I didn’t grow up watching horror films for the same reason most kids don’t – they’re too disturbing for a young one’s mind.
During my freshman year of college, though, I watched It with my friends on Halloween. The movie was both thrilling and scary, yet still had thought-provoking themes about growing up and learning to face your fears. As a Christian and movie-buff, I found It to be just as hopeful as the majority of movies I watch, and therefore realized my affinity for horror. Audiences agree; the horror genre has so far made $1.3 billion in 2026, with Backrooms and Obsession responsible for most of this profit.
Horror films are a valid medium of storytelling, well-done horror stories serve an important purpose within the arts. But I am not naive. I know what most Christians think about horror, so you can imagine my non-surprise when Allie Beth Stuckey shared a common take on horror movies on her podcast, Relatable With ABS:
“I don’t think it is at all an option for Christians to not only participate in Halloween and all of its darkness and scariness, but I also don’t think that Christians should be a fan of horror in general,” Stuckey said. “I don’t think you should be reading books that make you scared, I don’t think that you should be listening to true crime podcasts that make you scared, I don’t think you should be watching movies that make you scared.”
While this conversation isn’t new amongst Christians, her citing of scripture caused the most controversy:
“How many times do we read throughout scripture, from Jesus and in the Old Testament, ‘do not fear,’” she said.
Many people had a visceral reaction to this. Her reasoning is theologically unsound, as “do not fear” is not a commandment to never feel scared. Instead, it encapsulates God’s promise that Christians can lean on Him in all things, even in our fear. Many online reactions to Stuckey’s beliefs got it wrong as well. Some people claim that there’s nothing wrong or sinful about horror at all, while others echo her sentiment.
In short, the internet lacks nuance. What else is new?
To give Stuckey and other anti-horror Christians fair consideration, plenty of Bible verses emphasize the importance of keeping one’s eyes and ears free of needless foulness and full of Godly contemplation.
Philippians 4:8 reads: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
It is an undeniable fact that some horror movies revel in depravity, and it’s understandable why not everyone gravitates toward them.
Blood and guts are the apparent appeal of the slasher genre, with focus rarely ever given to theme or character development. Films like Midsommar and Hereditary make up for this, but in turn depict hopeless plotlines through disturbing, Satanic, and even pornographic imagery.
These kinds of films are not worth a Christian’s time. Instead of using horror to help us grapple with themes of fear, they make evil the selling point, leaving the viewer with nothing but a sick roiling in his stomach.
Believers ought to flee from vice – submitting to lust, greed, and violence is not consistent with the Christian walk – but this doesn’t mean we avoid discussing these topics. In fact, the insistence within Christian media that we avoid arbitrary tabooness in favor of books and films that have less flavor than a saltine cracker is a travesty.
Most Christian media fails nowadays because Christian filmmakers shy away from the reality of sin for sunshine, rainbows, and happy endings. In other words, they treat film as a medium to preach a sermon instead of one that ought to tell an interesting story. Stuckey, whether knowingly or unknowingly, falls victim to this puritan pattern of belief with her argument against horror.
Christians once dominated the storytelling landscape because they weren’t afraid to grapple with difficult topics, including horror. C.S. Lewis wrote a whole book delving into demonology with The Screwtape Letters. John Milton cast Satan as the classically heroic character in his epic poem, Paradise Lost.
Some of the earliest horror stories, like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dracula by Bram Stoker, have explicit Christian themes. Frankenstein portrays the very real consequences of playing God and perverting His creation. The vampire in Dracula is an Anti-Christ figure whom the characters must fight against.
There is a reason we still study these works today. They use horrific, transgressive, and thought-provoking themes to reveal larger truths about the nature of God, and they are just as valid as other non-horror classics.
Horror is a spectrum and should be treated as such. In fact, many good horror movies portray Christian themes better than modern Christian media. Stuckey even used one such film as an example in her podcast, which damaged the credibility of her message.
“I’ve seen the really scary movies out there, and now I know why my mom didn’t want me to watch Signs when I was in 6th grade,” she said.
Signs is about a former priest coming back to the Christian faith during an alien invasion. Yes, it has horrific scenes. Yes, it is, at times, gruesome. But the aliens are not the point. They instead serve as a thematic representation of the battle between faith and hopelessness, a battle that Christians experience every day.
Aside from the aliens, Signs is a more real and raw portrayal of the Christian walk than God’s Not Dead could ever be.
But, as Matt Walsh wrote on X: “The modern day Dostoevsky or Flannery O’Connor or even Michelangelo, if such a person exists, would never get a film made by a Christian studio because their stories would be too upsetting to the middle aged Christian female audience that all of these companies exclusively cater to.”
We should not shy away from fear or horror simply because they make us uncomfortable, and we should not twist scripture to support a narrative that says we should. Instead, we should discuss these topics and seek to understand them from a Christian lens.
The horror genre is a good medium to do that.
