G.K. Chesterton's Defense of Scary Stories from a Christian Perspective

G.K. Chesterton was a mystery writer, literary critic, and revered Catholic theologian. On October 16th 1909, he wrote an article for The Daily News titled "The Nightmare", which is a work of literary criticism regarding why scary stories are so delightful, but also their potential dangers. Unlike later reactionary Christians, Chesterton is fully on board with the telling and enjoying of scary stories, so long as we remember that they are nothing more than "toys".

Many Christians believe scary stories are evil in themselves, because they associate anything scary with what they interpret as bad feelings as opposed to what they interpret is good, but there is no such thing as an evil story, unless the person hearing the story is evil and when hearing it abandons any sense of Christian hope that lies in his heart. A story changes perspective depending on one's beliefs and disposition, and when a true Christian hears a scary story it will always be with a Christian perspective, and as long as the temptation to judge it as merely evil or demonic is avoided, it can be beneficial if the story contains even a kernel of benefit, and usually scary stories do (for example, in scary stories evil is usually viewed as bad and the audience is usually encouraged to root for the good). It is the same as reading the Bible, where one's interpretation of it first and foremost depends on their personal beliefs and disposition - to some it can inspire piety and holiness while to others it could inspire unimaginable horrors, rebellion and even murder.

You can read "The Nightmare" here, though he does touch more on this subject in other writings of his as well. Below is an excerpt:

Horror Movies Resource Page

21 Horror Movies That May Interest Orthodox Christians

 

Top Fifteen Horror Films of the Decade (2010-2019) 

 

Christians and Horror: Three Views

 

A Theology of Horror Movies

 
How Pious Christians Approach Stories of Evil Things of Wicked Persons 

 

The Critique of Pure Horror

 

The Monsters Among Us

 

Haunting Theology: How the Gothic Mode Can Speak to Christians

 

Towards a Theology of Gore 

 

Shining Light Into the Darkness of Horror Tales

 

Cosmic Horror vs. Sacred Terror: Finding Meaning in Modern Horror

 

A Cinema of Evil: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Witchcraft & the Occult   

Video: Draculas, Vampires and Popular Culture

 

Vampires and Religion in Popular Culture 

Christopher Lee Discusses Black Magic in 1975 (video)

 

Halloween and the Aesthetic of Evil

 

How to Explain Spirituality To A Faithless Generation According to Guillermo del Toro 

 

Scott Derrickson, the Most Interesting Filmmaker in Hollywood

 

Filmmaker Scott Derrickson Interviewed on Horror and his Christian Faith

 

Horror: The Perfect Christian Genre 

 

How a Horror Movie Inspired Me to Begin Studying the Bible  

Horror Movies and the Cross - The Cross in the Very First Horror Movie from 1896

 

Horror Movies and the Cross - Five Favorite Scenes Displaying the Power of the Cross  

Horror Movies and the Cross - Censored Cemetery Crucifix Scene from "Bride of Frankenstein"

 

 An Image of Death's Relentless Approach

 

The Creepiest Scene in Jesus Film History

 

Movie: "Dracula In Istanbul" (1953)

 

Vlad the Impaler as Romanians See Him

 

Alfred Hitchcock Presents - "The Ikon of Elijah" (1960)

 

The Cultural Impact Of "The Exorcist" (Released December 26, 1973)  

 

Vasiliki Maliaros, the Greek Who Played a Pivotal Role in "The Exorcist"

Thoughts on Watchfulness and Vigilance After Watching "A Nightmare on Elm Street"

 

Movie: "Saints Cyprian and Justina"

 

The Movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula": Interesting Facts for Orthodox Christians 

 

An Interesting Comment by Francis Ford Coppola on Orthodox Christianity  

 

The Christian Brothers and Message Behind the 'Conjuring' Films

 

Movie Review: "Let the Right One In" (2008)

 

Trailer: "Strigoi" (2009)

 

Joseph Laycock: Vampires and "Twilight"  

 

Movie: "The Crucifixion" (2017)

 

Trailer for "Vampir", a New Film Inspired By 18th Century Serbian Vampire Tales 

 

Frankenstein And The Vampyre - A Dark and Stormy Night (Documentary)  

 

Movie Review: "Let the Right One In" (2008)

Movie Review: "Beyond the Hills" (An Orthodox Christian Perspective)

 

Movie Review: "The Witch: A New England Folktale" (2015)

 

 

Trailer for "Vampir", a New Film Inspired By 18th Century Serbian Vampire Tales

Vampir (2021) is a soon to be released art house horror film directed by Branko Tomovic.

