Darryl Caterine on the paranormal in popular culture

0 | July 29th, 2021 | Posted in paranormal

Here’s another podcast video from my other creative venture. In this conversation, Darryl Caterine and I discuss various aspects of the paranormal. Caterine is author of Haunted Ground: Journeys Through Paranormal America, and the volume we co-edited, The Paranormal and Popular Culture: A Postmodern Religious Landscape.

Tagged in: ,

David Feltmate and religious satire in adult animation

0 | July 29th, 2021 | Posted in animation, religion, satire

Some of my recent podcasts on religion and culture on another website have application here. This is my conversation with David Feltmate on religion in adult animation, including The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Family Guy. This comes out of David’s book Drawn to the Gods.

Tagged in: , ,

Recommended articles and news

0 | July 2nd, 2021 | Posted in exorcism, possession

This week I posted a couple of interesting news items in the TheoFantastique Facebook page that are worth mentioning here. First, was a piece at CURRENT titled “Found Footage: January 6 and the Horror Movies that Made It.” This interesting article looks at similarities between internet-created and folklorish monsters like Slender Man are similar to those in real-life, like the insurrection against the America government on January 6, 2021. The author connects some interesting dots here. Second, there is an article that brings together horror films and religion in the form of exorcism in connection with the Conjuring 3. The article at Religion Dispatches, titled “Will ‘Conjuring 3’ Influence Real-Life Events via the ‘Exorcist effect’?”, like the preceding essay, also discusses the blurred lines between horror in pop culture and how this then becomes a part of the fabric of life outside of entertainment.

In terms of news, in my work the book I co-edited, Theology and Horror, is now available. I am currently co-editing a book on Religion and Horror Comics with Brandon Benziger. He and I are also waiting for draft submissions for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters as well. More to come on these volumes as they near finalization.

Tagged in: ,

Steve Wiggins on “Nightmares with the Bible”

0 | April 27th, 2021 | Posted in Bible, Christianity, demonic, demonology, horror, possession, Satan

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 book’s description is found below.


Demons! Nightmares with the Bible views demons through two lenses: that of western religion and that of cinema. Sketching out the long fear of demons in western history, including the Bible, Steve A. Wiggins moves on to analyze how popular movies inform our beliefs about demonic forces. Beginning with the idea of possession, he explores the portrayal of demons from ancient Mesopotamia and the biblical world (including in select extra-biblical texts), and then examines the portrayal of demons in popular horror franchises The Conjuring, The Amityville Horror, and Paranormal Activity. In the final chapter, Wiggins looks at movies that followed The Exorcist and offers new perspectives for viewing possession and exorcism. Written in non-technical language, this book is intended for anyone interested in how demons are perceived and how popular culture informs those perceptions.

Tagged in: , , , , ,

Guest blog post at Pop Culture and Theology

2 | March 31st, 2021 | Posted in horror, theology

I’ve got a new guest blog post at the great Pop Culture and Theology website titled “Theology and Horror: Answering the Concerns of Critics.” It is part of the promotion for my new volume, co-edited with Brandon Grafius, titled Theology and Horror: Explorations of the Dark Religious Imagination.

Tagged in: ,

Review of “Nightmares with the Bible” at Horror Homeroom

0 | March 29th, 2021 | Posted in Christianity, demonic, demonology, exorcism, horror, Jewish monsters, Judaism, possession

I had the privilege of reading Steve Wiggins’ fine book, Nightmares with the Bible, a book that looks at demons, possession and the Bible, for Horror Homeroom. You can find that review here. Steve’s response is also interesting on his blog as he expresses great appreciation of the review, and his frustration that his other book on horror and the Bible, haven’t been picked up by academic book reviewers. I hope we can get Steve here to discuss his book in a podcast. See our previous discussion of Holy Horror here.

Tagged in: , , , , , , ,

University of Chester and Gothic Heresy: Religious Knowledge and Experience in Horror Culture

0 | March 17th, 2021 | Posted in Gothic horror, horror, religion

My Facebook feed recently produced this little gem from the University of Chester, bringing together religion and horror, and one funded by the Templeton Religious Trust!

Horror is a widespread mode of culture, cutting across games, films, books, art, TV and many other forms. In horror there is a repeated emphasis on religious themes, tropes, motifs and ideas. Ghosts, haunting, ruined abbeys, nuns and priests, exorcisms and demons run rife through this part of culture. The aim of the Gothic Heresy project is to investigate what exactly this religious element of horror means to those who engage with horror in any way. Are these elements just aesthetic set dressing, designed to do no more than just elicit affective responses – to make us afraid – or is there something deeper at work? This project aims to assess whether the religious elements within horror inform how audience members come to think about issues of religion, theology or the spiritual. This project aims to investigate how this incredibly popular cultural form helps inform and shape the audience’s religious understandings.

The first stage of the project is a survey, open to anyone who engages with horror across its myriad forms and varieties. The survey seeks to investigate how respondents view horror, their own religious or spiritual practices and beliefs and, crucially, how – if at all – these things interact. From there, the project will move on to in-depth focus groups, allowing for a more detailed examination of these interactions before finishing with some detailed interviews with participants who wish to explore their own religious understanding in light of their engagement with horror.

Tagged in: , ,

THE UNHOLY as Easter horror

0 | March 12th, 2021 | Posted in Christianity, horror, possession

A new trailer came out today for a horror film coming out in connection with the Easter holiday where Christianity celebrates its most holy event. In the trailer for THE UNHOLY, we find a combination of possession tropes with Catholicism’s emphasis on Mary. See the discussion and poster at the article on the film at Collider.com.

Tagged in: , ,

“The Vigil” presents Jewish take on the demonic

0 | February 16th, 2021 | Posted in horror, Jewish monsters

I’m currently reading Steve Wiggins’ book Nightmares with the Bible, which will be the focus on a review I write and a future podcast with Steve, but it has heightened my sense of the demonic in cinema and religion of late. Today I came across The Vigil in my news feed, which promises to be a “New Jewish Horror Film Steeped in Ancient Jewish Lore and Demonology,” according to an article at JewishBoston. As that piece states, “Jewish themes do not usually drive horror films. But ‘The Vigil’ has blazed a trail for the way it introduces Yiddish dialogue and combines supernatural elements with Jewish mourning rituals. There are plenty of jumpy scares, along with flickering lights and unsettling appearances. All of it happens in a setting where things literally go bump in the night.” I can’t wait.

Tagged in: ,

“Theology and Horror” gone to press

0 | February 16th, 2021 | Posted in Books, horror, theology

Rowman & Littlefield just informed me that my co-edited volume with Brandon Grafius, Theology and Horror, has gone to press, just in time for the March release date. It’s not cheap, but request it from your library! https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781978707986/Theology-and-Horror-Explorations-of-the-Dark-Religious-Imagination

Scholars of religion have begun to explore horror and the monstrous, not only within the confines of the biblical text or the traditions of religion, but also as they proliferate into popular culture. This exploration emerges from what has long been present in horror: an engagement with the same questions that animate religious thought – questions about the nature of the divine, humanity’s place in the universe, the distribution of justice, and what it means to live a good life, among many others. Such exploration often involves a theological conversation. Theology and Horror: Explorations of the Dark Religious Imagination pursues questions regarding non-physical realities, spaces where both divinity and horror dwell. Through an exploration of theology and horror, the contributors explore how questions of spirituality, divinity, and religious structures are raised, complicated, and even sometimes answered (at least partially) by works of horror.

Tagged in: , ,
RSS for Posts RSS for Comments