Is Every Religious Horror Movie the Same?

    I would consider myself to be somewhat of a religious horror fanatic, especially around the time of Halloween.

    Religious horror is a subgenre of the overarching horror genre. The way that religious horror deviates from other horror films is that it typically revolves around a religious origin. This subgenre typically targets audiences who are interested in learning more of religious lore (even if most of the time it is not true). Also, Latinos are a typical audience for religious horror films, as Latinos are typically a member of the Catholic faith, which is a common religion for these types of horror films to revolve around.  

Genre Conventions - Content

    Every religious horror movie comes up with it's own "rules" for the universe, but typical genre conventions of religious horror are the use of religious iconography suchs a crucifixes, rosaries, and holy water. Also, there is always one man, typically a priest, who reads words very aggressively from the Bible in attempt to vanquish a demon who had possessed one of the protagonists. 

    One of the most popular (arguably the most popular) religious horror movie is The Exorcist (1979), utilized a variety of these genre conventions. The famous scene from that movie specifically includes a priest who is yelling words of Christ at the possessed girl whilst sprinkling holy water on her and floating. The religious horror trifecta. 

The Exorcist (1979)

    Something that I can count on when I sit down to watch any religious horror movie is that there will be some kind of elaborate, sometimes over explained, backstory. This could be done for amny reasons, but the main one is probably to attempt to cover up any plot holes all in one  five minute info-dump about why everything in the film is happening. 

    One of the most outrageous instances of over-explaining in a religious horror film has got to be in The Curse of La Llorona (2019). After the main villain, La Llorona, has done a sufficient amount of antagonizing, there is quite literally a five minute info-dumping break where the conversation feels overwhelmingly redundant and unnecessary. Unfortunately, this film is not the only one that has fallen victim to the over-explaining curse, but it is simply a consequence that comes with the job.  

Genre Conventions - Production Techniques

    Typically, in the religious horror subgenre, there are very, dull desaturated colors, which is sort of opposite of what religion is portrayed like in real life. Common colors are dull cool colors, mostly blue or cool shades of gray. This allows other colors, such as red (AKA danger colors), to stick out more, allowing the audience to focus on it. 

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

    For instance, this scene from The Conjuring 2 features a very dull looking room with those blues and grays, but the girl is wearing red pajamas, making her the focal point of the scen and the object of the terror surrounding her. 

    Another common production technique for religious horror would be costuming, specifically for religious horror movies that take place in common religious sites such convents. Many religious horror films take on the depiction of nuns, especially in modern times as horror films have branded them as being slightly creepy. Nevertheless, it is a common practice in these films to dress these women up in copy and paste clothing and allow the protagonist to stick out. This works in two facets: one, to create an us vs. them vibe between the nuns and the protagonist and two, to provide an eerie representation of uniformity among those groups of women.

The First Omen (2024)

    An example of this would be in the film The First Omen. As can be seen in the still, the protagonist (in the black scarf) is distinct from the rest of the nuns in the convent, who are all dressed as the one behind her. In the context of this film, it foreshadows the reveal (SPOILERS) that the higher up nuns know something that the protagonist does not. 

    

Institutional Conventions  

    When marketing religious horror films, production studios really take advantage of some of the mysterious associated religion, specifically those who do not know much about religion. For instance, earlier this year, to market the film The First Omen (2024), there was a confessional booth experience where people would go inside of a confessional booth and supernatural things would start happening. This tactic is feeding off of the people who are mystified by aspects of religion and want to experience it in a sensationalized manner. 

    Another classic marketing techniques for marketing a religious horror movie is saying that the film is based on a true story. When those words "based on a true story" flash on the screen during a horror movie trailer, audiences are instantly running to the theater. A good example of this is and of the Conjuring films. At the beginning of all of those movies, they give a little blurb describing the case and that at the end it reads, "Based on a true story". 

The Conjuring (2013)

    As seen in this trailer for The Conjuring, one of the main focal points of the trailer is the aspect of it being based on the true story of actual paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who are notorious for sparking several franchises such as The Conjuring, but also The Amityville Horror series'.

