"I posted a rave review of the new Sam Raimi film, Send Help, the other day and triggered a debate I didn't expect: is it OK for Christians to watch horror films? Send Help a gore-laced plane-crash survival face-off, according to the Guardian review (which was less kind than mine) is more comedy-horror than horror, or maybe horror/thriller. But there's definitely horror there you get the point."
"The most extreme response was the man who said that not only are horror movies verboten, Christians shouldn't even watch soap operas. So, for him, Emmerdale is as bad as The Exorcist which itself seems a bizarre film to rule out, given its hero is a priest. Who rediscovers his faith after an encounter with evil. Which he wins. I call that a positive religious message."
"I hadn't encountered this kind of radical neo-puritanism for many years, but it was still very much a thing in the 1990s. At that time, I went to a Pentecostal church in west London and, within a few months of arriving there, was persuaded to throw away my record collection, which was full of the unholy trinity of AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. I later regretted this but would probably have re-bought them all on CD anyway so, no real harm done."
Debate exists among Christians about whether watching horror films is acceptable. Send Help mixes gore, plane-crash survival stakes, comedy-horror and thriller elements, producing divided reactions. Some Christians insist that horror movies are forbidden and extend that prohibition to seemingly mundane media like soap operas. Films such as The Exorcist can be viewed as conveying positive religious messages because a priest rediscovers faith and overcomes evil. Historical Pentecostal practice included discarding rock records and avoiding occult-themed films, yet cinema attendance was not universally banned within those communities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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