I’ve made reference, from time to time, to “Holy Sequel.” This was a potential book to follow Holy Horror, in which further examples of the Bible in horror films would be explored. While I only half-heartedly supposed I might write such a book, I have kept track of references to the Bible in the horror movies I’ve seen since my book was published. I haven’t done this religiously, but it struck me that someone else, someday down the road, might want to do more research. I recently uploaded my list of such movies in the section of this blog called Full Essays. It also lists all the movies mentioned in Holy Horror. (I may eventually add those from Nightmares with the Bible too.) Not all of those movies are discussed in the book(s)—some are incidental references—but a good many of them are. And as this bit of data shows, a good many more could be. The main reason for adding the list to this website is to offer a filmography of movies that could’ve been in the book, but were discovered too late. Or were produced later.
I watch horror with my Bible radar on. It’s widely recognized that strong religious themes began in horror with Rosemary’s Baby in 1968. One of the things noted both in Holy Horror and in the list on Holy Sequel is that the Bible appears in films earlier than that. Its cinematic nature changes over time. I should also note that some of the movies on Holy Sequel are marked as “maybe.” The reason is that reference to the Bible isn’t terribly explicit, or, if it is shown it’s not done clearly. In the book I discuss this explicitly if a movie is questionable, regarding its use of the Bible. Another feature of Holy Sequel is that it will be updated; it is now my version of record. In fact, since posting it a movie has already been added.
In my abundant free time (ahem), I’m adding links to the blog posts in which I discuss these movies. As with my blog bibliography, this will take some time to complete. I realize these posts are read on other formats such as Facebook and Goodreads, but the website itself has more information than simply the daily blog posts. I do hope it’s a resource for those with similar interests. There are many movies with the Bible in them. There are no indexes or lists of such movies and I’ve stopped keeping track. Except if the movie is horror. If it is, it will eventually be added to Holy Sequel, if I find it. It’s a book I likely won’t have time to write; my to-do list is far too long.
