Episode 26: Religious Horror | Christianity & Catholicism

This episode was recorded on April 4, 2024 and posted on May 18, 2024.

Content Warning: Light vulgarity. 

Introduction

• Welcome to No Bodies Episode 26
• Introductions to your Ghosts Hosts with the Most - Lonely of Lonely Horror Club and Projectile Varmint aka Suzie
• Introductions to our guests Don Aneli from The Horror Countdown
• Today's Topic: Religious Horror

Discussion on Religious Horror

• Defining religious horror, Christianity & Catholicism
• How has religion informed your relationship with horror?

This Week's Coroner's Report

• What is your favorite religious horror film? How has your own faith or belief impacted your horror journey?

Film Discussion

• Religious Horror Greats
  • The Exorcist (1973)
  • The Omen (1976)
  • Prince of Darkness (1987)
  • The Church (1989)
• Catholicism, The Devil, & Possession
  • The Rite (2011)
  • Final Prayer (also called The Borderlands) (2013)
  • The Devil's Doorway (2018)
  • The Cleansing Hour (2019)
• Femme Lens
  • Stigmata (1999)
  • The House of the Devil (2009)
  • Veronica (2017)
• Extreme Religious Horror 
  • Martyrs (2008)
  • The Red State (2011)
  • The Sacrament (2013)

Worst & Best Representations of Religious Horror

Spoilers ahead!

Worst

• The House of the Devil (2009) - Don & Suzie
• Menendez: The Day of the Lord (2020) - Lonely

Best

• The Omen (1976) - Don & Suzie
• Frailty (2001) - Suzie
• Legion (2010) - Suzie
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) - Suzie
• The Unholy (2021) - Lonely

Suzie's Deep Cuts

Includes films with under 5k ratings on IMDB. 

• Beyond the Door (1974)
• To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
• The Redeemer: Sons of Satan (1978)
• The Devil's Rain (1975)
• Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (2018)
• Deliver Us (2023)
• Consecration (2023)

Closing Thoughts

• What is a topic, idea, or theme you hope gets a bigger focus in religious horror in the future?

Thank you to our guest!

• Listen to Don on The Horror Countdown wherever you get your podcasts!
• Follow Don on Instagram at @donanelli. 
• Check out Lonely & Don's top 10 religious horror films on Episode 28 on The Horror Countdown.  

Keep Up with Your Hosts

• Check out our instagram antics and drop a follow @nobodieshorrorpodcast. 
• Take part in our new audience engagement challenge - The Coroner's Report! Comment, share, or interact with any Coroner's Report post on our socials to be featured in an upcoming episode. 
• Projectile Varmint - keep up with Suzie's film musings on Instagram @projectile__varmint
• Lonely - read more from Lonely and keep up with her filmstagram chaos @lonelyhorrorclub on Instagram and www.lonelyhorrorclub.com.

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Sources

Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. (n.d.). The Horror: Religion and the Monstrous on film. https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/the-horror-religion-and-the-monstrous-on-film

Century, S. (2023, November 8). Questioning religion through horror. SYFY Official Site. https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/questioning-religion-through-horror

Daswick, T. (2024, March 26). What's behind culture's obsession with religious horror movies? - RELEVANT. RELEVANT. https://relevantmagazine.com/magazine/features/scare-tactics/

Holy Horror: A quantitative analysis of the use of religion in the yearly top grossing horror films from 2000 to 2009. (2011). [Thesis, Liberty University]. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1191&context=masters

Malone, S. (2020, April 12). THEMATIC THREAD: RELIGION IN HORROR. Morbidly Beautiful. Retrieved May 16, 2024, from https://morbidlybeautiful.com/thematic-thread-religion-in-horror/

Peres, A., & Furzan, F. (2023, September 5). The best religious horror movies of all time. MovieWeb. https://movieweb.com/best-religious-horror-movies/

Religious horror. (n.d.). TV Tropes. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ReligiousHorror

Wikipedia contributors. (2024, February 14). Religious horror. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_horror