On The Need for Christian Horror

A Preamble to this Substack

Not everything written here shall have to do with horror. I shall also pen articles regarding theological symbolism and typology, children’s fairy tales, ancient literature, and philosophy. If any of those are of interest to you, I would like to extend an invitation to follow this page. All interaction in this community is appreciated immensely. I will not be placing the majority of posts behind a paywall, though I intend on writing at least one paid post per quarter to start. I’d like the subscription to exist as a means of financial support, and not a barrier between myself and the readers as much as possible.

1. Why Horror in the Christian space of all things? Why now?

One of the most common responses I have received in promoting tales of the horrific within the Christian world is: Why? And in the 21st century, that’s a fair question. Christians presently emphasize heavily upon the grace of the cross and not as much upon its horror. We often fail to recognize the need for horror in our lives as we don’t see how such narratives commentate upon the Serpent’s deceitful entry into the garden or our misperception of the alien Christ’s entry into our world. However, our world is presently obsessed with horror. Since 2020, horror has been the only film genre to make more money post-Covid than prior. Our civilization here in North America has finally begun to grapple with its own mortality and is seeking to pursue meaning behind the body.

Yet our Scriptures are replete with horror. As mentioned above, the horror of the Serpent and the horror of the Cross are but a small fraction of the horror found in Holy Scripture. Consider Judges 19, in which a Levite man throws his concubine into a crowd of Benjaminite men to be raped all night, after which he cuts her into 12 pieces and disperses the body amongst the tribes of Israel. The story emphasizes the horror of the fact that the Levite priesthood had no problem throwing out their people (the bride of God) to be raped by other gods and that the Benjaminites (where king Saul would arise from shortly thereafter) would likewise have no problem ransacking the people of God. The horror we feel in reading Judges 19 is meant to communicate to us in some small manner how God feels at the division and idolatry of His people.

Thus, horror is meant, both as emotion and narrative, to call us back to God Himself. Let us now proceed forth to look at one example in popular culture that has been contorted against Him.

2. The Narrative of the Vampire

Consider the vampire, a being first warded off in ancient legend, not by garlic, crucifixes, or silver; but by scattered berries, grain, or seeds. This may seem odd to modern reader, but let us break it down. If you have ever watched Sesame Street, you will know that the vampire appropriately named Count spends his time obsessing over numbers and counting. It brings us back to the garden of Eden; wherein humanity was created from the dust (plurality) and was had the breath of life breathed into him (singularity). The bestial realm only has the plurality, none of the singularity (the sacred realm). Consider that the Garden of Eden was a mountain according to Ezekiel 28:14. The top of the mountain is where one meets with God (consider Moses at Sinai, Christ in the sermon on the mount etc). The top of the mountain is the point of singularity, to be cast away from the mountain as Adam and Eve are is to be cast into multiplicity or plurality. This is why the demonic realm has to do with the latter, but not the former. Thus, vampires were thought to be obsessed with counting seed, grains, or berries. If they cannot count to a point of singularity (an answer to a mathematical dilemma), then they will get distracted by the counting and cannot come to a conclusion.

You might ask, why berries, grain, and seed specifically? Berries and grain are the primordial elements required for wine and bread (Eucharistic elements). Seed has to do with potentiality and an ascension upwards (opposed to the multiplicity of the bottom of the mountain). Consider how Jack in Jack & The Beanstalk uses seeds to ascend to heaven, or how in Genesis the seed of the woman will crush the head of the Serpent (and in so doing, Christ makes way for our entry into heaven). Thus, these three primary elements of vampiric opposition give way to the means used in modern vampire lore.

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula (coming from the Romanian words Ul Drac, which mean The Devil), the vampire is overcome by bread and wine, a crucifix, and light. I have not yet looked fully into silver as a means to destroy vampires, but I will note here that silver is both the means of the moral destruction of Joseph’s brothers in Genesis and it is the means behind the destruction of Judas.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula begins with Jonathan Harker making his way to Count Dracula’s castle and selling real estate to him. In so doing, he sells both his soul and the soul of his wife to the Count. In some re-tellings, he also drinks wine whilst signing the contract. Why? Because Harker is comparative to Adam selling the world to Satan, eating fruit, and selling his and his wife’s souls. Dracula goes on in pursuit of this woman to board a vessel named the Demeter (the etymological root of which is Mother Earth, thus Satan has boarded Earth itself in the narrative and is in an ark whilst he slays the righteous, making it a reverse-Noah narrative). Finally, we may consider the end of Dracula in which the Count and Abraham Van Helsing fight over the body of Mina (the fiancee of Harker and thus a picture of the Bride). This is simultaneously a picture of Christ and Satan fighting over the church, and a picture of St. Michael the archangel and Satan fighting over the body of Moses (Jude 9), which I believe is the Israelite people and thus another bride image.

This brings us to modernity, which I believe has ruined the vampire narrative in many respects. Netflix’s 2020 remake of Dracula gender-reverses Van Helsing, thus undoing the Christ/Michael imagery. 2024’s Abigail (an adaptation of Dracula’s Daughter) has the titular vampire stabbing victims with a crucifix instead of being immune to it. Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu removes all religious weapons (apart from light) as a means to defeating the vampire and ends with the death of the Bride. I’d go on to detail more, but I believe you understand my point already. Christian abandonment of horror has not led to no horror, but to a re-Paganization of horror. To quote Justin Lee “the story of Christ—his incarnation, death and resurrection—provides the archetype of the horror story.… his identity as Logos made flesh is, quite literally, the horror to end all horrors.”*

*Theopolis Institute. (2024, April 18). The Horror to End All Horrors - Theopolis Institute. https://theopolisinstitute.com/conversations/the-horror-to-end-all-horrors/

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