History Main / ReligiousHorror

* ''WebVideo/MandelaCatalogue'' has shades of this, with the alternates implied to have been meddling with humanity since biblical times and the "Metaphysical Awareness Disorder" video advicing people to avoid religion all together. [[spoiler:Probably the biggest example, however, is the revelation that {{Satan}} has disguised himself as the {{Archangel Gabriel}} and has proclaimed himself as [[FalseProphet the true saviour]] to win humanity's trust so that he may conquer Earth with help from the shape-shifting Alternatrs.]]

A sub-genre of {{Horror}} that relies on presenting the motifs of a real-life religion as fact within the story's universe. In Western examples of this subgenre, that religion is normally UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}}.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 3}}'' has a repeated motif of religion creating horror in a post-apocalyptic America. The Dorsey Clan is an early-game enemy faction that mixes HillbillyHorrors with the horror of being a revivalist-style Christian doomsday cult movement. The Dorseys believe that the setting's nuclear war represented a second Deluge to purge humanity of sin ([[Literature/TheBible the Great Flood]] being the first) and seek to create a third Deluge (this one in blood, to contrast the one of water and the one of fire) by rigorous bloodletting of all non-Dorseys. The first boss in the game, Jarrett Dorsey, is set to a minor-key gospel version of the Presbyterian hymn "Are you Washed in the Blood?".

* ''VideoGame/Wasteland3'':
** The Payasos are a church of {{Monster Clown}}s, driven mad by the apocalypse. They believe the atomic cleansing of the Earth was the greatest joke ever played on mankind, and take nihilistic glee in re-delivering the punchline to anyone still left standing in the audience -- which is to say, you and everyone else in reach.
** The Skyfishers are a faction of people who formerly lived underground, and upon seeing the sky for the first time came to view it as divine. They have essentially re-captured a hellish mix of various pre-Columbian spiritual and religious beliefs: the Skyfishers believe the sky to be alive (much like some Great Plains beliefs), and to coax its favour they must provide the sky with HumanSacrifice (similarly to the Aztecs). They do this by capturing enemies, flaying them alive, and making kites from their skins from which they fly their victims so the sky will see their devotion and make it rain. Skyfisher territory tends to be flush with human kites, and they are viewed as TheDreaded by most other factions in Colorado.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' villain Deacon Blackfire, who originally appeared in the miniseries ''[[ComicBook/BatmanTheCult The Cult]]'', wasn't originally Christian, but when he reappeared in The New 52 (the original Blackfire died when his cultists turned on him and tore him apart), he had been changed into an evangelist leading a cult out of Arkham Asylum. This version is also killed by his followers when he refuses to kill himself to prove his piety.

* ''Film/TheSeventhSign'', starring Creator/DemiMoore and Creator/MichaelBiehn.

* ''Film/SinEater'', also known as ''Film/TheOrder'', starring Creator/HeathLedger.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

* The ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaLordsOfShadow'' games have this as a central pillar of the story. The main character, Gabriel Belmont, is part of a christian warrior group called "The Brotherhood of Light", and the plot of the first game is about Gabriel trying to revive his dead wife and restore Earth's displaced connection with the Heavens which prevents dead spirits from moving on. It even turns out that [[spoiler: the main antagonist is Satan, who appears in physical form in the story. His main goal is to gain the power of an artifact known as the God Mask, which he believes will allow him to challenge God, his father, as retribution for casting him out.]]

[[folder:VisualNovels]]
* Like [[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry its sister series]], ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' deals with this, only rather than Shinto it revolves around Western occult lore. Most notable are the Stakes of Purgatory (who all represent the SevenDeadlySins), and the various demons from the Literature/ArsGoetia.
* ''VisualNovel/WeKnowTheDevil'' presents the inverted perspective discussed, though it seems to follow the more conventional form at first. God is described as an oppressive, stifling presence who demands that [[spoiler:the queer protagonists cast one of their own out for merely being a little worse. The devil, on the other hand, wants the characters to be free of the expectations forced on them]]. In the true ending, [[spoiler:the characters embrace the parts of themselves they were taught to hate, and cast off their earthly forms, becoming the three worst girls since Eve]].
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[[folder:Webcomics]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** Also, like in the VisualNovel/{{Higurashi|WhenTheyCry}} example below, the rituals in ''Fatal Frame'' get pretty gory, which does not fly with Shinto at all.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Although [[ValuesDissonance most Western viewers (and probably the rest of the non-Japanese audience too) don't get it]], part of the horror of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' for Japanese viewers comes from the Shinto temple with a history of human sacrifice. Shinto places a high emphasis upon "purity", and shedding blood in a religious context is anathema to Shinto, as is touching corpses and bodily wastes. That Rika's ancestors [[spoiler:[[CorruptChurch presided over ritual sacrifices in which the participants]] [[ImAHumanitarian ate the intestines of the victims]]]] makes their religion as much an inversion of Shinto as Satanism is an inversion of Christianity. To western viewers, it's merely disgusting. To believers in Shinto, it's beyond blasphemy, much like sacrificing a pig on the altar of the old Temple in Jerusalem. [[spoiler:For added irony, Oyashiro [[LittleMissAlmighty her]][[SamusIsAGirl self]] is not happy with it.]]
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* In the 2018 reboot of ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'', [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordePrime Horde Prime's]] cult/regime has several Christianity-coded elements. He berates [[Characters/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPowerHordak Hordak]] using language borrowed from the Bible ("I made you in my image, but you have become [[RogueDrone an abomination]]."). The season 5 trailer shows a clone soldier standing in a pool of green liquid, as if he were undergoing [[SymbolicBaptism baptism]]. Another scene in the trailer shows Horde Prime projecting a colossal holographic image of himself to the Etherians, as if he wants to [[GalacticConqueror appear godlike]] to them. Horde Prime's voice actor, Keston John, likened him to a proselytizer in a [[https://meaww.com/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-5-keston-john-horde-prime-great-villain-netflix May 13, 2020 interview with Meaww]].

* ''Film/BlessTheChild'', starring Creator/KimBasinger

* Jeffrey Sackett's ''Candlemas Eve'', a fun fiction novel about a rock band that adopts two self-proclaimed witches to add something unusual to the act (plus, EvilIsSexy). They turn out to be [[spoiler:time-traveling Satanist Puritans who assumed the identities of two modern-day women because of some kind of curse that forced them to please Satan after their deaths. A faux-Satanic rock musician's kid and his friends let them in by casting a spell on Halloween]].

* ''WebAnimation/AngelHare'' is an unusual case. At first glance, Angel Gabby (who claims to be the ArchangelGabriel) comes off as unsettling, her VCR iteration gives Jonah advice that, while useful, is [[HardTruthAesop not what one would expect from a religious edutainment character]], and in a side video, Francis alludes to the existence of demon hares. [[spoiler:Ultimately, the series is a subversion: Gabby is [[GoodAllAlong totally benevolent]], [[GoodIsNotSoft if a bit pragmatic]], demon hares never make an appearance, and the real horror is [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters from totally mundane sources]]: the first season focuses on Jonah's [[TraumaInducedAmnesia repressed trauma]] related to [[AbusiveParents his abusive father]], and the second focuses on his guilt complex and the sheer scale of the Internet in his attempts to track down Gabby.]]

%%Zero Context Example.* The manhwa ''Manhwa/{{Priest}}'' by Hyuung Min-woo. BIG TIME.