Category Archives: Satan

Steve Wiggins on “Nightmares with the Bible”

Steve Wiggins returns to TheoFantastique to discuss his new book Nightmares with the Bible: The Good Book and Cinematic Demons. You can purchase this volume at the link, or secure a copy via interlibrary loan. My review of Steve’s great book can be found at Horror Homeroom. Watch my previous conversation with Steve here. The […]

VICE: Horror Films as Christian Propaganda?

A few days ago an essay came across my daily Google news feed on horror that caught my attention. It was “Why Are So Many Horror Films Christian Propaganda?” by Josiah M. Hess at VICE. My initial reaction to the title was one of intrigue and thankfulness for the issue being raised, but this was […]

Satanic Art Exhibit

An exhibit from 2014 showed up today in my Google news feed from a Quartz piece called “Five hundred years of Satanic art” that draws attention to an “exhibition at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center, ‘Sympathy for the Devil: Satan, Sin, and the Underworld,’ [that] traces Lucifer’s visual history, from his emergence in the Middle […]

Why did satanists endorse “The Witch”?

The new horror film The Witch is getting positive reviews, but prior to that it was the stuff of minor controversy as a Satanist group issued a public endorsement for the film, calling it a “satanic experience.” Such an endorsement would have caused a major controversy in the culture wars from Christians as happened in […]

Pop Culture Reactions to “Salem”

If you haven’t seen the Salem television series on WGN it’s worth checking out. It eagerly scoops up Christian mythologies of the Witch as the consort of Satan, a frequent trope in horror films, and uses this as the major element in a reframing of the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Given […]

Critical Considerations of “The Conjuring’s” Ed and Lorraine Warren

As mentioned in a previous post, The Conjuring has generated a lot of discussion and controversy. One area that has received a lot of attention is its depiction of evil witches and the “darkness of witchcraft” in connection Christian conceptions of Satan and demonology. You can read my previous post, a guest essay by a […]

The Possession Presents Jewish Perspective on Possession and Exorcism

The Possession is Sam Raimi’s most recent horror film, and it also represents Hollywood horror’s latest installment in our ongoing fascination with the idea of possession by a dark spiritual force and the related process of exorcism. What makes Raimi’s film different from so many of the films that explore this theme is it’s Jewish […]

Psychology Today: What is it That Fascinates Us About Exorcism and Demonic Possession?

A series of bad reviews by film critics, echoed by many rank and file moviegoers, didn’t stop The Devil Inside from doing extremely well at the box office. The film is but the latest in a string of films with the theme of demonic possession, forming a horror subgenre in their own right. This includes […]

The Devil Inside: CFQ Spotlight Podcast 3:1

The horror preferences of a younger generation, coupled with the continued popularity of “found footage” and demonic possession themes in horror, led to a great weekend at the box office for The Devil Inside. Although I haven’t seen the film, I provided some input for the discussion at the Cinefantastique Spotlight Podcast 3:1 on the […]

Relegere Reviews The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture

The publication Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception, includes a book review by Steve A. Wiggins of The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture, edited by Christopher Partridge and Eric Christianson (London: Equinox, 2009). The review touches on a number of areas covered by contributors, including a chapter describing […]

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