Once upon a time, horror was a niche genre that had a devoted following but a small market share – think Hammer Horror flicks from the 1930s onwards, starring the likes of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

Horror gradually reached more mainstream audiences, with the 1970s spawning many successful movies such as The Exorcist, The Omen, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the first film from a Stephen King novel, Carrie.

The latter is the only horror film I have ever seen (in my late teens), and it utterly creeped me out – to the point that I determined never to watch another. But such a view is increasingly in the minority.

In US cinemas, the public taste for horror more than doubled in the decade to 2023, and by last year had accounted for 17 per cent of the country's box office. In Australia, according to Val Morgan Cinema, horror was "the breakout genre of 2025... with admissions up a staggering 97 per cent year on year". The big push is coming from people in the 18-39 aged bracket, who account for 68 per cent of Australia's horror film audience.

But why are people flocking to view horror at the cinema, and tuning into it on TV? What has happened to change us, or the films themselves? And how might Christians respond to this surge in a way that is both wise and helpful?

This is where the research of Dr Kutter Callaway might help. Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at the Fuller Seminary in California, he is also director of the evangelical seminary's Brehm Centre, which seeks to help film and TV artists maintain a sense of Christian identity and faithfulness in their work.

Callaway used to avoid horror films, too, but couldn't help noting that, after COVID lockdowns in the US, this was the genre that stopped many cinemas from going under. He has friends (both with faith and without) who are horror buffs and also knows Christian filmmakers who make horror films.

"They were telling me they were doing it because they think it's one of the most theological genres in film," he recalls.

But how? In a recent podcast conversation with Simon Smart from the Centre for Public Christianity, Callaway noted that the "bad guys" – the evil – in horror films is clear. Yet because the characters trying to deal with an evil such as demons or spirits often have a secular Western upbringing, they have no tools to deal with it. The only characters that can fight it are people of faith – usually Christian.

This kind of conversation with filmmakers convinced Callaway to take a deep dive into the genre, reasoning that, as a cultural anthropologist, "I can't call myself an expert or an authority in film and TV and ignore 30-35 per cent of what people are seeing. So, I took it as a personal dare and said... 'Hopefully I'm going to survive this!'"

To say he now views the genre differently would be an understatement. His horror research has resulted in a podcast titled Be Afraid, and there will soon be a book of the same name, subtitled "What Horror Reveals About Facing the Darkness".

This doesn't mean he endorses horror as a genre or even recommends that people view it. In fact, he describes some of what's made as "irredeemable, [with] no value in the depiction that it offers us, and it's very cynical and nihilistic". A sub-genre he refers to as "torture porn" is in this category. He says, "Some of the Saw franchise skews into this direction. There's also a series called Terrifier... and they are just awful. I've yet to find a compelling argument for why I or anyone else should watch them".

What should we fear?

If some horror is so irredeemable, why has Callaway been exploring it so earnestly?

"I went into this exposure experiment with the passage of 'perfect love casts out fear' in mind," he explains. "I thought, at best, what these films do is expose us to fear so that it can be cast out of our lives, so that we can be less fearful.

"But I now think the best horror films expose us to, or reveal to us, the ways in which most of our lives are consumed with fearing the wrong thing and inviting us, pushing us to ask the question of 'What ought I to actually fear?'"

Callaway says a Christian film-maker friend named Scott Derrickson chooses to make horror films that place the reality of evil front and centre – such as his first film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which is based on the true story of a possessed woman who underwent multiple exorcisms. These resulted in her death, and eventually the priests involved were put on trial.

"Scott takes evil and throws this in your face, basically saying, 'I dare you to say this isn't real. Here is one thing we fear that is the right thing'," Callaway says.

He adds that he hadn't given enough credence to the argument of Derrickson and others that horror is a deeply theological genre. "I saw it as so personally scary and disturbing that I hadn't attuned to the fact that one thing should personally disturb us... we should be personally disturbed by the reality of evil."

And in a world where many things are genuinely frightening, Callaway considers this may be one reason why younger people in particular are willing to engage with horror.

"A number of psychologists working in this area would say that, especially for younger people, there is a developmental reason for why they would want to get together in groups and basically test the limits of their fear response," he says.

"We're living in a time where there are so many traumas, so many crises, so much chaos, so much real violence, that people are coming into these fictional narrative environments already traumatised. And I think – and this is my interpretation – that they are desperate for a space where they can navigate, explore, maybe make sense of what they are experiencing in their real lives."

The horror of the Cross

He calls the growth of the horror genre after COVID counterintuitive, adding that "Christianity itself is a counterintuitive thing. What do I mean by that? I think the most horrific event that the Christian faith attests to is the fulcrum around which reality turns: the crucifixion. That is a horror story. And it's brutal and it's violent and there are supernatural and demonic elements. There are sociopolitical things, there's graphic violence.

"All of that is something Christians say is the greatest demonstration of God's revelation in human history. We describe it as God's living commitment to humanity. To pretend like it's not a horrific story is problematic. Good Friday is only called 'good' because we know about Easter Sunday, but Friday on Golgotha is horror.

"And for me, if we want to speak to the pains, the longings, the hopes of contemporary society, we have to be able to say to all of you pursuing these horror films, 'Man, have we got a God for you!' There is no other God who has experienced exactly what you are enduring, in your life and in these films, better than Jesus."

So, back to the question of how Christians can usefully, and wisely, respond to horror. Callaway agrees it's not for everyone. He says that, in addition to the distasteful, exploitative aspect of some films, others in the genre are "just rubbish".

However, he adds, "I want to be responsive to the significant chunk of people who find this compelling and find ways to create some kind of bridge to what God is doing in the world. That's more my take than anything else – not to encourage horror or say everyone should watch it... but in the steering of people's hearts as they go to watch their films: how might the God of Christian faith speak to that impulse?

"Now, a number of Christian people come to me... and they say, 'What about the Bible passage that says, whatever is true and noble and right and pure, meditate on such things?'

"And I say, all of that is correct but don't go past the first word, which is 'true'. If you go back to the Cross, one of the truest things we claim as Christians is one of the most historically horrific things that has ever happened. So, 'true' is not the same thing as 'pleasant'. And that is one of the reasons why artists are exploring this area.

"The entire biblical witness is filled with some awful things that we do not introduce to children because it would be inappropriate. But not only do we say that it is true, we say that disciples of Jesus should reflect on these stories of horror. I think that's what artists are doing when they tell these stories. They're not only productive in terms of education, but there is something deeply spiritual or theological about disciplining or forming yourself in a way that can respond to that."

In the end, in making a judgement call about this – or any other – genre, Callaway believes the first step is knowing yourself, your instincts and sensibilities, and if you do take part, to do it in community. The second step is to do some online research; read the work of critics you trust to help decide whether a film you're considering "will be something that is life giving or destructive".

"You don't need to watch any of this," he says. "But certain films might be of interest to you and it's a really helpful way to help you discern whether you would watch it at all."

Those interested in grappling further with issues around the horror genre can go to www.kuttercallaway.com