life.”
Is there a case to be made that desensitization toward what’s scary can make us less scared and more resilient? Perhaps so. But let’s also be clear that some horror movies go beyond aiming for the thrill of fear or even the numbing of desensitization. When the camera shot, at the moment of carnage, switches to the point of view of the killer, it’s at some level an invitation to participate. This is even more the case if the movie is made into a video game, as with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, in which you can play as Leatherhead if you want. Desensitivity easily becomes moral ambiguity. After all, when the murderer is the last man standing when the credits roll, whom are you supposed to root for?
In short, people are drawn to the horror genre to feel the thrill of fear, and perhaps to feel an empowering familiarity with fear. And yet thrill’s ever-shifting goalpost may well coax us into something more frightening than the Dracula bite or the severed head. You might find yourself rooting for and even identifying with evil.
Horror in the Bible
If you look up the word “horror” in the Bible, you’ll find that it’s used at least a couple ways. First, something can be a horror to you. As in, a scary scenario can seize you with horror. For example, Psalm 55:5 (NIV) says that because of the enemy’s threats and internal anguish, “Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.”
Second, you can become a horror—something that people look at and recoil from. If the people of God rejected God, renounced His commands, and gave their allegiance to idols,
“You will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.” (Deuteronomy 28:25b-29, NIV)
Either sense of horror—whether something became a horror to you or you became a horror which repulsed others—was judgment from God. So, if the ancient Israelites were thinking clearly when they heard these promises of Deuteronomy 28, they would realize the utter ridiculousness of trying to placate the neighboring gods by worshiping idols. The idols weren’t the ones to fear.
“Either sense of horror—whether something became a horror to you or you became a horror which repulsed others—was judgment from God.”
So, the Bible doesn’t exactly fit into the Hallmark genre, because there’s plenty of scary stuff in it: leprosy, crucifixion, demon possession, hell. But it’s not horror genre either. And why? Well, is its primary intention for the reader fear and repulsion? Or is it peace and hope?
Would Jesus Watch Horror Movies?
For anyone who enjoys horror movies, this question sounds like a cheap gotcha. But I think it’s a good question, and, as we’ll see, it deserves a thoughtful answer.
But first, let’s point to a principle that is well-established in Scripture, and, if we’re honest, one that makes a ton of sense. God wants our attention. And you know who else wants it? If the exorcists are to be believed, demons relish drawing our attention away from God by causing us to fear and participate in evil. There’s a logical connection between fearing evil and participating in it, as quite a lot of sin happens when we take our eyes off God and say, “Well, I’ve simply got to do such-and-such, even if it’s technically forbidden. If I don’t, then . . . [insert what we’re scared of, whether being unhappy or unpopular or unloved].”
“If the exorcists are to be believed, demons relish drawing our attention away from God by causing us to fear and participate in evil.”
By contrast, joy makes sin unnecessary, which is one reason God wants us to concentrate on what brings joy and not fear. He says “fear not” some 365 times throughout the Bible, and in fear’s place are all kinds of good things we are to fill our minds with:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 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. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:4-9, NIV)
True, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy—these are all things horror movies tend to chop up, desecrate, and make into something revolting. If God guards us from evil by filling us with peace—and if He fills us with peace by drawing our minds toward what is true, noble, and beautiful—then wouldn’t it be counterproductive to fill our minds with objects of horror? And then wouldn’t choosing to dwell on and soak in horrors eventually turn us into horrors ourselves?
We become like what we dwell on, which is why, when we “contemplate the Lord’s glory,” we ourselves “are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV).
“We become like what we dwell on.”
So, what does that mean, if you call yourself a Christian? Only Hallmark movies from here on? I certainly hope not. And this brings us back to the question, “Would Jesus watch horror movies?” I can’t say for sure, but I would like to bring up an episode in Jesus’ life that gives us a clue.
It’s become common knowledge that Jesus wept at the grave of His friend Lazarus (whom He would raise from the dead in a matter of moments). It’s clear that Jesus grieved death. What’s lesser known about is another feeling Jesus had before visiting the tomb. He was surrounded by people grieving Lazarus’s death, including Lazarus’s sister Mary. John 11:33 (NIV) says, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” The wording here actually speaks more of anger and frustration than sadness.
Why would Jesus be troubled by death? It’s because He knew, better than anybody, that this wasn’t the way things were meant to be. Jesus apparently never got over being troubled by disease, death, and demon possession, because He kept responding to them by setting things right—healing the sick, raising the dead, and freeing the person from the demon.
In short, Jesus wasn’t afraid of these things (thanks to His power), but He was troubled by them (thanks to His compassion).
“Jesus wasn’t afraid of these things (thanks to His power), but He was troubled by them (thanks to His compassion).”
Consider what horror movies do by contrast. Bingeing on the horrific tends to dial up our fears while dialing down our capacity to be troubled by them. In horror films, we immerse in ever-scarier horrors—such that we stop being troubled by what should horrify us. Again, becoming desensitive can lead to moral ambiguity and even cheering for and identifying with evil.
Jesus flips on the light, if we let Him. We don’t have to be afraid of the horrors. But as “children of light” (Ephesians 5:8), we do need to be troubled by them. If you’re finding yourself increasingly afraid of scary scenarios and yet untroubled by evil, you might take an honest look at the movies you’ve been watching. And even better, take a longer, lingering look, each day, at the only One who sends the darkness shrieking and tripping over itself to get away from His presence.
[1] Augustine, “23. Augustine: Confessions—The Gladiators’ Show,” The Confessions (Book VI), PressBooks, https://pressbooks.cuny.edu/philosophyashorthistory3/chapter/__unknown__-18/#:~:text=For%2C%20being%20utterly%20opposed%20to,and%20deadly%20shows%2C%20he%20thus.