Friday, July 29, 2005

Can We Learn Something From Horror Movies?

I read a couple of interesting articles off of the Hollywood Jesus website concerning The Devil's Rejects, a horror movie directed by Rob Zombie (who was the frontman for the band White Zombie, and then went onto a solo career).

Although I never have had any desire to see this movie, I went to Hollywood Jesus to see if someone actually was brave enough to go see this movie and review it - from what I've heard, it's a nasty blood and gore fest. Again, not my type of movie, really.

However, after reading Kevin Miller's take on the movie, it has made me think about horror movies and if we as Christians can learn something from them, and not only learn but grow from them. I'm certainly not advocating going to your local Blockbuster, finding the worst horror movies you can find, and then watch them for spiritual meaning and growth - but it did give me something to think about.

Here is the two-part review:

  • Part One


  • Part Two
  • 3 comments:

    Mike said...

    i saw Zombie's first movie, "House of 1000 corpses." although i love the horror genre, this movie was awful. It was basically a said excuse for gore and a terrible rip-off of "A Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

    As for the new movie, i will wait for it to come to HBO, but i will most likely waste 2 hours of my life trying to endure it.

    Why the fascination with horror? I think there is a spiritual and psychological reason. Psychologically, fear creats endorphins and adrenaline, much like the reaction from riding a roller coaster or getting a tattoo (both of which i am addicted to.) the release of these chemicals into our system creates a euphoric feeling. It feels good to be scared. If it did not, why would we ride roller coaster, go to "haunted houses," or watch scary movies?
    As for the spiritual aspect, horror movies tend to give us a peak at a segment of life that most Christians are sheltered from (the people without faith) most horror movies revolve around a hero or heroin who has lost their faith (in themselves, fellow man, or God). Through the movie, they overcome terrible obstacles and by the end of the movie they have reclaimed their faith. this is relative to many of our personal struggles with spirituality. and this is why we watch this type of movie.

    Mike said...

    ooops


    It was basically a said excuse for gore and a terrible rip-off of "A Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

    should have been It was basically a sad excuse for gore and a terrible rip-off of "A Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

    Rochelle said...

    I agree with Mike in that there are people who like that feeling of fear and the rush of adrenaline Certain nurses go into ER and ICU nursing for the same reason The scariest movies I've seen are "Rosemary's Baby" with Mia Farrow and "The Omen"with Gregory Peck I think I was intruigued by those movies because in the back of my mind I thought "What if this could be true"and it was a focus on the antichrist the ultimate evil in my mind There was definitely a spiritual theme in both those movies The Omen especially had connections to passages in Revelations and the tribulation period