Samples:

 

    The Nun (2018) is a very popular, contemporary religious horror films that really skyrocketed the religious horror subgenre into the stratosphere. The plot of this movie follows a postulate and an ex-priest to a very old convent in Romania to investigate the suicide of one of the nuns there. Of course it all goes awry when the protagonists find out there is a demon living in the convent, disguising itself as a nun in order to obtain more power through the fear and life force of the other nuns in that abbey. 

    This film follows several of the genre conventions of religious horror when it comes to plot. There are several of thos conventions of priest reading a lot of prayers from the Bible, trying to push the demon away (it doesn't work). Also, there are many religious items in this film, the obvious ones like crucifixes and holy water. But, this move does have a sort of unconventional religious object for a religious horror film, that being the blood of Christ, which I think is a very fun addition. Also, this movie does fall victim to the over-explaining curse as they attempt to make the plot and ending make any sense. 

    With the production conventions, this movie did have great marketing, especially from the trailers. This film's marketing was really based on the frightening aspect of the concept of demonic nuns (what a fun oxymoron). The trailers for these movies really fed off of the jumpscares, wanting the viewers to jump out of their seats. For instance, here is a youtube ad for the movie. This kind of creative marketing is what religious horror movies use to suck in the viewers. 

    I know I said some not great things about this movie, but disclaimer, I do like it. 

    The Last Exorcism (2010) is a found footage film within the religious horror genre that follows a fraud-priest who wants to show a film crew how he fakes exorcisms by taking them to a troubled family's home in the back country to "exorcise" a girl who claims to be possessed. But, in a turn of events, this girl is not faking being possessed and is actually pregnant with a demon child (those were spoilers by the way). 

    This movie depicts one of the most classic forms of exorcism. A girl in a bed shaking and convulsing while a priest is shouting latin at her, which makes sense with the plot as the film is all about exorcism. A good this about this movie is that it does not really fall victim to over-explanation. But, it is a good example of repurposing classic religious horror tropes in different ways, such as with the found footage element. 

    The marking for this movie actually had an insane sort of prank that was done on people in live chat rooms. This video is directly from the youtube account for this film, and is sort of a lesson to creeps out on the internet by jumpscaring them and then promoting the film. This definitly applies to the creative and out of the box marketing ideas that are typical of religious horror movies that allow the audience to be immersed in the world of the film.

More Religious Horror Films: 

Carrie (1976)

The Possession (2012)

The Witch (2015)

Devil (2010)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

And now for this weeks movie quote of the week... (straight from another religious horror film)

"The court accepts the existence of God every time a witness swears to tell the truth. I think it's about time they accept the existence of the Devil." Ed Warren, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It 

Representation in the Media

 Hello all and welcome back to my blog!

    Today we will be discussing representation within the media we consume and how the creators of this media chose to represent people of different genders, races, sexualities and much more. 

    To talk about these ideas, I will be using my favorite movie of all time, The Sound of Music, to perpetuate discussion.

    If we move through the film chronologically, towards the very beginning there is a pretty instantaneous  representation of Catholicism, more specifically that of nuns. Let's take the Reverend Mother for example.  Her image is a very classic image of a virtuous, older nun. In her composition, she wears a very traditional habit and wears and ornate cross around her neck. She says classic lines of a nun like "it is the will of God" or "God will show you the way". Even her song, Climb Every Mountain, perpetuates all of her holiness and belief in a better future through god. Just listen to this part of the song: 

    The context for this song is that our protagonist, Maria, has just given up on being the nanny of seven children because she has been developing romantic feeling for their father as a postulant. Here, the Reverend Mother is tying to encourage Maria to face her challenges and trust that she will be able to get over them. But, wait... Why would the Reverend Mother encourage Maria to face her challenges and go to be with the children's father, Captain Von Trapp? Well, this is where the Reverend Mother sort of deviates from her stereotype. Rather than encouraging or making Maria keep her loyalties to God as a nun, she steps out of her role as the Reverend Mother and simply speaks to Maria as a person rather than a postulant.  

