As Scream VI hits cinemas - here’s what I think about Christians watching horror films

As the sixth installment in the cult Scream series hits big screens, writer Lizzie Hutchison weighs in on whether followers of Jesus should be watching scary movies. 

I’ve never seen a real horror film. But if you think that complete ignorance on a subject is going to stop me writing about it, then - gentle reader - you have quite misunderstood how I got my English degree. Armed with nothing but a healthy disdain for the subject matter and an alacrity for Google, let’s go. 

As with much of this new, non-binary world, the horror genre has a lot of flex within it. According to certain online encyclopedias, it’s divided into: “body horror”,"comedy horror” “slasher films”, “pyschological horror” and “supernatural horror”. Or as I like to call it “ouchies, lolzies, knivesies, loonies and ghosties”. As someone who thinks that Notting Hill is the apex of cinematic tension, all of them sound pretty appalling. But it’s not about me. It’s about what people watch. And a lot of people get a lot of kicks from a lot of these sub-genres.