Christians Should Watch More Horror Films

"What I was watching five years ago..."

You know sometimes you stumble across things that you might have written a long time ago? Well I found this from five years ago that I wrote for some now extinct magazine and seeing as it’s kind of seasonal I thought I’d blog it (despite it being more than a little twee, and I won't vouch for its quality)… Remember - you don't have to read it!!

Christians Should Watch More Horror Films

By Matt Adcock

Halloween looms large once again, the ceremonial pumpkins are lining up to be gouged and you can’t move for plastic skeletons in the shops. This is the time when scary things are celebrated and witches and wizards will be getting together even if only to discuss what they think the plots cuts being made in the new Harry Potter movie.

Here in the UK, some student named Ian Stratton is purported to be conducting his PhD thesis on creatures that go bump in the night at Cheltenham and Gloucester College, where he has until 2007 to research the psychology behind terrifying monsters and fictional beasts.

He is reading into the creation of scary creatures and researching just why they terrify us. Asked why he is doing it he said: "My main topic of interest will be monsters in film and television over the last decade and researching why civilised 21st century society still needs these creatures. I want to find out about different kinds of monsters, from the bug-eyed kind in classic 1950s films to the more human kind like Hannibal Lecter.”
He lists his top five scary films and TV shows as:

1. Halloween - "Jamie Lee Curtis can't be beaten."
2. Silence of the Lambs - "The scariest monster is the kind that could be sitting next to you in the cinema."
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - "It looks fantastic."
4. Angel - "The darker spin-off from Buffy."
5. Dr Who - "I remember how much those plastic creatures terrified me as a seven-year-old."
Read more about his PhD here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1434672.stm

It will be interesting to see what conclusions Mr Stratton comes up with because I have often wondered just why so many of us seek out horror, to enjoy being scared. But surely you don’t believe in all those myths, folk tales and occult babblings? What if there really were monsters outside our houses and our lives were at the mercy of a witches’ spell? Where would we turn to fight the evil if it was manifest – last time I looked there weren’t many Vampire Slayers listed in our yellow pages in Hitchin.

Christians though actually have a very useful contact when it comes to dealing with evil (in any form) - you know... God yeah? 

Last week I watched a pretty so-so DVD called ‘Bless The Child’, it was by all accounts a scary movie complete with depictions of demons prompting the villains in their attempts to prevent people ‘turning to God’. What I liked most about it however was the fact that the spiritual forces of good also managed to make an appearance in an excellent ‘bright light’ way.

Here’s my smiley wrap up comment (you know how these things always look so cringe worthy when you read them years later)… Please bear with me… Perhaps this Halloween as the deluge of horror takes centre stage across the media and through our towns, it can serve to remind us that evil isn’t the only option or even on the winning team.

"Angela Bettis... spooky but hot!?"

Darkmatters: H O M E