Question: Should Christians Watch Horror Movies?

Should Christians watch horror movies?

So, let me tell you a story.

I grew up in church, but rejected all of it, rejected Christianity, rejected God by the time I was

17.

And so, when I moved down to go to college, I developed a love for horror movies.

And I started with some of the more classic, quote unquote, classic horror films like Nightmare on Elm Street,

Halloween, Friday the 13th, you know, the kind of the iconic 1980s

horror series.

But as I continued watching, I developed an appreciation for certain horror directors like Wes Craven, John Carpenter,

Lucio Fulci, Lamberto Bava, Sam Raimi.

And then God saved me at 30 years old.

And I decided, you know what, I really need to get rid of my horror collection.

Well, if you had asked me in that first year of being saved, as a new believer, whether a

Christian should watch horror movies, I would have said absolutely not.

A Christian should not be setting his or her mind on such things.

But a surprising thing happened to me that started to change my mind.

I started to notice, when I read the scripture, because I paid close attention to it, and at this point I was in school

studying theology, I noticed that God uses horror.

In other words, He uses horrific imagery to communicate specific messages to His people.

In Daniel chapter 7, four monstrous beasts rise up out of the sea with an appetite for

flesh and overwhelming desire to devour each other and crush each other.

Angels and meteors fall out of the sky and crash to the earth in Daniel chapter 8.

Even the appearance of an angel of the Lord with eyes of fire, face like lightning, a

thunderous voice, it causes great dread and trembling in Daniel and his friends in chapter 10.

But Daniel is mild compared to the book of Revelation.

Revelation has taken the level of horror to apocalyptic levels

because the whole entire world, the whole entire land, is consumed with death and

destruction.

There are demonic monsters that torment people in chapter 9, mutated fire -breathing horses that

bring plagues and death.

There's a gigantic red dragon that throws stars to the earth while chasing a pregnant woman because

it wants to eat her child in Revelation chapter 12, and this is barely scratching the surface.

So I realized after looking at this that God is not above

using horrific imagery, using horror to communicate specific messages to His

people, and so that's when I realized that perhaps it's not horror in and of itself that's the problem.

It's the messaging behind the horror, or maybe another way of saying that is it's the worldview of the horror

that can be a problem.

Now if you think of classic Victorian horror stories like Dracula, like Frankenstein, like Dr. Jekyll and

Mr. Hyde, these stories were rich with Christian metaphor, you know, for the depraved nature of

humanity left unchecked, and it also points to the need for redemption.

As a matter of fact, the specific battle at the end of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

actually reads like Paul's characterization in Romans chapter 7

of the battle between the spirit and the flesh.

So if a contemporary horror film reflects the notion of man's sinful nature, if it gets it

right, I don't think there's any problem in watching something like that

that reflects what we know to be true.

We read of the consequences of sin all over the place in the Bible.

In Judges, the society is described as every man doing what is right in his own eyes,

and that leads to horrific things, gang rapes, dismemberment, setting people on fire,

torture, disemboweling, amongst other horrors.

And so two examples of contemporary movies that exemplify the consequences

of sin are The Machinist, starring Christian Bale, and The Number 23, starring Jim Carrey.

In both films, the protagonists are dealing with, they're wrestling with, the past sin in their life

which ultimately leads to their physical and mental destruction.

The Number 23 even closes at the end of the movie with a scriptural quote from Exodus,

or excuse me, Numbers chapter 32, verse 23.

It says, be sure your sin will find you out.

So if a contemporary horror film accurately characterizes the consequences of sin,

then it is communicating what we know to be true from the Bible, and Christians can watch that.

Now just to clarify, my argument here is not a blank check for Christians to just go out and watch every single horror movie that ever comes out.

As a matter of fact, I would argue that the majority of horror films are inappropriate for Christians to watch.

There's too much inappropriate material in there.

But there are a number of horror stories, a number of horror films that do reflect what we know to

be true from the Bible, and I think that they would actually be useful if we used

those movies as a reference when communicating to people who are lost.