Heaven and Hell

Danse Macabre, A Medieval Woodcut and Their Idea of Horror.

 

 



I never was a big fan of horror flicks. Perhaps as a child I was more so but that can be explained by the fact that kids believe everything and it's easier to scare them. But, taken as a whole, I never really sought them out to watch.

The main reason is that most horror is badly done. I have a hard time believing the idea of the living dead, vampires, ghouls and all those thingies that crawl out of graves. It just doesn't happen in real life. It's creative and can make for a good story, but I'm not frightened by it. What does frighten me is real horror. War, disease, serial murderers...blowing a tire on Thurber's Ave at 70mph. Those things do happen.

I make an exception for one movie though, the original Exorcist.

With any fictional story, the author has to get you to “suspend your 'dis-belief.'” Doing that with horror isn't easy as the transition from reality to unreality is a huge jump. Though I think the Exorcist did it with finesse.

Reagan, the little girl, is first taken to doctors, then psychiatrists and nothing works. There comes a point where the doctors throw up their hands and try a long shot, but still is couched in Western medicine and science. They suspect Reagan “thinks” she is the Devil so an exorcism will seem real to her and perhaps jar her back to normalcy.

This movie scared the piss out of me when I saw it. Being an Irish Catholic 12 year old certainly helped.
 

 

 

 Click to Watch Father Merrin Chase out Demons

 

 

Now that I think on it, the Church has the best horror story of them all. What could be worse than Hell?

Before I had First Communion, I had to attend “released time” as it was called for us public school kids. We'd go every Wednesday to the local Catholic school to be prepped. I can remember Sister Clery telling us the story of the Archangel Michael vs. Archangel Lucifer. She was a vivid story teller. She managed to lay out a battle scene in heaven where the two sides fought with swords, spears and all manner of Medieval weaponry till Lucifer and his followers were defeated then cast out.  When you're eight years old, you tend to be easily enthralled with wild and epic stories.

Today, I still don't seek out horror flicks and I sort of bend towards science for the explanation of everything.

Potassium- argon radioactive dating has more validity than the Priests claiming the Earth is 6,000 years old. Geologists at URI can nail the age of rocks to billions of years ago.  How can a priest argue with the following mathematical formula for radioactive dating? Math is math. If you believe in division, you then MUST believe this:

 

 

But, religion got a hold of me early and getting me to walk down the heavily wooded paths by the Notre Dame cemetery on a dark, humid night, alone, isn't going to happen. I haven't completely shaken off that Irish Catholic upbringing.