Catholic imagery draws horror filmmakers, from exorcisms to bleeding statues

Horror films regularly turn to Catholic rituals and imagery when they need a villain, a victim or a way out. Priests perform exorcisms in "The Exorcist" and "The Omen." Satan leaves a child in a lapsed Catholic's womb in "Rosemary's Baby." The setup is familiar: a clerical collar facing off against the devil.

Matthew Cressler, co-author of the book "Body And Blood," said the genre reaches for these details on purpose. "When a vampire is at your door or your child is possessed, you don't, like, call for a Methodist," he said. The book examines Catholic horror, a category he argues is built into how the church talks about suffering. "Catholics have long had a sense that when one suffers, one is bearing the cross of Christ and that, like, in suffering, one is drawn closer to Christ," Cressler said.

Aislinn Clarke, who directs horror films, said her Catholic childhood supplied the raw material. She recalled the priest lifting the host at Mass: "this is the blood of Christ, this is the body of Christ." Her reaction as a child interested in horror, she said, was, "this is a bit like cannibal-ish." Clarke has used that material directly. In "The Devil's Doorway" from 2018, statues bleed and a young woman becomes possessed. Clarke said the scene she finds most disturbing comes when nuns sing hymns while a woman gives birth nearby and the nuns do not attend to her.

Filmmakers also borrow Catholic practice without labeling the film as Catholic. Cressler pointed to the 1960 film "Psycho," where a mummified mother is kept in a house beside a motel. He said the veneration of the remains of the dead can carry into stories that never mention the church. Horror can also push the other direction. The 2025 film "The Ritual" consulted Reverend Aaron Williams, a pastor at St. Mary's Basilica in Mississippi, and includes an exorcism rite. "A priest has no authority on his own, but through ordination, he's sacramentally received a character that allows him to act with the authority of Christ," Williams said.

The details accumulate on screen. Candles, crosses and statues signal danger to audiences. Cressler said the same imagery can also point to grace and redemption, because horror brings what is hidden into view. "Body And Blood" examines how these themes operate in the genre.