The Movie Thread

[GodfatherPartTwo]

There are films depicting people worshipping Satan and this genre became totally mainstream in the 1960's with movies like The Devil Ride's Out (US Title: The Devil's Bride), which portrayed Satanic rituals, and starred actual devil worshipper Christopher Lee, who later repented. Probably the biggest was Rosemary's Baby (1968), which also depicted Satanic rituals.

If a film like Rosemary’s Baby includes a scene of devil worshipers, does that make the film as a whole devil-worshiping? Aren’t the devil worshipers depicted as the bad guys in RB?

For fear of sounding like David Icke, lol, the emotional states induced in viewers by horror films are very conducive to demonic influence, especially fear mixed in with sexual excitement, which is a prominent feature of Satanic rituals, sex magic, etc.

My understanding of the horror genre is that it’s premise is very simple: it reminds you that you are going to die. People have a sinful tendency to suppress this truth, but truth it remains. In that sense, I see a place for the genre. The interplay of fear with sex, or whatever other theme is by the by. The underlying power of the genre is fear of the curse.

 

[Read_Lives_of_Saints]

If a film like Rosemary’s Baby includes a scene of devil worshipers, does that make the film as a whole devil-worshiping? Aren’t the devil worshipers depicted as the bad guys in RB?

The entire film is a devil-worshipping, moral mind-bender where we identify with the main character, the mother, who, for the most part, resists evil, and does so more consistently and with more strength than her husband...see spoiler

Spoiler: Rosemary's Baby plot spoiler

but in the end she gives in for practical reasons, one of many arguments the devil worshippers use to persuade people to join their cause. The argument presented onscreen is hey, your husband already betrayed you, you were already raped by Satan, now the baby is here, it's your baby, so why not be the best mother you can to it, and she does.

You can't isolate the scene where Rosemary's husband drugs her so that she can be raped by Satan and say "That's the only devil worshipping" when the rest of the plot exists to set up this main action scene.

My understanding of the horror genre is that it’s premise is very simple: it reminds you that you are going to die. People have a sinful tendency to suppress this truth, but truth it remains. In that sense, I see a place for the genre. The interplay of fear with sex, or whatever other theme is by the by. The underlying power of the genre is fear of the curse.

The underlying power of the genre is emotional manipulation that is heavily dependent on music and sound effects and has nothing to do with awareness of mortality.

Disease of the week films are good examples of fear of dying in cinema, but that could be said of many genres where death is a theme or part of the denouement, such as war films, Westerns with gunfights, kung-fu with fatal confrontations, revenge fantasy films like Dirty Harry or Death Wish, etc.

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

I think the underlying power of the genre is emotional manipulation that is heavily dependent on music and sound effects and has nothing to do with awareness of mortality.

By this definition, any genre could be reduced to "emotional manipulation." You don't think horror has anything to do with fear of death?

 

[Read_Lives_of_Saints]

By this definition, any genre could be reduced to "emotional manipulation."

I should have been more clear. I did not mean emotional manipulation through pathos or story line, but emotional manipulation to induce fright through theatrics, such as sound effects, jump cuts, objects suddenly coming into camera, etc.

You don't think horror has anything to do with fear of death?

I meant from the perspective of the film makers. They use theatrics to create suspense and the audience' fear of death is tertiary at best. Would you say that a girl screaming on a roller coaster is doing so because of some liminal fear of death or an instinctive emotional reaction?

The film-makers' purpose is to expose you to demonic influence. If that wasn't clear from 1960's devil worshipping films, then how about Saw or even Se7en, which is just a rip off of The Abominable Dr. Phibes from way back in 1971.

 

[PurpleUrkel]

What do you mean by devil-worshipping films? Is the horror genre inherently worshipful of Satan?

Myself being a lover of visual and auditory media (an anti-spiritual secular addiction which I am trying to ween myself off of), that in retrospect the whole technocracy of "film" and "TV" is inherently the work of the devil. So yes, one could say that the horror genre in and of itself (and in particular) is satanic in nature.

