Jesuit scholar's search for films' 'theology of horror' finds the sacred in the screams - TheCatholicSpirit.com
Beneath the nation's fascination with horror films -- which translates into a multibillion-dollar industry -- lurks a hidden quest for the divine, a theologian with expertise on the genre told OSV News.
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Opinion
There are a handful of movies and TV shows about angels, spirituality, and heaven but for the most part, scream queens and psychopaths rule the media landscape. Why is that?
Walking around my neighborhood during Halloween it's obvious that parents and kids go to great lengths to make their homes and front lawns look like graveyards with skulls and other horrifying scenes of desecrated or decapitated bodies, witches, and doomed souls. Not nearly as much energy and effort goes into the positivity and beauty of Christmas.
Is the celebration of evil an easy ticket into an alternate reality? Why don't people naturally crave peace, love, and beauty? What's wrong with our society?
Carl Jung and The Shadow
Now don't get me wrong. I am not one of those bible thumpin' Christians who oppose Halloween. I don't observe it anymore but I did for many years. And I see nothing wrong with having a night to represent the darker or fantastical side in a fun way. This kind of public festival goes way back through medieval Europe and, if I remember correctly, ancient Rome. The depth psychologist Carl Jung was all for Halloween. He believed it was important to come to grips with what he called the "Shadow."
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For Jung, the Shadow is all that socially inappropriate stuff we are capable of and secretly desire but tend to repress. If we simply repress without consciously acknowledging our darker side, those impulses may pop out unexpectedly to the detriment of self and possibly others. So Jung was all about representing evil along with the higher sides of the self. By representing the Shadow, we overcome it, so Jung believed.
Is There Another Way?
All fine and dandy. But again I ask. Why are the tables so heavily turned toward the celebration of evil—not only during Halloween but in the movies, TV, and pop music?
Are we just a warped species? Is there a better way out from our dull routine?
I think there is. But it's not as easy as concentrating on our base or perhaps dark impulses and temptations. It's more about self-control, maturity, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us, and choosing the good.
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