If you were to ask horror fans to name a film they consider “religious horror,” most would likely name a movie from around fifty years ago—Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), or The Omen (1976). Some may name folk horror of the era, like The Wicker Man (1973) or maybe Witchfinder General (1968). Some deeper cuts may come up like The Abominable Doctor Phibes (1971), Race with the Devil (1975), Alice, Sweet Alice (1976), or The Sentinel (1977). Perhaps something from the Italian masters like Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972) or a film from Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy.
Clearly, the late 60s and 70s were a high-water mark for the twin subgenres of religious and folk horror, and looking back, it is easy to understand why. The world was rapidly shifting, and that instability led to a lack of trust in failing long-standing institutions like political systems and the religious establishments. New religions and cults sprang up like weeds across the world, but especially in the United States, some resulting in reprogramming, abuse, murder (such as the Manson Family), and mass suicide, as in the 1978 Jonestown massacre.
After the shocking fury of that dark episode of history, the trend of religious horror cooled a bit. Though there are great examples from the 1980s, John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (1987) and Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) come to mind, both films examine religion through the lens of science and academia rather than faith, marking a striking difference from the previous generation. Despite the decade being the height of a major Satanic Panic, most films focused on the influences “corrupting the youth,” such as heavy metal music, as in Trick or Treat (1986) and Black Roses (1988), or even television, as in Poltergeist (1982). There was a flurry of faith-infused horror in the 90s, as in The Prophecy series (beginning in 1995 and stumbling along to 2005), End of Days, and Stigmata (both 1999), but these also have a very different feel from the religious horror of other periods and are often infused with a tongue-in-cheek quality. Again, the trend quickly faded, this time into the remake and torture-obsessed 2000s, though there are notable exceptions like Martyrs (2008).
Then something surprising happened in the mid-2010s; a film featuring a pair of Catholic superheroes made a killing at the box office. That film was The Conjuring (2013) and, despite its tendency to play fast and loose with the facts, it brought renewed interest to religious horror, sparking not just a series of films, but an entire Conjuring universe. Other successful, even genre-defining, religious and folk horror films followed, including The Witch (2015), The Wailing (2016), Mandy (2018), Hereditary (2018), and many more. By the 2020s, the wave of faith-infused horror was set to match or even exceed the 1970s just in sheer volume of films and depth of examination of religious subjects.
The relevant question is—Why now?
Of course, there are many factors, both known and unknown, that contribute to trends such as these, but at its most basic level, horror examines fear. Key underlying roots of fear are mistrust, abuse, and the threat of harm. Mistrust of religious institutions is at an all-time high for several reasons, and as a result, participation in religious communities is at an all-time low. This slide began in the early 2000s with the rise of the “Nones,” or people with no religious affiliation, but has skyrocketed since 2007. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 28% of U.S. adults describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”
Many young people (and some older folks as well) who were raised in religious traditions have embarked on journeys of deconstruction and re-examination of their childhood faith. Related to this is the sharp rise in those who call themselves “exvangelical” or something akin to that. At the same time, the most conservative element of the religious establishment has dug in its heels, resulting in greater extremes of belief. As a result, political factions within religious communities have become more pronounced, specifically within Christianity, resulting in a highly politicized, firebrand version of the faith usually called Christian Nationalism. All these subjects are fascinating and have been widely explored recently, but when it comes to horror, these factors and others have created a diverse religious ecosystem ripe for exploration by filmmakers.
2019 became a flashpoint for the new explosion of religious horror with several films, big and small, including Midsommar, Saint Maud, Doctor Sleep, Eli, Color Out of Space, Daniel Isn’t Real, Satanic Panic, and The Vigil, among others, exploring various aspects of faith, religion, and spirituality. This wave has only continued to grow in the years since. There are some notable differences this time around, though. With exceptions like the film version of The Warrens (who are quite different from the real-life couple) and Father Amorth (Russell Crowe) of The Pope’s Exorcist (2023), also based on a real person, there are fewer “religious superheroes” in the current trend. There is a palpable distrust of religious institutions that runs through many of these films and more commentary on the extremes of belief.
There is also much more diversity, as attitudes toward the religious pluralism of modern society have evolved. Where the films of the 1970s largely focused on Catholicism, the new crop of religious and folk horror films explores a much wider variety of religious practices.