According to the description: "The story takes place in rural central Serbia, where the myth about vampires originates from. After witnessing a crime in London and looking for a place to hide for a while, Arnaut is offered a job by charming yet ruthless local Vesna to look after a cemetery in a small remote village in Serbia. He soon starts to have nightmarish visions and is frequently visited by the mysterious older woman Baba Draga who guides Arnaut into the darkness. Only the village priest seems to be trying to keep him safe from the sinister intentions of the villagers."

Horror Movies and the Cross - Censored Cemetery Crucifix Scene from "Bride of Frankenstein"

Screen shot of the censored scene.

Bride of Frankenstein is the 1935 sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film Frankenstein, both directed by James Whale and star Boris Karloff as the Monster.

Whereas little was censored in the first Frankenstein, by the mid-1930s the rules about violence and other potentially offensive content in public entertainment were strict.

Joseph Breen, director of the Production Code Administration, and an Irish Catholic, made many recommendations regarding what was appropriate and what wasn’t for Bride. At this time, if a script didn’t receive the PCA’s seal of approval, it simply wasn’t getting produced.

Horror Movies and the Cross - Five Favorite Scenes Displaying the Power of the Cross

Many horror movies especially of recent times downplay the power of the Cross to give more of a sense of the unstoppable power of a particular evil entity, but there are still many horror films that offer displays of its power in the face of an encounter with evil. Usually these scenes are dealing with vampires and demons. Below are five of my favorite scenes among many that I was able to locate online (*be warned that some of these scenes may be viewed as scary by certain viewers*):

 

1. Dracula (1931)

 

 

 

2. Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) 

 

 

 

3. The Devil Rides Out (1967) 

 

 

 

4. Fright Night (1985) 

 

 

 

5. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 

 

 

 

Horror Movies and the Cross - The Cross in the Very First Horror Movie from 1896

 

Horror movies go back to the very origins of film, specifically to 1896, when French special-effects genius Georges Méliès made the three plus minute short, Le Manoir du Diable (The Manor of the Devil, otherwise known in English as The Haunted Castle).

Méliès, known for his silent sci-fi fantasy A Trip to the Moon — and for the tribute paid to him in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo — used his innovative methods to tell a story of “a large bat that flies into a room and transforms into Mephistopheles. He then stands over a cauldron and conjures up a girl along with some phantoms and skeletons and witches. Two men then enter the room to examine the matter, and are soon frightened and tempted by the conjurings of Mephistopheles, until finally one of them grabs a large crucifix from the wall and the devil disappears.” Though a quick and concise story, and as scary as a walk through a very short haunted house with a bunch of frights flying at you from all directions, still it is an excellent example of a technique Méliès supposedly discovered that very year. According to Earlycinema.com,
 

Vasiliki Maliaros, the Greek Who Played a Pivotal Role in "The Exorcist"

 

 

"Dimmy, please Dimmy why you do this to me Dimmy?"

Anyone who has seen the horror film The Exorcist remembers well the face and especially the deeply Greek accented (even demonic) voice of Father Damien Karras' mother, but few know anything about her. Well, her name is Vasiliki Maliaros (Βασιλική Μαλλιαρού), and today would have been her birthday.

Vasiliki Maliaros was born on October 16, 1883 in Athens, Greece and emigrated with her family at a young age to New York City. Director William Friedkin "discovered" her in a Greek Bronx diner when she was 88 years old and invited her to play a pivotal role in his latest film which was to be released in 1973, The Exorcist, as Maria Karras. Friedkin had gone to many Greek diners before filming began looking for a woman who fit the Greek motherly role perfectly, and when he heard the voice of Vasiliki and saw her face, he knew she was perfect for the part. The only problem was, being in her late 80's, she had never acted before; of course, you wouldn't know it from watching her lovable yet sometimes creepy performance in the one and only film she ever made.

