Of course I’m working on another book. I can’t say what it is at the moment, but one of the projects I’ve long been contemplating is a kind of sequel to Holy Horror. The problem is that if the first book didn’t sell very well (the premise is perhaps too academic), a sequel couldn’t be expected to do any better. I’m still working on sloughing that academy skin. But I keep watching what we insist on calling “horror” and the more I do, the more I find the Bible in it. Others have taken up the gauntlet—mostly academics who have jobs that encourage such behavior—of connecting horror and religion. The Bible’s role, while a subset of the larger field, has its own particular parameters. In one of my notebooks I have a list of 23 movies to add to my analysis. I know that there is a twenty-fourth, but it’s only streaming on an exclusive service and still costs a bit too much for something that doesn’t come with a plastic case.
In any case, Holy Horror just scratched the surface. One of the factors I’ve mentioned before is that there is no database of the Bible’s appearances in film. It would be an extensive list altogether, and a substantial number of horror films would be on it. In general, it seems, people really aren’t too interested or intrigued by this fact. I certainly am. Our society is a curious mix of sweet and salty. We want to think we’re too sophisticated for religion, but religion undergirds just about everything we do. Otherwise it’s pretty difficult to explain how the Bible keeps showing up in horror. Usually as a mysterious artifact.
I recently saw myself referred to as a biblical scholar. There’s no doubt that I taught biblical studies for many years. I even wrote a book interpreting one aspect of the Good Book. My degree, and my interest, however, has always been historical. I follow this history of ideas. Although many people don’t understand my current horror fascination, it’s clear this is another jog down a trail of history. How did we get to the point that a totemic (the scholarly phrase is “iconic”) Bible became a stand-in for God in movies? I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to write Holy Sequel, although, if my profession ever permitted it, I’d certainly have the interest in doing so. There’s a lot to be learned from such explorations. That’s true even if the books containing the information only appear on a few dusty library shelves.