Most faith-infused horror films from recent years fall into three broad categories: classic and neo-classic religious horror, religious tapestry, and films that use religious imagery and subtext. Classic religious horror is the easiest to spot as it takes on matters of faith head-on, even engaging in on-screen discussion and debate. Tapestry films weave faith and religion into the fabric of the characters and story. Imagery and subtext films follow a similar method of mythic storytelling, like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, but using religious iconography to make a broader point.
One of the best examples of neo-classic religious horror is Heretic from 2024, a recent surprise hit that literally debates the merits of belief and disbelief on screen. In it, Latter-Day Saints (often called LDS or Mormon) missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are invited to the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). They are quickly drawn into his web, where he works to systematically undermine their belief system. The film is a surprisingly nuanced exploration of religious history and the very nature of belief, filled with symbolism and illustration.
Other classic-style religious horror films are the various exorcism movies like The Pope’s Exorcist and The Conjuring films, which are all entertaining even if they do not do much in the way of addressing current religion-intwined fears. The Vigil, on the other hand, follows a young man, Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis), through a shift from the ultra-orthodox Hassidic community of his youth to a new expression of his Jewish faith as he faces a dybbuk during a terrifying night.
Also in 2024, two films released within days of one another tackled the role of church patriarchy head-on. Immaculate and The First Omen share very similar setups—a young American nun joins a convent in a foreign land only to find she is inexplicably pregnant—but tackle the issue in different ways. These films, along with the Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A (also 2024), are direct responses to the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, which had stood for fifty years, and the role of the religious establishment, specifically the Catholic church and the religious right, in the reversal. Again, uncertainty leads to fear and horror examines the roots of those fears in ways that few genres can, tackling hot-button issues through story and spectacle in the context of fantasy and the supernatural.
Among the best examples of “tapestry” religious horror films of recent years are The Black Phone (2021), X and Maxxxine (2022 and 2024), and Sinners (2025). All these films feature characters with either current or past religious beliefs that have an impact on the events of the film. Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) in The Black Phone engages in open dialogue with Jesus, one that is refreshing in its frankness. At one point, when the search for her brother Finney (Mason Thames) appears particularly hopeless, she exclaims to her dark room, “Jesus, what the fuck!?” Maxine (Mia Goth) in Ti West’s X trilogy is slowly established as the wayward daughter of a fundamentalist preacher who was clearly an abusive man.
In Sinners, the gifted blues guitarist and singer Sammie (Miles Caton) is given an ultimatum by his preacher father to choose between the church and the blues. He chooses the blues, but if the film’s “This Little Light of Mine” tag is any indication, his father’s insistence on a choice is really a false dichotomy, and Sammie can serve the faith of his youth through his musical gifts.
The subtext and imagery category contains multitudes, some of which are unexpected. Doctor Sleep is a story of recovery through and through, but it uses the three temptations of Jesus as an illustration for Dan Torrence’s (Ewan McGregor) personal struggles with alcohol. Ultimately, he sacrifices himself, with his mother at his side, to overcome the forces of evil, led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), and save young Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran).
One of the truly unexpected uses of religious imagery in the service of storytelling is in Terrifier 2 and 3 (2022 and 2024). The character of Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) experiences a number of Christlike trials, including flogging, death, and finally resurrection, which gives her the power to confront the very Beast of Revelation-like Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). (I examined this type of imagery more thoroughly for Bloody Disgusting in a piece called “The Beast and the Angel: The Surprising Biblical Imagery of Terrifier 2”). The third film continues this aspect with more specifically Roman Catholic imagery.
The recent, and much maligned, HIM (2025) also falls into this category, which explores the human urge to ascribe religious devotion to celebrity; in this case, sports icons. Using imagery from a variety of establishment and non-establishment faiths, such as Native American spirituality, HIM examines the temptations and pitfalls inherent to the ambition of becoming the “greatest of all time.” Along the way, it evokes the words of Jesus, asking, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”
Much more could be said, and many more films could be named, along with various other subgenres, including films dealing with Witches, Satanic Serial Killers, Demons, Cults, Religious Fanatics, Visions of Hell, and more. Each year, as I expect the trend to fade, more films continue to be released. So far this year, films with at least some religious element have included 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Mother of Flies, The Severed Sun, and Psycho Killer. Upcoming releases like undertone, They Will Kill You, Hokum, and even Ready or Not 2: Here I Come at least hint at the possibility of religious exploration.
There is no way of knowing how long this wave will last, but it is clear that, at least for now, the resurrection continues.
