Anthony Hopkins, Scary Movies, and Exorcising Our Lies

The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama.

Dorothy Sayers, Letters to a Diminished Church

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Jesus, John 8:36

True confession time. 

I love movies. 

And I really love scary movies.* 

Our lovingly built movie-enthusiast collection.

Give me Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho or Rear Window any time over any chick flick. I prefer Tremors over Twilight, Woman in Black over What Women Want, Shaun of the Dead over Steel Magnolias. In my brain, this is all obvious, but I’ve learned that, alas, this is not the case for everyone else. I’ve accidentally traumatized friends with my choices of what I thought was hilariously scary, and I’ve had the old eyebrow raised in my general direction many times over my latest scary movie find. I can only attribute my eclectic taste to family movie nights consisting of Star Wars and Indiana Jones (with eyes ALWAYS closed during the scene where the lid is lifted off the Ark of the Covenant—I don’t think I saw the whole thing till I was in my 20s, for reals) and movie nights as a teenager with my mom watching Hitchcock films and Wait Until Dark. I also fell in love with books like Jane Eyre and The Hound of the Baskervilles where the atmosphere is just as much as a character as Rochester or Watson. 

Thankfully, I found a husband who enjoys scary movies as much as myself, and over the past few years has introduced me to the genre of creature (i.e. GOOEY) movies, such as Alien, The Mist, The Host, and Anaconda. A whole new world of nail-biting, hiding behind a blanket, and  squealing in Ben’s ear opened up. Great fun, especially when you have sufficient snacks and you can turn on the lights whenever you need to. Also, watching something like Househunters or Jeeves and Wooster afterwards can help. 

Recently, I found myself pondering some unexpected food for thought raised by the scary movie, The Rite. It stars the ever-wonderful Anthony Hopkins as an exorcising Jesuit priest, with a cast including Ciaran Hinds and Toby Jones. BE STILL MY CHARACTER-ACTOR-LOVING-HEART. Major sidenote: this movie is NOT for everyone. It includes disturbing scenes of possession with some graphic dialogue. Because everyone’s tolerance level is different, I can’t recommend watching The Rite, unless this sort of thing is up your alley.**

Without trying to give too much away, the events lead up to a fateful and inevitable exorcism.*** While under possession, Character 1 begins to spew all kinds of lies to distract, frighten, and immobilize Character 2. What fascinated me the most was that the lies were the very sort we tell ourselves or begin to believe when things in our lives go wrong. The demon was accusing the other characters of individual faults and weaknesses, showering them with reasons to feel guilty and unworthy. They would have been so easy to believe, because these lies were shot through with truth. And isn’t that what we also fight against, no matter where the lies about ourselves come from? 

You are not a good friend, spouse, child, parent, employee. 

Remember that time you….? 

Because you struggle with this, you will never be that.

You don’t do enough of….

You are not good enough, worthy enough, beautiful enough.

You don’t deserve good things in your life.

You can’t make a real difference. 

Suffering and pain and sickness must mean you did something wrong, or maybe God has abandoned you.

There’s a reason people don’t treat you how you want, that he or she is not in your life anymore.

People are usually impressed OR dismayed by the sheer volume. 

And the list goes on and on. Even though the possessed are (hopefully) not shouting and screaming these lies at us, we hear them all the same, from many sources. And we start to believe lies tailor-made to us, and that’s how we can start to live. In shame, in fear, in regret, in depression. Immobilized and distracted. Here’s the glorious thing, though: these lies fall apart and are expelled when we trust and follow Jesus as King of the universe and of our hearts. When we believe that the Gospel is true, that God sent His one and only Son to rescue us from our brokenness and dark places because He loves us so deeply, this is when the lies begin to break and lose their hold on us. I have been a Christian for approximately 27 years, and I still need to hold on to the Gospel every day. Otherwise, things get, well, scary. And frightening, and confusing, and dark, just like the movies. 

