Religion and Horror Onscreen

This chapter continues the discussion begun in the first edition of this book. The first section discusses the definition of religion the author considers most useful for scholars of religion and film, that provided by William James, in terms of the value added by such concepts as the “unseen order” and the good, moral, and decent fallacy. Following this, the chapter reintroduces the concept of sociophobics, the cultural construction of human fearing, especially as it relates to religion and horror. The second section extends this discussion with a consideration of the research advantages wrought by advances in technology, most importantly, the introduction of portable reproduction and replay technologies, such as tape cassettes, DVDs, and now, online streaming. In brief, it is not the case that horror has nothing to teach us about the religion, or vice versa. Rather, because both religion and horror are concerned with the same set of perennial questions about life and death, good and evil, and so forth, they should not be considered competitors in the arena of human imagination, but cultural siblings telling each other the same scary stories.