A few weeks ago, my wife went on a work trip leaving me unattended for a few days. To take advantage of the time alone, I did what any healthy, young millennial would do: I binge watched horror films. Two movies stuck out, 2013’s The Conjuring and 2006’s The Descent.
There are other, more frightening films than these cult classics. The two-minute trailer for Sinister, for example, left me more shaken than either of these films. This is because both The Conjuring and The Descent rely heavily on jump scares and reveal their scary monsters halfway through the film, dropping the suspense. Still, these films are nothing to shake a stick at.
Keeping the lights on, my dog close, and the Wikipedia synopses on my phone, I was tense throughout. But more important than the fright, these movies offered an illuminating contrast between horror films whose moral arc is based on religion and those whose redemption is more secular. The Conjuring, utilizing the former, was a much…
