thoughts rotating about horror, in particular, usamerican 'religious' horror that's just christian propaganda
and i'm thinking about how in these movies, it's often only the evil/demonic that's supposed to be scary. and it contrasts a lot with my experience in a predominantly roman catholic but non-usa country where one of the scariest parts of the house is the altar.
and i'm thinking about how religion is closely related to the concept of "awe" which is not an inherently "positive" or comforting emotion and is usually tinged with fear
and contrasting it with non-western religious horror like 'the wailing', where there is a demon/satan figure but it's presented so differently, and movies like 'incantation' and 'the medium' where divinity and curses blur together, and local urban story templates like seklusyon where the horror happens to the most religious/spiritual exactly because they're the spiritual ones
something something western religious horror shows evil supernatural things happening to people who are non-religious or non-spiritual, which is so different from my own conception of things where the horrors will occur exactly because someone is spiritual and where divinity no matter how benevolent or loving can still be terrifying