Sometimes while watching a scary show, with all the lights out, my dad would take out his fake teeth, mess up his hair, sneak up slowly behind my sisters, and then he would grab them and scream…my sisters wanted to kill him. I thought it was hilarious.
So I guess you could say over the years my sisters and I became horror connoisseurs. Gina loved monster movies: The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Blob, and The Birds. Stephanie liked weird movies: Chuckie, Children of the Corn and Night of the Living Dead. I liked anything that included creepy music, crazy plots and dark corners. Rod Serling’s Night Gallery was always some of my favorite television viewing. Recently I have enjoyed “Stranger Things” on Netflix — Creeeeepy…….
So as I sat on my couch with popcorn bowl in hand, I would often wonder while watching an appetizing spine-tingler, “what makes a scary movie good?”
One of the scariest movies I can think of was “Psycho” by Alfred Hitchcock. It had all the elements that intensify fear: Strange camera angles, the creepy surroundings of a cheesy motel in the middle of nowhere, and darkness that hides the truth. The longer the truth remains hidden, the scarier the movie becomes.
Take M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs” as an example. For most of the movie, creepy things were happening, you didn’t know what was going on, crop circles appeared out of nowhere. And then toward the end of the movie, a skinny, silly looking alien appeared. From that moment on, the movie lost its sting. The light exposed the danger and finding out that this particular alien was allergic to water, nothing to stress about. He was a paper tiger, all roar, no bite. That is a movie you can only watch once because the danger was exposed and found silly.
The longer a movie keeps you guessing and the darkness hides the truth, the more intense the fear. Light and exposure ruins everything.
Spiritually speaking, light has the same effect on sin and evil. People who rebel against God are described in scripture as children of darkness, and the reason is simple: they are trying to hide their guilt and shame. Like a good scary movie, the longer something remains hidden the longer it has power to deceive, scare, trick and keep people cowering in fear. Sin’s power comes from its hiddenness and ability to deceive.
I once read that Christianity is a struggle between the promises of sin and the promises of God. Light, the truth of the word, exposes the deceit, folly and emptiness of sin’s promises. The longer a person lives in the darkness of his lies, the longer sin rules and controls. Like a good scary movie, evil is terrifying until it is exposed in the final scenes. So too with sin.
That is why Jesus says in Luke 8:17, “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”
A true Christian comes into the light and no longer buys the lies of sin. The darkness loses it’s power when Jesus is present. Maybe that is why watching scary movies on a sunny beach doesn’t work so well? Everything is exposed!
I will say the only time when the exposure of the monster was scarier than when it was hidden – – his name is Negan – – pure evil.