When we can begin to catch glimpses of how our Creator sees us, created in His image and worthy of dignity and hope and purpose, the lies we’ve built our days on will crumble. We don’t have to be afraid when we don’t feel enough—in Christ, we are more than enough. The Apostle Paul, in his letters to the Romans, describes God as “…the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not (Romans 4:17).” God is the God of impossible transformation, of unthinkable change, even declaring our sin null and void. We are the ones being called into life and worthiness we couldn’t even imagine. When we see ourselves as primarily those who are loved, not as those who are not enough, our freedom is immense and whole. Because of Christ’s love and work in us, lies can become truths: 

You are a worthy and loved human being, whatever titles you hold: friend, spouse, child, parent, employee. John 3:16

Remember that time you….? It has no power or hold over you anymore. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Galatians 5:1

Even though you struggle with this, you are loved and being transformed into His image daily when you know Jesus. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

You are designed both to receive love and to give love in your life. John 15:9-12

You can make a real difference, even if it’s hard to see. You are God’s fellow worker, not the only worker. 1 Corinthians 3:7-9

Suffering and pain are going to happen in this broken world, and Jesus promised He would be with you always, even to the end of the age, even to the end of yourself. Matthew 28:20

Even when people don’t treat you how you want, or when people drift from you, Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

Just another example of my magnificent taste. 

In The Rite, overcoming the lies of the demon was paramount for victory. And this is true for us as well—we must overcome and exorcise our pet lies. I am becoming more and more convinced that we need to understand God’s character and relationship to us before we can even begin to understand ourselves, before we can cast out the lies and the apathetic ways we see ourselves and others. We must let our own characters and lives and wills be shaped by His. As we follow after Jesus, soaking in His Word and meditating on His love and perfect delight in us, the light of His truth will illuminate all darkness. One of the most beautiful things that happens, when we accept ourselves as He accepts us, is that we will begin to see others in the same way. If I am loved as I am, wholly and unconditionally, if His love changes everything for me, it must be true for you, too! This is freedom, this is grace. This is where transformation happens! True, real, deep forgiveness can happen. Honest hospitality can happen. We can make peace with our pasts, and look forward in hope, despite our circumstances. We can start to see others with the eyes of Christ, and He will use us to offer His healing and love and welcome into the great, messy, loud, madcap, incredible family of God. And as Jesus Himself promised, the world will indeed know we are His by the love we show each other. It’s time to throw ourselves into the glorious business of knowing God, of delighting in Him because He delights in us. When we truly know Him, everything will be transformed, changed, made new. 

*My love is probably equally divided between scary movies and British TV. That, however, is another post. 

These are my library flicks right now, because OBVIOUSLY.

**Now, there are possession movies and there are possession movies. I refuse to watch The Exorcist, because even for me, there are limits. With the popularity of films like The Amityville Horror to The Conjuring, from The Omen to Insidious, Hollywood and the general public clearly have a special fascination with the supernatural. As a believer in Jesus, I hold the view that while we have to be careful with the supernatural, because things of the occult are dangerous and misleading, Jesus is King over this world and everything in it, including demons and the supernatural. We don’t have to be afraid of anything, because Jesus has defeated all this world’s evils by His death and resurrection. We each need to be aware of our limitations and boundary lines, not causing a brother or sister to stumble. I sincerely hope this post, with all its mentions of scary movies (I don’t recommend watching any of these movies, unless they are well within one’s comfort zone), does not cause anyone to stumble. (Romans 14:1-23). 

***Another sidenote: most movies or shows featuring exorcism usually drive me bonkers, because most of the priests or pastors don’t have the confidence or the faith or the call needed to handle such situations. I can only suppose this is to up the drama and suspense, however inaccurate. We recently watched the series, Midwinter of the Spirit, which showed much promise. But the vicar depended too much on her own strength and gave in to fear, instead of readying herself with prayer and humility and faith and complete reliance on God. There was always the fear and possibility that Evil would triumph over Good, and all of Christendom would fall. To which I say, well, really. DID YOU NOT READ THE BIBLE AT ALL.