Lurking Under the Surface: Horror, Religion, and the Questions that Haunt Us

In Lurking Under the Surface, author Brandon Grafius attempts to find the common ground between horror and religion, acknowledging both attempts to answer the same sets of questions. Each chapter, including the introduction and afterward, contains a list of movies to watch before reading the chapter if you are brave enough. He deals with topics such as morality, hope, the power of faith, the fragility of our bodies, the monsters inside us, and doubt, as well as fairness and justice. The author looks at each of these topics through the lens of horror movies as well as religion. He states his purpose as “…to help see new depths in popular entertainment and also ponder your faith journey in a new and exciting way.”

found the insight into horror movies gave me more understanding of the genre as a whole. I don’t think I ever realized there was a deeper meaning to them, I just thought they were there to scare you to death. I personally had a hard time with his religious insights, as while we share the same faith by name, our beliefs differ greatly on almost every theological level. If you enjoy horror, you will enjoy this.