Both religion and popular culture exist in a larger culture, they are not entirely distinct and often religion, and popular culture interact. For instance, religiously themed movies or religious references in a television show; they are not entirely separate, but we can think about them as being slightly different. What we can also think of religion is a form of popular culture, religion as popular culture. This doesn’t always operate the same way, but there are often complaints that religion does form a popular culture. If we think about favorite movies, such as The Conjuring series, in some ways, Christianity in America has become like those movies – mass-produced, widely distributed, and formulated. Sometimes certain aspects of religion act as popular culture. Lastly to mention is religion in popular culture and for a long time, religion has been in many forms of popular culture as well. Involving movies with religious themes, T.V. characters, shows about religious groups or with religious people in it, songs referencing God, but even if there’s not something uniquely religious, we can identify the tropes of religion in a wide variety of expressions of popular culture, movies with religious messages. For instance, this paper will analyze themes for Christianity, so religion in popular culture shows up, both positive and negative examples of religion. Finally, thinking about these interactions between these two, we can also see ways in which pop culture can act as a religion where the fandom of specific brands, companies, products, social media applications, characters, etc. is a way or form of religion. Fandoms are a group of communities which form their subcultures over the person or whatever the thing they obsess over. People worship the person, characters, or horror that they obsess over and participate in rituals such as movie premieres. Movies form some strong and dedicated fandoms; in particular, films that have a horror element have the strongest fans. Interestingly, it is as if the horror in the films somehow allows the viewer to escape reality and enter a new world. Some of these films include those in The Conjuring series: The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2, Annabelle: Creation, and the upcoming 2018 film, The Nun. One thing all of these shows have in common is the fact that they all contain some horror element, one way or another. Thus seldom, popular culture can have religious overtones. The Conjuring series, like much horror, is profoundly capitalized in religion, grossing $1.2 billion (Masters & Cullins, 2017, para. 1). The movie has received significant attention concerning the viewpoints of the Catholic Church, as the film is supposedly based on real horrific incidents. The main enthrall draws themes of satanic possession, evil presence through the vessel of human beings and object, the experience of hauntings, and the prospects of exorcism.
Building on the success of his film Insidious, film director James Wan, wanted to delve back into the supernatural realm, contacting Lorraine Warren, a gifted clairvoyant to aid in his understanding of the supernatural (Warren, 2013, para. 4). Lorraine Warren used to work with her late husband, Edward, on numerous paranormal cases before his passing. Edward Warren was also the only non-ordained demonologist officially recognized by the Catholic Church. The Conjuring (2013) is a film about the event of the Perron family who moves to a house haunted by malicious spirits. The viewer gets a look at the family who had been struggling to make ends meet, forcing them to move into a dilapidated farmhouse in Harrisville, Rhode Island, along with their five daughters and family dog. After moving in, the family begins to hear and experience strange disturbances, including the death of their dog. After the many warning signs, the parents finally seek the help of the Warrens who conduct an initial investigation, in turn, suggest to the parents that the house may need an exorcism. Lorraine claims that she saw a malevolent, dark force on three occasions during their assessment and each time she saw the spirit, it was standing behind the family. Unfortunately for the parents, the Warrens needed to gather more evidence and also seek authorization from the Catholic Church before an exorcism was to be carried out. While researching the history of the home that had been sold to the family at a suspiciously low price, the Warrens uncover some disturbing things. Of this include, the fact that the house had once was owned by a woman named Bathsheba, who was related to one of the women in the Salem Witch trials who had been executed for witchcraft. Her husband is sacrificing her infant child during a ritual before running outside to the tree proclaiming her love for Satan and threatening to curse anyone who attempted to claim her land before taking her own life caught Bathsheba. In a vision, Lorraine gets a vision, which shows her the spirits of all the people Bathsheba had possessed in the past and how the witch would inherently possess the mothers who inhabited her land and used them to kill their children. This act was such a betrayal and insult to God that it essentially exalted Bathsheba within the ranks of Hell, encouraging her to continue her dark practice over the many years since