A peculiar species: theological horror film

Pearlie 2022-01-27 08:05:38

Devil

Christianity is a monistic religion, and its demons are not evil gods on the same level as God. In the final analysis, Satan and Lucifer are also "fallen angels", and they are God's creations. "Satan" is not even a proper noun in Hebrew, but a derivative of a verb that means "to fight", "stop", and "accuse". The work God assigns to them is to collect the souls of the wicked and escort the court of the doomsday together. The devil sometimes tempts the righteous, but the righteous will not fall for it. Those who will be haunted by the devil are guilty of themselves and have a tendency to approach the devil. So the devil is similar to the prosecutor in the court of God. The devil mocks humans at best, but does not mock God.
However, the devil certainly hopes that the more souls under his rule, the better, and sometimes robs the souls of good people with angels. According to the traditional imagination, the struggle when the elder son Kelleb died was a manifestation of the struggle between the devil and the angels for their souls (rather than some insanity).

Sins in

Catholicism are divided into original sin and original sin. The original sin of mankind is inherited from the sin of the ancestor Adam and Eve of mankind and has been redeemed through the death of Jesus. This crime is the crime committed by each person in this life. The "seven deadly sins" or "seven deadly sins" of this sin are particularly unforgivable sins. The seven deadly sins include arrogance, jealousy, anger, laziness, greed, gluttony and lust, among which arrogance is the most serious. What is arrogance? Arrogance is to put humanity in the same position as God. This is what is difficult for us as foreign audiences to understand: Why do those Christian denominations behave more piously than the other, but why do they blame each other? Because in their eyes, when this kind of devotion is done to the world or to satisfy themselves, this kind of devotion in turn becomes hypocrisy and a nourishment for arrogance.
The family of seven in the movie are Puritans and very religious. So why do you get in trouble with the devil? There are shadows of Western religion being torn out in it. The father inside is obviously an active religious reformer. He is also imitating Jesus in appearance. He does not obey the official church, but listens to his own inner religion, "I saved the word of God", which has a tendency to elevate himself to the position of God.
In Protestantism, believing in God is the only way to be saved, and the only reason for falling into hell is not believing in God and salvation. In the movie, his father was severely injured by a black goat. He wanted to pick up the axe to chop it, but immediately threw it away and waited to die. This is the sin of despair. If I heard correctly, he said corruption, no help my father before he died, which is a great blasphemy. So the black goat understood it and sent him to hell immediately.

The indistinguishability

of the reality and the fiction of the vision film reminds people of the vision. The vision is not only the appearance of God or angels in front of people, but also the appearance of the devil. As early as the late Roman Empire, some Christian fathers recorded how demons turned into beauties, angels, and even Jesus himself to deceive them and undermine their ascetic efforts; of course, truly pure people (such as them) can see through this trick. This tradition lasted throughout the Middle Ages, thus entering people's imagination of the image of the devil and witch. To be precise, demons and witches do not deform, but create visions to deceive people's senses. In the movie, the beauties that Kellerb met in the forest, and the two dead sons that his mother woke up in the middle of the night, Western audiences should be able to immediately think that these were all tricks of the devil.
On the other hand, since the late Middle Ages, vision literature has become more and more erotic (not pornographic). Many mystics (regardless of men and women!) often saw Jesus interacting with them intimately in their visions, and even got married. They often woke up from the visions with great physical and mental pleasure. Many of these visions are recognized by the Catholic Church. In the movie, the mother said that the kind of nympho from her dreams when she was young, and the "sexually suggestive" compliments that Kelleb's soul came out of his body before death can be understood from this perspective. But this visionary tradition of seeing gods or angels is basically rejected by Protestantism. They believe that the relationship between man and God has collapsed, and God will basically not appear to mankind. Whenever you see supernatural phenomena, the devil must be at work. Therefore, the father said to the mother that the dream you had was not reliable, and you can naturally enjoy the grace of God when you go to heaven. Seeing Kellerb's various performances before his death, his father's three visions must have been refreshed.

Witch

In the 13th-century scholastic philosophy, the position of the devil in the cosmic order was greatly improved-the construction of the Western Devil's will is a process that has gone through a thousand years, rather than being written in the Bible at the beginning. Since a series of scholars represented by Thomas Aquinas discussed it, the devil has been regarded as a purely spiritual being, on the same level as angels. This brings about a consequence: as a purely spiritual being, how can the devil cause disasters to mankind? In this way, they need allies-witches.
A witch is a woman who sells her soul to the devil-see Faust. Although Faust is male, the witch hunting movement is an important background for the formation of Faust's story. The books that fake Kelleb lied to his mother to read together, and the books that the black goat finally asked the eldest daughter to sign were all devil contracts. The witch accusation does not need to give material evidence, because the contract to sell the soul does not exist in material terms, let alone no evidence. As long as a woman is accused, she is doomed. So we see the panic on the face of the eldest daughter when she was accused of being a witch by the twins.
The witch-hunting movement is an absolute anomaly in Western history: it spans the 14th-17th centuries, ignoring the divisions of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the modern era. It had a peak until the 1660s; it straddled both sides of the Atlantic, and straddled the old and new religions. Faction-There have been a lot of unjust cases made on both sides. This movie only mentions the mutual demonization of Puritan family members. There is also a shadow of religious tearing?

Interpretation

This film can of course be interpreted from a feminist perspective. We who are de-enchanted do not believe in the existence of gods and ghosts; we who are from different cultures do not understand the relationship between gods, humans and demons in Western culture. Therefore, we will explain the devil (fear, suspicion, etc.) in the movie from a psychological perspective. Of course, the psychological foreshadowing of this movie is also quite adequate. However, the devil in Western history is not merely a metaphor, much less a psychological phenomenon, but something that actually exists in people's lives. Finally, the eldest daughter who joined the witch attended Satan's black mass naked and flew into the sky. This is not just a metaphor for "freedom" and "solitude," as it was written in the witch trials at the time. A good movie can naturally withstand various interpretations, but we in different cultures often ignore what others say literally.

Well, of course, my understanding must be very subjective.

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Extended Reading
  • Coby 2022-03-22 09:01:33

    For this is the director's feature film debut, it seems that it is not a horror film, but a pure psychological thriller, which is backward in the predicament of the ignorant, barren and claustrophobic environment, and the most terrible things are always suppressed. , The most fearful thing is always people, witches are "trained" the day after tomorrow, the film's cramped atmosphere, the characters are very successful, the sound effects feel a bit too much, for example, the high-frequency whistling does not have a scary effect, but is particularly anxious

  • Albert 2022-04-23 07:01:39

    Two and a half stars. I actually watched this movie when I was in the worst state to watch a movie

The Witch quotes

  • William: Did ye make some unholy bond with that goat?

  • William: Corruption, thou art my father!