The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen
The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.41664Keywords:
Horror films, Roman Catholicism, Vatican II, exorcism, demonologyAbstract
The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) is seen by many conservative Roman Catholics as a decisive turning-point in a wider history of a diabolically-inspired conspiracy against the Church. One facet of this has been a heightened interest in such circles in preternatural phenomena particularly demonic possession-especially as such phenomena locate the Roman Catholic Church as a central player in wider cosmic and salvific events. This article explores the growing interest in possession over the past half-century and how pre-conciliar Roman Catholic imagery and themes-both visual and theological-including traditional Marian devotion and piety; preternatural phenomena surrounding manifestations of evil; the theology of vicarious and atoning suffering; the vocational insecurity of the Catholic priest and the existence of a Satanic conspiracy of evil, have been utilised in Catholic horror films from the late 1960s through to the present and how an understanding of the historical and theological resonance of these themes amongst traditionalist Roman Catholics can elucidate aspects of the appeal these films have had amongst Roman Catholics in the post-Vatican II era.
References
Alban, Francis
Fatima Priest: Priest, Prophecy and Peril…The Vatican Kay to Peace or Terror. Good Counsel Publications, Pound Ridge, NY.
Alberigo, Giuseppe
A Brief History of Vatican II. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NJ.
Allen, Thomas B.
Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism. Doubleday, San Francisco, CA.
Amorth, Gabriele
An Exorcist Tells His Story. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA.
Anon.
A Phenomenon of Fear. Time, 6 September: 68.
Baglio, Matt
The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. Simon and Schuster, London.
Balducci, Corrado
The Devil. Alba House, New York.
Barkun, Michael
A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Berger, Peter
The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Anchor Books, New York.
Bertone, Tarcisio
The Last Secret of Fatima: The Revelation of One of the Most Controversial Events in Catholic History. Image Books, New York.
Blatty, William Peter
[1971] The Exorcist. Corgi Books, London.
Brottman, Mikita
Hollywood Hex: Death and Destiny in the Dream Factory—An Illustrated History of Cursed Movies. Creation Books, London.
Burton, Richard D. E.
Holy Tears, Holy Blood: Women, Catholicism, and the Culture of Suffering in France, 1840–1970. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Carty, Charles Mortimer
Padre Pio: The Stigmatist. TAN Books, Rockford, IL.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Christian Faith and Demonology. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican City. http://www.doctrinafidei.va/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19750626_fede-cristiana-demonologia_en.html
Cowan, Douglas
Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen. Baylor University Press, Waco, TX.
Cristiani, Léon
Satan in the Modern World. Barrie & Rockliff, London.
Cuneo, Michael
a The Smoke of Satan: Conservative and Traditionalist Dissent in Contemporary American Catholicism. Oxford University Press, New York.
b The Vengeful Virgin: Case Studies in Contemporary American Catholic Apocalypticism. In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan J. Palmer, 175–206. Routledge, London.
Of Demons and Hollywood: Exorcism in American Culture. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 27(4): 455–65.
American Exorcism: Expelling Demons in the Land of Plenty. Bantam Books, New York.
Delaporte, Albert
[1871] The Devil: Does He Exist? And What Does He Do? TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, IL.
Dinges, William D.
Roman Catholic Traditionalism. In Fundamentalism Observed, edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby, 66–101. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
‘We Are What You Were’: Roman Catholic Traditionalism in America. In Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America, edited by Mary Jo. Weaver and R. Scott Appleby, 241–69. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
Gibson and Traditionalist Catholicism. Religion in the News 6(3): 16–17, 22.
Dyrendal, Asbjorn, James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen
The Invention of Satanism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Ellis, Bill
Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media. University of Kentucky Press, Lexington.
Faggioli, Massimo
Vatican II: The Battle for Meaning. Paulist Press, New York.
Fry, Carrol L.
Cinema of the Occult: New Age, Satanism, Wicca, and Spiritualism in Film. Lehigh University Press, Bethlehem.
Gardenour Walter, Brenda
Canonical Evil: The Demonic, the Satanic, and the Persistence of Catholic Paradigms in American Supernatural Horror. In A History of Evil in Popular Culture: What Hannibal Lector, Stephen King, and Vampires Reveal about America (vol. 2), edited by Sharon Packer and Jody Pennington, 299–311. Praeger, Santa Barbara, CA.
Gaudron, Matthias
The Catechism of the Crisis in the Church. Angelus Press, Kansas City, MI.
Giordan, Giuseppe, and Adam Possamai
Sociology of Exorcism in Late Modernity. Palgrave, London.
Goodman, Felicitas D.
The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. Doubleday & Company, San Francisco.
