It’s So Sca-aa-ry?
Forward Blog
Author: Ryan Hodgins
Dec 8, 2019
Whenever I think of scary movies, I picture the image of Frankenstein from the old black and white films. I visualize the spots and lines rolling across the screen and the bolts sticking out of his neck. But I don’t really think of it in a scary way. It kind of makes me laugh, actually. Granted, I laugh at all sorts of inappropriate things. My wife often smacks my arm when I laugh at something unrealistic or cheesy that happens in a movie.
But when I think of movies that freaked me out, such as The Shining orThe Blair Witch Project, even now I get a creeped out feeling in the pit of my stomach. When The Blair Witch Project came out, I remember people talking about how scary it was. I laughed at them until one night, alone in my house, I finally watched it. BIG mistake. I was crazy scared. I remember feeling nervous about the noises in the house and trying to be brave but feeling completely distraught inside. I was so relieved when my parents finally got home.
Sometimes we watch scary movies because the adrenaline excites us; sometimes we watch them because we want to see whether or not they will make us afraid.
One question that has been posed to us is “Do horror movies open the mind to Satan?”
This is a tough one. The Bible says, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things,” Philippians 4:8, NKJV.
Yes, I do think this verse can guide us in decisions about what we put into our minds. But is a horror movie going to open the door to the devil? Let me share my personal experience.
I used to watch a lot of horror and occult-type films, and as time went on, I noticed my personality changing. I was interested in darker things, my art became filled with satanic imagery, and the music I listened to promoted a sinful lifestyle. The more I dabbled in these things, the more I found them acceptable. And at the same time, the less interested I was in Jesus.
So from my experience, I would say yes.
Do scary movies make you evil? You can argue whatever point you want to justify. But ask yourself this question: Would you sit down on the couch next to Jesus and turn the horror movie on? Our minds are more impressionable then we’d like to think, and everything we subject them to either draws us closer to God or pushes us farther away from Him. You have to make your own choices. But evaluate the things you put in your head carefully.
Just as eating lots of cheeseburgers will probably make you gain weight, watching movies about the occult will probably make you more interested in those things. God gives us the freedom to make our own choices, and that is amazing. But that will never mean that the things we choose to do won’t have consequences — they do. The freedom to choose never separates us from the results of our choices, now and for eternity.