How Pious Christians Approach Stories of Evil Things of Wicked Persons

 

 

"For if history relates good things of good men, the attentive hearer is excited to imitate that which is good; or if it mentions evil things of wicked persons, nevertheless the religious and pious hearer or reader, shunning that which is hurtful and perverse, is the more earnestly excited to perform those things which he knows to be good, and worthy of God."

- Venerable Bede (Eccl. Hist., Bk. 1, Preface)

The Creepiest Scene in Jesus Film History

The King of Kings

(1927)

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille

Despite the odor of sanctity around the set and production, DeMille began his Jesus-epic with a thoroughly extra-biblical episode at the lavish pleasure palace of the high-living and scantily-clad Mary Magdalene, played by the beautiful Jacqueline Logan. When Mary Magdalene discovers that one of her lovers, Judas Iscariot, has forsaken her to follow a certain preacher from Nazareth, she leaves the party-in-progress, hops on her chariot, and rides off to gain him back. When she finally meets Jesus, there follows one of the most dramatic and frightening and in my opinion greatest scenes in Jesus-film history. The scene depicts the seven ghostly deadly sins reluctantly being exorcised from her body, by the use of simple double exposures. Up to this point, this is the high point in the film. After this dramatic and unusual opening, with its sexual lustiness, which DeMille knew would draw people into the story, the film begins its conventional and reverential treatment of the incidents of Jesus' life.

Thoughts on Watchfulness and Vigilance After Watching "A Nightmare on Elm Street"

I was at my local drive-in theater a few days ago watching the 1984 original A Nightmare on Elm Street, which I've seen at least a dozen times over the years, though this was my first time outdoors in the woods. For those who don't know, the movie centers around the spirit of Freddy Krueger, who in life was a serial killer that targeted children, and who now uses a gloved hand with razors to kill his victims in their dreams, causing their deaths in the real world as well. The more I see this film, the more I see Orthodox Christian themes of watchfulness and vigilance that one often encounters in its literature.

Top Fifteen Horror Films of the Decade (2010-2019)

When horror fans look back at the horror movies that were made in the 2010s, a number of prevailing themes emerge when it comes to what frightened audiences most. Over the course of the decade, audiences said goodbye to the found footage and "torture porn" trends, as the Paranormal Activity and Saw franchises stagnated, instead seeing both an embrace of styles that had dwindled in previous years, as well as ambitious filmmakers taking unconventional approaches to tales of terror. The growing number of platforms for horror stories saw the world of TV and streaming services compete for attention, but an impressive number of horror movies left an indelible mark on the genre on the big screen.

How to Explain Spirituality To A Faithless Generation According to Guillermo del Toro

When dogma and religion are rejected, it is often the case that fantasy and art replace them to fulfill the human need for something that is beyond the everyday and mundane. When Dostoevsky said in The Idiot that "beauty will save the world," one way this can be interpreted is by looking at fantasy and art that explore spiritual themes metaphorically.

For director Guillermo del Toro, who early on rejected the dogmas of Catholicism, questions of faith are continually explored through metaphor. He said in a 2008 USA Today interview:

The Cultural Impact Of "The Exorcist" (Released December 26, 1973)

Thanks to inflation, box-office records seem to get broken every few weeks, but looking at the adjusted highest-grossing films list, one of the top ten features sticks out more than any other: William Friedkin‘s 1973 horror The Exorcist, considered by many to be the scariest film of all time. Besting even Avatar when it comes to adjusted domestic grosses, the film racked up $232 million in the U.S., which is over $900 million by today’s standards.

Filmmaker Scott Derrickson Interviewed on Horror and his Christian Faith

By Steven D. Greydanus

Scott Derrickson is a very nice guy who makes movies about things that aren’t very nice.

