Written by Raven in a Cardinal’s Nest

Horror Movies. Yikes. It’s one of those taboo topics that earned itself a place among the other uncomfortable headlines such as sexuality, depression, and politics that we as Christians struggle to work through. Think about your own experiences with this type of cinema. What comes to mind when someone says those eerie words, horror movies? Now, this article isn’t going to try and convince you to watch a horror movie. All you Hallmark junkies, Marvel nerds, and Breaking Bad fanatics out there have my deepest respect and love. I’ll even throw The Office disciples in there too. With this piece, I’m hoping to dilute the stigma around the vilified genre of horror and help present a new perspective. Horror movies give us the rare chance to interact with certain emotions that are marked as “negative” (fear, anger, loss, coming to terms with death) in a controlled environment and confront them in a healthy way. They can also aid us in lessons of virtue. Now before you torch my stake, let me explain.

Stories are infinitely valuable to humans. They connect with us on so many different levels. As children, we enter the world with optimism and engage with positive narratives of colorful, talking animals and mythical fairies in the firefly-ruled forests. Yet as we grow up, we begin to see the world for what it really is. Our world isn’t always bright and not all stories have a happy ending. Death, fear, and hopelessness force themselves upon us without consent, feeding off our resilience with the ultimate intent to utterly consume it. Even though unfortunate, these things are part of our human stories as well. Why obsess over the tales that only focus on the positive? Humanity is composed of both dark and light, therefore, our stories should accurately represent this duality.

I’ll be using two examples of horror movies that had an impact on me as examples. The first one up to bat is Saw. Let me introduce you to John Kramer, an architect who is dying of cancer and attempts to commit suicide. The attempt ultimately fails, but John emerges from the experience as a changed man. He cherishes his life and becomes obsessed with sharing this sentiment with others. Kramer’s main targets are the ungrateful and the unprincipled, constructing intricate traps for them that demand physical and emotional sacrifices in exchange for freedom. The choice to change, sacrifice, or die is completely up to the subjects. Kramer comes to be known as Jigsaw because of the flesh puzzle pieces he takes from his victims and the rotting pig mask he uses as a recurring symbol to his “students”. It represents the metaphysical disease of ingratitude and vices that are eating away at people’s lives and destroying them. A twisted form of justice, but it leaves us with some interesting questions about humanity.

Should it really take literal torture mechanisms for us to appreciate our lives? Jigsaw recognized this incurable disease in humanity. He didn’t label it as sin, but we know it to be. Saw is a tragic dive into the fallen nature of humans. I think Jigsaw teaches us some important lessons, those being: we need to be mindful of our sinful nature because it has the power to ruin our lives and we need to be grateful for what we have. We only have one life and one body to glorify God with or curse Him. We shouldn’t need literal death traps to keep us from poisoning them with drugs, debauchery, and unholy thoughts. Jigsaw is desperately trying to fix this sin issue in people, and time and time again, we see so many of his subjects die because they are unable to rise to the challenge. Without Christ, it’s impossible to live truly good lives. Of course, virtue is possible in secular people, but they have no hope of overcoming their flesh without the mind of Christ.

The second movie we’ll be talking about is John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN, my personal favorite. There have been more than a few variations of this early 80’s love child, but I’ll be focusing on the classic to keep it simple. I could go on and on about the suspenseful shots, the abundance of creativity due to a low budget, and the realistic characters. But then we’d be here all day, so I shall have the goodness of heart to spare you.

It’s 1963, Halloween night in a small town named Haddonfield in suburban Illinois. A six-year-old boy named Michael Myers creeps up the stairs of his middle-class home and murders his older sister Judith. There’s no apparent reason for the grisly deed and Michael is taken to Smith’s Grove sanitarium for 15 years. He never speaks a word or gives a reason for his actions. His psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis, tries desperately to reach him and understand him, but the child remains silent. 

Michael eventually escapes just before the Halloween of his 21rst year and returns to his hometown to take life yet again. He creeps through Haddonfield like a shadow, hunting the unsuspecting inhabitants and watching how they interact with each other in his stoic isolation. He’s ever the patient incarnation of death, never running only walking. The wistful but haunting lyrics of Blue Oyster Cult’s Don’t Fear the Reaper plays in the background as we locate him in each scene, seeming to get closer to the protagonists with every passing minute. He stalks in the daylight, observing the weaknesses of his chosen victims and then rising like a red hunter’s moon in the night and striking when they’re most vulnerable and alone.

But is Michael Myers just a killer? Is he just a mediocre slasher that’s set up to cut through one promiscuous teen after the next, no deeper meaning threaded behind that pale, emotionless face? No, Michael Myers is so much more. He’s intentionally written to wade between the lines of the physical and the supernatural. He is in essence, The Boogeyman. Fear INCARNATE. This movie explores that concept. Just look at Michael’s mask. It’s blank, like a clean slate. You can project any and all of your fears onto it. He is every hidden and known fear you’ve ever experienced in your entire life. What fears does this represent to you? What hideous apprehensions are lurking and stalking in the back of your mind? Will your run and hide from it until it eventually impales your sanity on its merciless blade? Or face it and cut it down before it ruins your life? Is there any hope of overcoming such a great evil?

There’s one town inhabitant who is aware of Myers and opposes him. Let me introduce you to a teenage babysitter by the name of Laurie Strode. All her friends fall to Michael, too obsessed with drugs and promiscuity to see the danger creeping up on them. But Laurie is a wholesome soul. She focuses on her schoolwork, maintains her modesty, and remains innocent despite bad influences. She is a virtuous woman. Her strength, selflessness, and smarts ultimately save her and the children she’s babysitting from the masked menace. Her friends poke fun at her for her virtue and call her bland, but ultimately, it is these very characteristics that keep her from the reaper. Her commitment to the good protects her from the evil that is rampaging through the rest of the town.

If you take anything from reading this, just know that some horror movies are robust in character and full of rich storytelling. They encourage us to explore and confront the darkness within and without ourselves. Ask yourself this, what fears are you hiding from? There will always be a boogeyman or a Jigsaw in your life. Do you have the courage to face them and confront it all? No matter what bloody emotional battles you fight, boogeymen hunting you throughout your life’s journey, or the gore of your own rotting self-esteem, you can never succumb to fear. Horror movies can get beneath our skin in a good, intense way. They’re the stories about those who were consumed by the darkness within, and those who chose to rise above fear even when faced with insurmountable odds. And just like in our world, some prevail.

The Boogeyman doesn’t always have to win.