This could be a hot take, but I used to be deathly afraid of all things related to possession/demons while religious because I thought it was a real threat which required me to be vigilant (sounds extremely absurd I know). But my god did it all completely change the minute I started deconstructing my beliefs and thinking about what actually happens in the real world. Which leads me to believe these types of movies are only popular because of Christianity’s ubiquity. I’m sure other religions have better illustrations of the paranormal that would be cool to see, but all we have is the product of centuries of colonialism. Because even movies with those types of illustrations are extremely orientalist. Bleh just another example of mayos bungling another aspect of culture for everyone else
This also could just be me being a complete buzzkill, but psychological/cosmic horror is where it’s at 💯
My son was hell-bent on seeing The Exorcist from an early age ... begged and carried on and we were, like, "No ... far too shocking and intense for a young mind!" I remembered writing the local ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh when I was a kid because the tv trailers for it scared the hell out of me (and they sent a note back on station letterhead apologizing).
We finally gave in when he was maybe ten and let him watch it. He was happy to see the actual upstream of decades of pop culture references, but when it was over he just sat there and said "that's it?" Completely nonplussed. Just went upstairs to play Minecraft or whatever.
He's home from college this month and it came up because of the new sequel coming out and he was very clear on why it hadn't phased him years ago: "You and mom raised me atheist. Why would I be afraid of demonic possession?"
You know, the funny thing is I'm Catholic, grew up Catholic and very practicing. When I saw the Exorcist as a young teen I had the same reaction. But I think that's because I watched it as a drama more than a scary movie, and wasn't expecting it to match up in the terror factor that other movies had.
US: Nominated for multiple awards in the drama category.
Rome: Submitted as a documentary.