her death. Bathsheba seizes control of the mother, flinging her across the room, where footage of this incident was taken and brought to a priest named Father Gordon, who was Warren’s liaison at the church. Father Gordon views the video recordings of the events and images of the family and tells them that he is both disturbed and convinced insisting that he will personally ensure that the Vatican give them a response as soon as possible. The Warrens interference with the malevolent spirits triggers a series of unfortunate events that unfold, and Ed has left no choice but to perform the dangerous exorcism himself. After an extremely traumatic struggle, Ed can perform the exorcism with the assistance of his wife, Lorraine, finally getting the demon to release its hold on the mother, Caroline, and the rest of the family. One of the things that I believe makes the film stand apart is the fact that faith is handled in the film in such a respectful, matter-of-fact manner. Faith was not hammered throughout the film, and the studio doesn’t run away from it, although some of the In an interview with The Conjuring’s scriptwriters, The Christian Post declares, “In the Bible every demon shall flee at the name of Jesus but in the "Conjuring" the main character says the cross has power to make demons flee” (Law, 2016, para. 16). I think what this movie does is illustrate that there’s a true believer in the cross. Another theme one could extract from this film is the Catholic Church’s conviction that no one but they can perform expulsions- this is indeed not true. Additionally, the ceremonies, emblems, and some of the techniques employed aren't scriptural. I think there is some wellbeing in the way that the film crosses over a few religions. The film doesn’t need to be exclusively a Christian film; however, for both Ed and Lorraine Warren, these are two devout Catholics, it is who they are enrooted deeply in their faith, and I applaud the filmmakers were not running away from their belief. The Conjuring 2 will jump back in the narrative with the Warrens and an evil spirit masked as a religious woman.
Annabelle: Creation (2017), directed by David Sandberg, is a prequel to Annabelle, the prequel to The Conjuring for the evil doll Annabelle that associates the different stories inside The Conjuring diegesis. This old-fashioned horror movie is about the Annabelle doll and its origins – how it was created, how it became possessed, and the terror that it inflicted on an orphanage. Annabelle might be inherently creepy, but before an evil spirit tainted her, she was just a very expensive, handcrafted doll made by Samuel Mullins. The source of Annabelle's evil comes when the Mullins invite the spirit of their deceased daughter to live inside the toy. Samuel Mullins reaches out to the church and with the help of two priests, traps the doll inside their daughter’s bedroom closet and fixes the walls with Scripture where the demon sat dormant for 12 years. Fast forward in time, the Mullin family opens their big estate to a group of young girls part of a Catholic orphanage. Sister Charlotte accompanies the group of girls, and demonstrations of prayer gathering, sin repentances, and crosses are apparent throughout their dwelling in the secluded residence. Interestingly to note, along with other supernatural horror films, Annabelle: Creation still conspicuously embraces spiritual images and characters of the Christian faith – Bible pages, crucifixions, demons, priests, etc.; however, a few scenes are inaccurate. For example, Sister Charlotte hears the confession of one of the young girls, yet in truth, only a priest can administer the sacramental act of penance. Secondly, Sister Charlotte was dressed in a ‘modernized,’ knee-length religious habit in contrast to the modest, floor-length gown. Further, the conventional methods of the exorcism where in the beginning the two priests came to the residence, blessed the doll with holy water, and then placed it in a closet fixed with Bible pages is false. According to a trained exorcist, Father Robert, typically, to get rid of the evil spirit, the doll should have been “burn it or take it apart” (Schiffer, 2017, para. 9).
Suffice it to say that The Conjuring series is one of the most thoroughly religious horror films I’ve seen. I chose to explore this horror film series not only to present the role religion plays but also to show how this film narrative, along with other supernatural horror films, could not function properly without the religious aspects and intercultural play of faith in the movie. This analysis shows that even today’s all the rage horror films illustrate how religion and faith prevail in contemporary culture. America cinema gives a pulse of where culture is going. If we are not engaged it becomes our life; we are not aware or knowledgeable about what’s going on, we’re missing a significant generation. I think that our best movement is to learn the language and literature of what the world we’re living in – what’s it’s saying – seek its flourishing, find ways for it to do well and do good. I believe as Christians we should not only be consumers of culture but to be contributors of culture because we, as Christians, have a voice that can contribute and add, and help determine the flow of where culture is going.