Good afternoon, House of Madness clerics:
With the recent release of "The Nun 2", and the upcoming sequel to "The Exorcist", we here in the House of Madness thought it would be fun to make a list of our top films with religious undertones. Sound like fun? Great! Read on! Doesn't sound like fun? Great! Read on! There are countless films on this subject, so we can't name them all, and that's why we're simply doing a modest list of our top five, even though the subject matter probably warrants a top fifty. Let's begin!
5. "Prince of Darkness" (1987) - When I was a kid, any time I wanted to guarantee myself a meaningful fright, I would run up to the store and rent this. No matter how many times I watched it, I couldn't shake the dread that always ended up consuming my soul. Well played, Mr. Carpenter.
4. "The Amityville Horror (1979) - Even though I don't believe one iota of the story being true, it's still a remarkable tale that has spawned 543 sequels to date, with one of them somehow involving Sharks. Silly sequels aside, this film scares with the best of them.
3. "The Omen" (1976) - The amount of mental chaos that little shit Damien caused me is enough to solidify this film's place at number three. Every time I see a kid misbehaving or acting too angelic, I wonder to myself if he or she is the spawn of Satan himself, and then I run away.
2. "Rosemary's Baby" (1968) - Talk about a film ahead of its time! You could drop this fifty+ year old classic in theatres today, and it would still make waves with its psychological terror. One of my all-time faves!
1. "The Exorcist" (1973) - No surprise here, as this is the film in which every film of its genre strives to be, and in fifty years, still no one has come close. If a 'Religious Movie Museum' existed, this would have a room dedicated entirely to itself, and it just gets better every time I watch it.
And there we have it folks, our top 5 religious horror films. In case you didn't notice, not one film from the last almost 40 years managed to make its way onto this list, which really tells how much we're starving for something new to blast our nips off. Will something come along soon? Perhaps, but if not, there's nothing wrong with enjoying the classics. Thanks for reading!
NB