Griffiths, Richard
The Reactionary Revolutions: The Catholic Revival in French Literature 1870–1914. Constable, London.
Haag, Herbert
Abschied vom Teufel. Benzinger, Einsieldeln.
Haag, Herbert (ed)
Teufelsglaube. Katzmann, Tübingen.
Heller-Nicholas, Alexandra
‘The Power of Christ Compels You’: Moral Spectacle and The Exorcist Universe. In Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film: Essays on Belief, Spectacle, Ritual and Imagery, edited by Regina Hansen, 65–80. McFarland & Company, London.
Hutchings, Peter (ed.)
The Horror Film. Longman, New York.
Huysmans, J. K.
[1891] Down There (Là Bas): A Study in Satanism. University Books, New Hyde Park, NY.
Introvigne, Massimo
Modern Catholic Millennialism. In The Oxford Handbook for Millennialism, edited by Catherine Wessinger, 549–66. Oxford University Press, New York.
Satanism: A Social History. Brill, Leiden.
Jancovich, Mark (ed.)
Horror: The Film Reader. Routledge, London.
Jenkins, Philip
The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice. Oxford University Press, New York.
Jones, Darryl
Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. Arnold, London.
Kael, Pauline
Reeling. Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, MA.
Kane, Paula M.
‘She Offered Herself Up’: The Victim Soul and Victim Spirituality in Catholicism. Church History 71(1): 80–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640700095160
Marian Devotionalism since 1940: Continuity or Casualty? In Habits of Devotion: Catholic Religious Practice in Twentieth-Century America, edited by James M. O’Toole, 89–128. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Kelly, Henry Ansgar
Satan: A Biography. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Kermode, Mark
The Exorcist. British Film Institute, London.
Keyser, Les, and Barbara Keyser
Hollywood and the Catholic Church: The Image of Roman Catholicism in American Movies. Loyola University Press, Chicago, IL.
Komonchak, Joseph A.
Interpreting the Council: Catholic Attitudes toward Vatican II. In Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America, edited by Mary Jo Weaver and R. Scott Appleby, 17–36. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
Kselman, Thomas A.
Miracles and Prophecy in Nineteenth-Century France. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Kselman, Thomas A., and Steven Avella
Marian Piety and the Cold War in the United States. Catholic Historical Review 72(3): 403–24.
Laurentin, René
Mary’s Place in the Church. Burns & Oates, London.
The Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary Today. Veritas Publications, Dublin.
Lawler, Michael G.
Sectarian Catholicism and Mel Gibson. Journal of Religion and Film 8(1), http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/2004Symposium/Lawler.htm
Lefebvre, Marcel
A Bishop Speaks: Writings and Addresses 1963–1975. Scottish Una Voce, Edinburgh.
Luebbers, Amy
The Remnant Faithful: A Case Study of Contemporary Apocalyptic Catholicism. Sociology of Religion 62(2): 221–41.
van Luijk, Reuben
Children of Lucifer: The Origins of Modern Religious Satanism. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Malone, Peter
Screen Priests. ATF Press, Hindmarsh, South Australia.
Marchetto, Agostino
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council: A Counterpoint for the History of the Council. University of Scranton Press, Scranton, PA.
Margry, Peter Jan
Global Network of Divergent Marian Devotion. In Encyclopedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities, edited by Christopher Partridge, 98–102. Lion-Hudson, Cambridge.
Marian Interventions in the Wars of Ideology: The Elastic Politics of the Roman Catholic Church on Modern Apparitions. History and Anthropology 20(3): 243–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757200903112628
Marriot, James
Horror Films. Virgin Books, London.
Martin, Malachi
Hostage to the Devil. HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York.
The Jesuits: The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church. Simon and Schuster, New York.
The Keys of This Blood: The Struggle for World Dominion between Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Capitalist West. Simon and Schuster, New York.
de Mattei, Roberto
The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story. Loreto Publications.
McDannell, Colleen
Catholic Horror: The Exorcist (1973). In Catholics in the Movies, edited by Colleen McDannell, 197–225. Oxford University Press, New York.
McInerny, Ralph M.
What Went Wrong with Vatican II: The Catholic Crisis Explained. Sophia Institute Press, Manchester, NH.
McIntosh, Christopher
Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival. Rider, London.
McSweeney, Bill
Roman Catholicism: The Search for Relevance. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Menozzi, Daniele
Opposition to the Council (1966–84). In The Reception of Vatican II, edited by Giuseppe Alberigo, Jean-Piere Jossua and Joseph A. Komonchak, 325–48. Burns & Oates, Kent.
