Introducing ‘Holy Horror,’ a new column by Rachel Bolton

Hello readers of Scriptophobic! As we head into a new year and a new decade, I decided it’s time for something different. Starting in January, I will be writing a new monthly column, Holy Horror, where I analyze twelve films that see horror and religion intersect. 

Comparative religion is a subject I’ve been interested in for a long time, and I thought it was time to combine that interest with my love of the horror genre. I’ve written about this before for the site when I covered Aislinn Clarke’s The Devil’s Doorway (2018). The article was a huge hit and it got me thinking about other religious horror movies I could write about. In Holy Horror I’ll be asking questions like, but not limited to, “How does religion impact the storytelling in these films?” “Is it a help or a hindrance to the characters?” “Is religion on the side of good or evil?” “Did the filmmakers do their research to portray the religions accurately?” 

You won’t see some classics of the genre like The Exorcist (1973) or Rosemary’s Baby (1968) covered here, nor will recent films like anything from The Conjuring (2013-) Franchise or Midsommar (2019) be featured. Why? Enough people have written about them and retreading on familiar territory is not what I want Holy Horror to be about. Never fear, I have curated a strong list with a variety of subgenres like mockumentary, thriller, historical, giallo, plus one that was not even intended to be a horror movie.

And since this is to be a comparative religious-horror column, I won’t only be covering films with Christianity/Catholicism as the defining theological framework. We are gonna have that, sure, but also more (including cults, Jewish folklore, Muslim mythology and Paganism).

I hope you find this study as interesting as I do and that maybe you will watch some new films – or even look at old ones in new ways. First up, I’ll be covering one of the scariest mockumenataries of all time.

As for my regular (regular-ish, let’s be honest) column Everything But Bone, don’t worry it’s not dead. I have more articles planned, but for 2020 the focus will be on Holy Horror.