In the age-old theological battle between good and evil, the humble believer is asked to steel their soul and lead a spiritual, pious life to avoid the constant temptation of immorality. An easy enough ask, no? Such intense, dramatic dynamics have influenced the horror movie since its inception; moral corruption, pagan rituals and general demonism became the easy methods of terrifying readers. It offered a society often shaped by the constricts of religion the alarming but titillating rush of brushing up against something unholy.
But not every work of fiction featuring demons or people breaking the Ten Commandments can be considered “religious horror”. The story has to grapple with the idea of faith, where characters test their resolve to fight for something holy that still holds out on giving them a clear, divine sign of validation. Often, characters in religious horror will doubt the existence of a benevolent power, or their own worthiness to serve them.
The films of the Conjuring-verse (anchored by two arch-Catholic demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren) have always steered away from complicated questions of morality and faith, despite two of their films being named after a woman of the cloth. As the — let’s not lie — likely lukewarm chills of The Nun 2 approach, here’s the best religious horror films to put the fear of God in you.
1. The Exorcist
In what is arguably William Friedkin’s most famous film, a young priest, who usually counsels other clergy suffering crises of faith, must exorcise a Mesopotamian demon from a young girl. Any film known as “the scariest movie of all time” is doomed to be shrugged off by successive generations as “boring as shit”. While the (still very good!) scares of Friedkin’s genre-defining possession film may not have been screaming/crying/throwing up in cinemas anymore (we’ll know for sure when The Exorcist gets its 50th anniversary re-release next month), it’s hard not to be affected by its rich human story — a rarity in modern horror.
2. Saint Maud
This British gem from debut director Rose Glass proves how valuable a female perspective is in religious horror; women in religious institutions are expected to show unwavering piety and servitude, which represses much of the natural desires. In it, a Catholic nurse named Maud (Morfydd Clark) tends to an ailing American dancer in her stately British seaside home, and becomes obsessed with saving her soul before she dies. Saint Maud is fascinated with the psychology of religion, arguing that, yes, faith’s power can be erotic, but destabilising too. When we realise how hard some believers are willing to commit, Saint Maud makes the human body feel worryingly fragile.
3. The Wicker Man
The Celtic brand of paganism found in this cult British horror film seems to exist purely to offend the devout Christian policeman at it centre, who’s sent to find a missing schoolgirl on an isolated Scottish island. Sergeant Neil Howie is appalled by teachers showing phallic symbols to children, at the exhibitionist sex happening in graveyards, and, of course, children being sacrificed to guarantee them a good harvest. The Wicker Man’s feverish folk horror feels incredibly exploitation-esque, as if it derives a lot of giddy pleasure from intentionally riling up Christian moralists.
4. The Witch
Anya Taylor-Joy’s 2015 acting debut may still be her best work, as the eldest child of a Puritan family cast out of their New England settlement into the wilderness, where evil forces wait to violate their safety and sanity. The puritans were Christians who left Britain thinking that the reforms of English Protestantism were still too close to Catholicism, so colonised regions of East Coast America under the belief that they deserved to settle on and profit from its land. Robert Eggers’ film understands an ugly truth about zealous religious communities – they would rather cast people into harm’s way than protect them if they disagree with their doctrine. The family thinks their torment is a direct consequence of their sins, pushing them into deep into an astonishing madness.
5. The Vigil
This horror film takes place almost exclusively during a Jewish shemira, where Yakov, a former Orthodox Jew, is charged with keeping vigil over a Holocaust survivor’s body to prevent malevolent spirits from claiming it. As it turns out, Yakov’s trauma and confused faith mean his vigil is left vulnerable to demonic interception, and the night is filled with claustrophobic, hallucinogenic and relentless spiritual assault that attempts to unravel the young man’s faith and sanity. An authentic depiction of the difficulty of leaving a strict faith, The Vigil is one of the more moving religious horrors thanks to a deeply felt empathy for those who never found complete spiritual relief in God.
6. Satan’s Slave
Remade in 2017, this Indonesian B-movie makes its religious intent clear: this is a moral instruction, telling Indonesians that if they stop practicing Islam, like a grieving family do at the start of the film, Satan will haunt and murder them. It’s propaganda by way of Dario Argento, with overblown visuals and sound cues vamping up the horror to early-80s extremes. It remains an effective view into Southeast Asian genre cinema, where the hidden, pro-Christian messaging behind stuff like the Conjuring-verse are substituted for Islamic ones. A refreshingly overt and preachy piece, Satan’s Slave isn’t afraid of spelling things out: multiple characters halt the story to explain to a haunted boy that he must keep worshipping God.
7. The Devils
Is it a horror film? Or an explosive historical drama? Or the best British comedy ever made? Ken Russell’s fictionalised account of a real French priest executed for being corrupted by Satan is somehow all three. A sexually repressed convent is plagued with shuddering and explicit visions of antichrists and deviancy, causing them to erupt with accusations of possession and witchcraft against the philandering Father Grandier. The Devils is the kind of buck-wild, sensual rollercoaster that makes you tremble, and justifies its place on this list with often violent depictions of faith’s corruptive power that still feel cutting-edge and controversial today.