Holy Horror: The Bible and Fear in Movies
By Steve Wiggins
McFarland, 2018
What makes you afraid? It may be more than what you think. Horror films have been exploiting our fears almost from the moment movies were invented. Lurking unseen in the corner of horror, however, is something unexpected: the Bible. Sit back while the curtain parts and watch as the Good Book appears in both supporting and starring roles in the most unlikely of cinema genres. Starting with Psycho and running up through the 2010s, horror films, monster movies and thrillers will flash across the screen with Scripture plainly in view. Holy Writ is not always what it seems. The Bible not only attempts to ward off evil, it often becomes a source of fear itself. Aliens, ghosts, witches, psychopaths, and especially demons haunt these pages as the Bible attempts to hold them at bay. Movies are a window into what people really believe. In a culture of high biblical awareness and low biblical literacy, horror movies become authentic sources of belief. In this book Steve A. Wiggins explores how it looks if we take seriously what horror tells us about the Good Book, as he brings together two unlikely subjects and shows how scary the Bible can be.
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