Is watching horror movies considered sinful?

E. Michael Jones has a book on the subject, I'm assuming it's great but I haven't read it.

Depends on what you mean by horror movie.  It would seem to me that with rare exception, any 'horror' movie made in the last thirty years or so would at least be an occasion of sin, and not necessarily because of the 'horror' but because of whatever else goes along with it-- impurity, blasphemy, etc.

There is a profound and substantial difference between horror movies of now and horror movies of then.  Horror movies now (stuff like Saw, Hostel, etc.) are profane to say the least.  It's as if each one (judging from the trailers, at least-- I haven't seen one of these movies for a few years) is simply an attempt to out-gore and out-sex the last one.

On the other hand, I think that certain horror movies (from, say, the sixties backwards, possibly even some in the seventies) contain nothing morally objectionable.  I'm thinking particularly of Hitchcock.  Now, a lot of moderns would probably say he is more suspense than he is horror (and by todays standards, where horror movies are called such based on how many different ways someone can be decapitated, they would be correct) but I would still call him horror.  I'm thinking in particular of Vertigo and Rope.  I haven't seen all of his movies, so I'm not endorsing him across the board.  

Another 'benefit' of older horror movies is that the bad guy is actually bad, and the good guys are actually good.  This modern concept of having a cast full of anti-heroes isn't really Catholic.  You don't really encounter that dynamic in older movies.

I've never been a big fan of horror to begin with, and certainly not modern horror, even when I wasn't practicing the Faith.  But I do know that this stark contrast exists between what should really be called two separate genres, 'old' horror and 'new' horror.

E. Michael Jones has a book on the subject, I'm assuming it's great but I haven't read it.

Yes, "Monsters From the Id."

In it, he traces the history of the modern horror genre to the French Revolution and makes the compelling case that horror as a literary / dramatic / cinematic genre is a natural, unconscious reaction of a sick and decadent society to its own perversity. He shows how a society of men and women controlled by their passions will, despite itself, give testimony to the horrors engendered by giving in to those passions. "Halloween," for example is a monster story borne of fornication and promiscuity. "Alien," a reaction to unnatural sex acts and abortion, and so on.

I would highly recommend it (and any of Dr. Jones' works).

-BTNYC

Quote from: Guest

E. Michael Jones has a book on the subject, I'm assuming it's great but I haven't read it.

Yes, "Monsters From the Id."

In it, he traces the history of the modern horror genre to the French Revolution and makes the compelling case that horror as a literary / dramatic / cinematic genre is a natural, unconscious reaction of a sick and decadent society to its own perversity. He shows how a society of men and women controlled by their passions will, despite itself, give testimony to the horrors engendered by giving in to those passions. "Halloween," for example is a monster story borne of fornication and promiscuity. "Alien," a reaction to unnatural sex acts and abortion, and so on.

I would highly recommend it (and any of Dr. Jones' works).

-BTNYC

Agreed 100%
Bishop Williamson recommended Monsters a few years ago. If I remember correctly +Williamson eventually wound up staying at Jones' house while visiting the area as a result of him calling Jones to discuss Monsters. This was even after the somewhat scathing articles on the SSPX that appeared in Culture Wars. Jones still calls +Williamson "schismatic" but I don't think the two dislike each other.

Quote from: Guest

Quote from: Guest

E. Michael Jones has a book on the subject, I'm assuming it's great but I haven't read it.

Yes, "Monsters From the Id."

In it, he traces the history of the modern horror genre to the French Revolution and makes the compelling case that horror as a literary / dramatic / cinematic genre is a natural, unconscious reaction of a sick and decadent society to its own perversity. He shows how a society of men and women controlled by their passions will, despite itself, give testimony to the horrors engendered by giving in to those passions. "Halloween," for example is a monster story borne of fornication and promiscuity. "Alien," a reaction to unnatural sex acts and abortion, and so on.

I would highly recommend it (and any of Dr. Jones' works).

-BTNYC

Agreed 100%
Bishop Williamson recommended Monsters a few years ago. If I remember correctly +Williamson eventually wound up staying at Jones' house while visiting the area as a result of him calling Jones to discuss Monsters. This was even after the somewhat scathing articles on the SSPX that appeared in Culture Wars. Jones still calls +Williamson "schismatic" but I don't think the two dislike each other.

Interesting. I hadn't known all the details about that crossing of Jones' and His Excellency's paths.

Jones is an odd duck in some ways... On the one hand, he's absolutely dead on with regards to analyzing the world's evils from a genuinely Catholic perspective - particularity with respect to the Jєωs (in fact he's one of a very lamentably few such voices left). But on the other hand, his attitude toward the Traditional Latin Mass seems to be one of ambivalence or indifference. I find that truly perplexing.

Also, I am a bit bothered by how excessively pro Mohammedan he has gotten lately - even to the point of promoting "ecuмenism" with them. I understand that theirs is probably one of the precious few sympathetic ears he has with which to talk about the evils of World Jєωry, but if there's one thing any savvy culture warrior worth his salt should know, it's that the enemy of your enemy is not your friend.

But I digress... as a truly Catholic thinker and historian, he is without peer.

- BTNYC (I keep forgetting to post under my name)

What about the Exorcist or the Conjuring?

I would definitely avoid "The Exorcist." Demonic possession is very real and not fodder for entertainment. Also, the blasphemies shown and uttered in that film are enough to make you want to have an exorcist pay a visit to the room in which you watched it.

I'm unfamiliar with the second film, but stay away from films that depict satanism and demonic possession.

A recent issue of Culture Wars mentioned his trip to Iran where he described what he saw as notable similarities between the Faith and Shia Islam. Make of that what you will.

I've heard Robert Sungenis discuss that in a recent interview.

While I understand the larger point he's making about Jєωιѕн Hollywood trying to make inroads into Iranian culture and corrupt its (relatively) traditional morality; I think he needs to beware that he doesn't, in the course of fighting the good fight against the Christ Killers, become a Useful Idiot Dhimmi for the barbaric Mahometan infidels.

Also, his observations about Iranian morality may have been rather cursory and superficial. I wonder, for example, if he's aware that Iran is the number 2 sex change operation capital of the world (thanks to an islamic fatwah approving it as a "cure" for sodomy)...