Should Catholics Watch Horror Movies? (Series #6)

A deep dive into a controversial genre

It is my personal belief that something around 75% of horror movies are not worth watching.

Why such an extreme statistic? Because ever since the 1970s (coinciding with the end of the Production Code) the vast majority of horror films have been churned out as cheap, vulgar shock entertainment for the public: they’re easy to make and have an audience that is typically pretty easy to please. Megaproducer Jason Blum (Blumhouse Productions) has made a living off of making low-budget horror films that easily double, triple, and even quintuple their budgets with their grosses. Out of the tens of thousands of horror films produced, most of them are either sequels in prolonged franchises such as Friday the 13th and Halloween or direct-to-video schlock.

I also make such a statement to invoke caution; the last thing I would want would be to introduce a series on the horror genre only for it to be misleadingly used as an excuse for young, impressionable Catholics to watch movies that they should not. In this article, I will be describing some of the benefits of watching select movies in this genre, when it is done right. And, as we will see, it is very rare to find films that get it right.

Allow me to explain my own philosophy on where horror falls on the scale of important cinematic art by modeling after The Philosopher himself. Aristotle, in his Ethics, best describes virtues by first showing what they are not; in this case by their vices of excess and of deficiency.

For example, in regard to humility:

Humility, in this case, is best defined as the “golden mean” between pusillanimity, which is most easily described as a lack of self-worth, and arrogance, which is an over-inflation of one’s self-worth. Humility, then, is defined as a right estimate of one’s self: a perfect balance of knowing one’s true self worth in the eyes of God.

What does this have to do with movie genres?

There is probably a larger discussion to be had at large about which exact genres’ consumption are most ordered to assisting in the living of a good Christian life, but that won’t be happening here. Instead, I am going to employ the method seen above to illuminate how I think horror compares to that evergreen staple of cinema: the thriller. Described by Catholic author and screenwriter Graham Greene as the “perfect genre” for film¹, one could argue (I certainly would) that the thriller embodies not only many of the essential trappings of story found within Aristotle’s Poetics (necessity of a cohesive plot, character revealed through action, etc.), but also is similar to the horror genre in it’s intention to really keep an audience “on edge” throughout its runtime.

Therefore I have created a similar mock-up to the one above, placing the thriller as the golden mean of film genres:

This graphic is not meant to necessarily meant to demonize either the comedy or horror genre (that would be ironic considering the last series we did was on silent comedies) but to show part of why it’s harder to make good comedies and horror movies than it is to make something closer to a thriller. Making a comedy film can be difficult because you can’t rely on the same kind of stakes as the thriller (some try and fail) and you must rely on smart visual gags and a talented cast working with intentionally one-note characters. A horror film’s characters are usually not meant to proceed on any meaningful arc but are meant to contrast the evil which is the real centerpiece of the movie. And in a world that has lost its sense of what constitutes “good characters”, oftentimes the characters one is supposed to be rooting for are living pretty hedonistic, selfish lives to begin with.

Of course, it should be noted that many straight dramas fulfill the “perfect balance” that the thriller hits: films like A Man for All Seasons, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Godfather all sufficiently blend robust characters with very real and palpable stakes that leave the audience sufficiently invested throughout. There are also a lot of thrillers that seem like horror because they use elements from the genre, such as The Sixth Sense, Shutter Island, or 10 Cloverfield Lane, that actually would not be considered true horror.

So what constitutes a good horror film?

Sometimes, there comes a thriller story that deals with an evil so terrifying that it requires a level of sufficient scariness that will communicate the evil properly to an audience. In horror literature (Frankenstein, Dracula) this is done through description; in cinema this is done through many means, including performance, makeup, special effects etc. The evil must be contrasted with a truly good person who wishes either to escape or defeat the evil. Sometimes that means showing violence in order to communicate real danger and the heightened stakes: however it should be a necessary byproduct of the story, not the main reason the film is made. Many contemporary horror films exist solely to show off different means of violence and mutilation (the Saw and Final Destination franchises).

In recent years, as franchises like the MCU and Star Wars have increasingly little stakes as previously dead characters are never really gone, my interest in horror films has certainly increased. Though they were far from perfect, I did enjoy both 28 Years Later and Weapons this year for their unpredictability and interesting premises, although I would say Weapons functions more as true horror in the sense I have described.

Our list of selected horror films will comprise an entire century of filmmaking, to give a sense of how the genre has developed in both style and substance. However, I would like to conclude by pointing out a horror film that we have included on our original list that you might not have ever though of as one: The Passion of the Christ.

Not only does this film highlight the evil of Satan and the act of killing Jesus, but also effectively uses many methods of horror filmmaking in order to fully tell the brutal story of Our Lord’s Passion. These methods are used particularly well in showing the fall of Judas and the portrayal of Satan/demons. Watching the film invokes a proper horror at the violence that Jesus subjected Himself to for love of us, justifying the graphic display of blood and torture.

Let us know in the comments what you think about horror films! We hope you enjoy this series.

EDIT: For more on the subject, feel free to check out my episode on “Movie Crusade” where we discuss this very topic!

1. He did write one that is on our list, after all