    If we look at how the abbey or simply the nuns as a religious group are represented, they are excoticised.  There is a rather long sequence at the beginning of the films where there are many shots just going through the abbey, showing the nuns singing in chapel and praying (I really tried to find a clip but I couldn't so you're just going to have to trust me). True, this may be a representation of what does go on in an abbey, but the purpose of it within the film is to show the regimented lifestyle of living in an abbey to contrast how Maria lives. This contrasting element does sensationalize the lives of nuns, making it apear vastly different than that of other people.

    Later on in the film, there is the introduction of the Nazi's into the plot (which a lot of people don't about and it makes me sad). The Nazi's are represented in their typical fashion, but I would like to delve into the specific character of Rolfe. 

    When we are introduced to Rolfe, he seems like a kind boy who is the classic boy in love with a girl who he shouldn't be. He even gets a really sweet song with Liesel, Sixteen Going on Seventeen.

    Okay, maybe the song isn't that sweet, but the point gets across. Even in this song, there is sort of his devious nature coming out saying how he will need to guide Leisel because she is so much more naïve and young than he. 

    As the film progresses, we see more and more of Rolfe's true loyalties, that being to the Nazi party. The way he is represented through his construction, he is seen wearing more Nazi iconography, such a the swastika. His switch up, though not completely unexpected, was sort of out of left field to Leisel. Take a look at this scene: 

This depicts the Nazi group in a more historical manner. The role of the Nazi's in this movie is not really to make a statement about any of the other characters, but to rather provide an accurate representation of how they were impacting their neighboring countries, like Austria at the start of WWII. 

     

    As is generally know, the Nazi's are one of, if not the most, notorious group of fascists out there, and are a pretty clear cut instance of othering. They are fundamentally the antagonists in this film. At every turn they are working against the Von Trapp family, portraying them (accurately) as the complete opposite of the normal agenda. 

    I must say, The Sound of Music is my favorite movie of all time. Yes, I know it is extremely long, but I would watch any length of movie for Julie Andrews. 

And now for the movie quote of the week...

"Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he has created?" - Dr. Romero, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

Sound Project

 Our next project was the Sound Project. For this project, groups of two were tasking with telling a simple story only using sound. 

Prior to beginning the project, we learned many different types of sound and how it can be used to further the story. Sound is an essential part to any form of media production. Sound is what deepens emotions while also making the setting more realistic. To create sounds for different settings, foley artists create environmental sounds or even ones that characters are making. This includes footsteps, rustling of clothes, breathing and a whole bunch of other things. 

With all of this in mind, we set of to create our sound project. The first order of business was deciding on a simple task/story to tell using only sound. My partner and I decided on making the sounds of checking into a hotel. 

When brainstorming ideas for what sounds one would hear when checking into a hotel, we wanted to make sure we got the obvious sounds, but also those in the background that add to the ambiance. Things like footsteps and suitcase rolling, but also the chatter sounds of a hotel lobby or an AC rumbling in a hallway.

Our planning sheet was our savior. It was the perfect guide to be able to create a cohesive soundscape. What we did was find the sounds we wanted to use online, and link it to the part it matched up to in our outline. With that, it was a very organized compilation of all the sounds. 

To edit the project, we used premiere pro, which I found very accommodating. In the program I could pitch sounds up and down or simply slow them down to create the sounds I needed. 

The sound project came out rather well. The story was conveyed clearly while still having all those background elements that made it more realistic. I do think that some of our homemade sounds had some background noise in them that impacted the overall experience, but it was not to such a terrible degree that it took one out of the scene. 

Here is the link for the project: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dypVuMmxKaTvfYqSbZs4h9EGsWdJOpZ4/view?usp=sharing

And now for the movie quote of the week...

"The world changes, we do not, there lies the irony that finally kills us." - Armand, Interview with the Vampire