Apocalypse, like we discussed in the last lecture, is one of
the defining features of Christianity. As the lecture mentioned, Abrahamic
religions believe in the spectrum of beginning and the end. We have
discussed few lectures ago that people are afraid of the unknowable, and because
of that, we tend to be attracted to movies or television shows that put our
fear for the unknown in visual form, and we talked about how monsters are the
representations of this. Apocalypse, aka the end of the world, is a scary
thought. Looking at the issue on a Christian perspective, Apocalypse is very
similar to the idea of “death”, it will be here one day, we don’t know when and
we don’t know what happens after. Horror movies capture this fear we have for
death, and similarly, many movies seem to capture this fear of the end to get
audiences' attention.
Because of the this fear we have of the end, many films and
television shows tend to carry an apocalyptic theme, some portray this explicitly
and others do it "rather" implicitly. Well-known explicit apocalyptic films
include “The Day After Tomorrow”, “The Book of Eli”, “2012”…etc. Interestingly,
I think the rather implicit apocalyptic films tend to have this crossover with
horror/monsters theme, because of this, though the idea of apocalypticism
remains but it seems less obvious. Example would be “Omen”, famous horror movie
about a demonic kid taking over the world; “Pleasant Point”, was not a highly
popular television show, but similarly to “Omen” it focuses on the idea that
the evil is gradually taking over humanity; and most recently “American Horror
Story, judging by its name and the first few episode, most would assume its
strictly horror based television show, until the end of the first season, it slowly
reveals its implicit religious-apocalyptic theme (when main character gets
pregnant with a demonic child, and a psychic predicts the kid would have a
massive influence on the human race).
Both the lectures on monsters and the last lecture on
apocalypse demonstrate very clear examples of the complex interaction between
religion and popular culture. We have spent a lot of time in this course
discussing this interaction, from the knowledge I have gathered throughout these
12 weeks, I’m debating the possibility if fear of the unknown actually came
before religion. Religion could be generated from our fear of death/the unknown,
faith and belief can comfort our fear by allowing us to the opportunity to
imagine what the unknown looks like. As technology advanced, this idea of
comforting our fear is taken up by the media, and the notion to target this
fear in Christianity is often portrayed in movies and television shows, and
eventually became a huge popular culture. Though of course there is a
possibility that because our fear for the unknown is so huge that it could be a
form of popular culture before everything else. I think it is this fear of the
end that we are living with, contributed to the popularity of apocalyptic films.
As mentioned, apocalypse to Christians, is very similar to
the idea of death, it is scary to the human race because it is unknowable. The
media industry could have picked up this phobia and reinforce it by
producing movies/television shows that capture this fear, and allow audience
the opportunity to visualize the unknown. And by putting the unknown in a visual form, it indirectly comforts our fear, therefore, we enjoy it. In a bigger picture, this demonstrates
the complexity of the relationship between Christianity and popular culture, and how they reinforce and interact with each other, and therefore, I think
apocalypse is an excellent topic to conclude this blog, as well as this course.
Cowan, Douglas. “Stalking Life: Fear of Death and of Dying Badly.” In Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen, 123-66. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 200.
Ostwalt, Conrad. “Movies and the Apocalypse.” In Secular Steeples: Popular Culture And The Religious Imagination, 157-88. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 200.
Walsh, Richard. “The Horror, The Horror: What Kind of (Horror) Movie is the Apocalypse?” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 22 (2010), 27 pp
Cowan, Douglas. “Stalking Life: Fear of Death and of Dying Badly.” In Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen, 123-66. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 200.
Ostwalt, Conrad. “Movies and the Apocalypse.” In Secular Steeples: Popular Culture And The Religious Imagination, 157-88. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 200.
Walsh, Richard. “The Horror, The Horror: What Kind of (Horror) Movie is the Apocalypse?” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 22 (2010), 27 pp