Articulate, thoughtful and disarmingly frank, Derrickson is a rare outspoken Christian in Hollywood. He’s also a horror filmmaker and aficionado probably been best known for the 2005 supernatural thriller The Exorcism of Emily Rose — though his recent deal with Marvel to bring the comic-book character Doctor Strange to the big screen changes that in a big way.

I recently caught up with Derrickson in Manhattan, where he held forth at length on horror, faith, art and Catholicism. (Our sprawling 45-minute interview covered more ground than I can do justice to in this article; you can watch the full video review on my blog.)

How a Horror Movie Inspired Me to Begin Studying the Bible

By John Sanidopoulos

It was 1988. I was twelve years old. My aunt was babysitting my older two sisters and I and she decided to take us to the movies. There were no good PG rated movies my aunt wanted to see, but then she saw a movie starring Demi Moore that she did really want to see, however it was rated R. My aunt asked me if I wanted to see it, but I was nervous to see a rated R horror movie, as I was easily frightened by horror films as a child, and this would also be the very first rated R movie I would ever see in a theater. I gave in, half excited and half nervous. The movie we were going to watch was called The Seventh Seal.

21 Horror Movies That May Interest Orthodox Christians

Orthodox Christianity is often talked about as being mystical and strange, which lends itself well in the horror genre. Greek and Slavic folklore also provide for it unique creatures and frightening tales. Most do not realize how many Orthodox themes or items of interest uniquely to an Orthodox audience are shown in horror films, which is why I compiled a list of some of my favorites below. Most of these can be found and streamed online (feel free to contact me if you can't locate them). If you are a horror movie fan, I recommend them all. If you don't like horror movies, I recommend none. View at your own discretion.

Halloween and the Aesthetic of Evil

By G. Shane Morris

A while back, my friend Steven Wedgeworth wrote an outstanding essay over at The Calvinist International on the origins of Halloween. It’s an annual must-read. The gist is that Halloween is not some ancient pagan festival or even Christian subversion of demonic shenanigans (as a lot of Christian writers have claimed over the years). The truth is far more boring. Halloween as we know it is really little more than a 20th century invention designed to sell stuff.

Movie: "The Crucifixion" (2017)

Inspired by the true story of a Romanian Orthodox nun who was killed after an exorcism gone wrong in 2005, the movie The Crucifixion has been released, even though a critically acclaimed film was already made in 2012 called Beyond the Hills.

Towards a Theology of Gore

By Daniel Otto Jack Petersen

Fake blood dripping from mouths and fake blades protruding from faux wounds on Halloween. It's as much a part of the ludic pageantry as monsters and webs and gravestones and the rest. What do we make of the gory, bloody element of this holiday?

Right when I started trying to write my own take on a zombie tale, I was immediately confronted with the need for a theology of gore. I wondered for a moment what the Bible could possibly have to say on grotesque and gruesome material like this. It was only for a moment. Immediately my mind was flooded with the copious amounts of gore that splatter the pages of Scripture: Jael and her famous tent peg assassination, Ehud and his famous surprise disembowelment of an obese king, that messed up Levite that dismembered his raped and murdered concubine and sent the pieces of her body all round the country, dogs eating up the body of wicked Queen Jezebel except for the feet and hands and skull, people in a besieged city fighting over whose baby to eat next, and just generally the beheadings and hangings and spears and swords and arrows thrusting people through, blood and guts a spilling.

Haunting Theology: How the Gothic Mode Can Speak to Christians

John Martin, The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

By Geoffrey Reiter

Tis the season for monsters, mad scientists, and dark and stormy nights. The history of horror and its association with All Hallows’ Eve is a fascinating topic in itself, but one of the most pertinent branches to this spooky old tree is the strand of fiction we now call the Gothic. More than just a moniker for black-garbed teenagers, the Gothic is an enduring strand woven throughout literature, art, and film over the past two and a half centuries. And despite a reputation (not wholly unearned) for being too bleak for innocent evangelical eyes, the Gothic often brings out some valuable points that remain relevant to Christians, whether we like to face them or not.