Modras, Ronald
The Devil, Demons and Dogmatism. Commonweal, 4 February: 71–75.
de Montfort, Louis
[1843] True Devotion to Mary. Montfort Publications, Bayshore, NY.
Nelson, Victoria
Faux Catholic: A Gothic Subgenre from Monk Lewis to Dan Brown. Boundary 34(2): 87–107. https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-2007-016
Nicola, John J.
Diabolical Possession and Exorcism. TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, IL.
Nunn, Clyde Z.
The Rising Credibility of the Devil in America. Listening 9: 84–100.
O’Malley, John W.
What Happened at Vatican II. The Belknap Press, Cambridge, MA.
Pieto, Rick
‘The Devil Made Me Do It’: Catholicism, Verisimilitude and the Reception of Horror Films. In Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film: Essays on Belief, Spectacle, Ritual and Imagery, edited by Regina Hansen, 52–64. McFarland & Company, London.
Poole, W. Scott
Satan in America: The Devil We Know. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD.
Pope Paul VI
a Be Strong in the Faith. L’Osservatore Romano, 13 July: 6–8.
b Deliver Us from Evil. L’Osservatore Romano, 23 November: 3, 12.
Prince, Stephen (ed.)
The Horror Film. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Ratzinger, Joseph, with Vittorio Messori
The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State of the Church. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA.
Reidy, M. T. V., and L. C. White
The Measurement of Traditionalism among Roman Catholic Priests: An Exploratory Study. British Journal of Sociology 28(2): 226–41. https://doi.org/10.2307/590212
Russell, Jeffrey Burton
The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
Schreck, Nikolas
The Satanic Screen: An Illustrated Guide to the Devil in Cinema. Creation Books, London.
Séguy, Jean
Millénarisme et ‘Ordres Adventistes’: Grignion de Montfort et les Apôtres des derniers temps. Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religions 53: 23–38. https://doi.org/10.3406/assr.1982.2241
Society of St Pius X (SSPX)
Priest Where Is Thy Mass? Mass Where Is Thy Priest? The Seminary Interviews. Angelus Press, Kansas City, MI.
Travers, Peter, and Stephanie Reiff
The Story Behind The Exorcist. Crow Publishers, New York.
Tronchu, Francis
[1927] The Curé D’Ars: St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney. TAN Books, Rockford, IL.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Rebuking the Devil. USCCB, Washington, DC.
Vallely, Paul
Pope Francis: Untying the Knots. Revised and expanded edn. Bloomsbury, London.
Victor, Jeffery S.
Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend. Open Court, Chicago, IL.
Wilde, Melissa J.
Vatican II: A Sociological Analysis of Religious Change. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Wilkinson, Tracy
The Vatican’s Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century. Warner Books, New York.
Wood, Robin
Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. Columbia University Press, New York.
Young, Francis
A History of Exorcism in Catholic Christianity. Palgrave, London.
Ziegler, Robert
Satanism, Magic and Mysticism in Fin-de-siècle France. Palgrave, London.
Zimdars-Swartz, Sandra L.
Encountering Mary: From La Salette to Medjugorje. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
The Marian Revival in American Catholicism: Focal Points and Features of the New Marian Enthusiasm. In Being Right: Conservative Catholics in America, edited by Mary Jo Weaver and R. Scott Appleby, 213–40. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
Filmography
The Amityville Horror (dir. Samuel Zarkoff, 1979).
Anneliese: The Exorcist Tapes (dir. Jude Gerard Prest, 2011).
Deliver Us from Evil (dir. Scott Derrickson, 2014).
The Devil and Father Amorth (dir. William Friedkin, 2017).
The Devil Inside (dir. William Brent Bell, 2012).
End of Days (dir. Peter Hyams, 1999).
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (dir. Scott Derrickso, 2005).
The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (dir. Steven R. Monroe, 2015).
The Exorcist (dir. William Friedkin, 1973).
The Exorcist II: The Heretic (dir. John Boorman, 1977).
Lost Souls (dir. Janusz Kaminski, 2000).
The Omen (dir. Richard Donner, 1976).
The Omen II: Damian (dir. Don Taylor and Mike Hodges, 1978).
The Omen III: The Final Conflict (dir. Graham Baker, 1981).
The Omen IV: The Awakening (dir. Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1991).
The Passion of the Christ (dir. Mel Gibson, 2004).
Requiem (dir. Hans-Christian Smid, 2006).
The Rite (dir. Mikkael Håfström, 2011).
Rosemary’s Baby (dir. Roman Polanski, 1968).
The Sin Eater (dir. Brian Helgeland, 2003).
Stigmata (dir. Rupert Wainwright, 1999).
Published
Issue
Section
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