"Entertainment" or artificial escapism from the exhausting and "boring" work of being a decent human/Christian is no doubt tempting, but all the entertainment we need is right in front of us in the form of nature. Instead of watching movies, we should be watching trees blow in the wind on the biggest flat screen known to man (the back drop of the sunlit biosphere). Easier said than done as we have been brainwashed to make jew produced Hollyweird projects the center of lives. As a secular musician and wannabe filmmaker myself, this is a tough pill to swallow.

And so it must be remembered, that even though there are some good movies out there (Passion Of The Christ, etc ), the jew "invention" as whole is the work of the devil and has thus has created more bad than good in the world (pornography, pushing faggotry and the trans agenda, pushing "equality" and "civil rights," pro-feminist trash like Mad Max: Fury Road, and horror movies that when watched too young scar kids for life.)

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

I should have been more clear. I did not mean emotional manipulation through pathos or story line, but emotional manipulation to induce fright through theatrics, such as sound effects, jump cuts, objects suddenly coming into camera, etc.

Every genre has it's tools of the trade. "theatrics, sound effects, jump cuts" aren't limited to horror. The jump scare trope is and I agree that it's pretty schlocky. Not all horror movies depend on jump scares though.

I meant from the perspective of the film makers. They use theatrics to create suspense and the audience' fear of death is tertiary at best.

Suspense, sure. That is more of an elevated horror, the kind you see in thrillers or in a Hitchcock film. To say fear of death is "tertiary" when every major horror movie has death at the center undersells it.

Would you say that a girl screaming on a roller coaster is doing so because of some liminal fear of death or an instinctive emotional reaction?

I thought we were talking about film genres. Obviously, the ride is meant to simulate a fear. Fear of what? The "fun" or playful aspect of the ride is that you won't actually die even though the ride simulates that you would. I would say it's both/and to answer your dialectic.

The film-makers' purpose is to expose you to demonic influence. If that wasn't clear from 1960's devil worshipping films, then how about Saw or even Se7en, which is just a rip off of The Abominable Dr. Phibes from way back in 1971.

Haven't seen Se7en (don't care for the director) and only bits of Saw so I can't speak too much on those. What I remember of Saw, the premise is that the killer is playing God by enacting vengeance on people for their sins, no? When evaluating anything, in our case the horror genre, the reception of the audience must be taken into account. Watching a horror film will not automatically download the demon virus into the hard drive of your brain. To the pure, all things are pure.

 

[Read_Lives_of_Saints]

Thanks for a good discussion on this. You made me think.

Watching a horror film will not automatically download the demon virus into the hard drive of your brain. To the pure, all things are pure.

I'm a little short on time today, but I do disagree.

I'd say no one is pure in the same sense that there is only one good man.

Furthermore, many Christians believe incorrectly that they are immune to demonic influence or attack. There is an excellent illustration of this fact from the story of Sts. Cyprian and Justina.

I need to flesh this out, but Kubrick's primary subtext in Eyes Wide Shut, and to a lesser extent 2001, is that, analogous to attending a devil worshipping ritual, if you watch you are indoctrinated in some way.

The Lives of Sts. Cyprian and Justina

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Entertainment" or artificial escapism from the exhausting and "boring" work of being a decent human/Christian is no doubt tempting, but all the entertainment we need is right in front of us in the form of nature. Instead of watching movies, we should be watching trees blow in the wind on the biggest flat screen known to man (the back drop of the sunlit biosphere). Easier said than done as we have been brainwashed to make jew produced Hollyweird projects the center of lives. As a secular musician and wannabe filmmaker myself, this is a tough pill to swallow.

The purpose of art is to hold up a mirror to nature. If you want to watch trees blow in the wind on a TV, then go right ahead. I'd say you suffer from scrupulosity, buttressed by both superstition and a false idea of what holiness is. It's a shame, because you can pursue both music and film without being bogged down by the scruples and in a way that's holy and pleasing to God.

I'd say no one is pure in the same sense that there is only one good man.

In that sense, absolutely. But in the sense that Paul means, people see outward things based on their inward dispositions. To put it another way, it is not what goes into a man that defiles him but that which comes out of a man defiles him. So if you say horror movies aren't for you, it's not for me to tell you to watch them. In return, I caution against looking down on someone because they're into something that for you is unclean.