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 💯
If the audience had to believe in the premise of the horror movie to be scared by it, you'd think movies about cursed VHS tapes or guys with knife-gloves who haunt dreams would have flopped. I can kinda see where you're coming from in that I found myself nonplussed by Hellraiser II because I don't believe in a dimension of pure evil, but I think that's more Hellraiser II being a shitty movie and failing to draw me in than anything about religion.