Quote:
Originally Posted by _____V_____
There was a time in the 70s and 80s (even in some 90s films) when holy water, crucifixes, Bibles, churches, etc. were the chosen weapons to fight evil. Dive into a vampire film and the usual garlics, stakes, sunlight, etc. were the most effective tools by the film's climaxes.
But in most films from 2000-onwards, the ghosts are more driven off by investigating into the root of their evils, how/why they became ghosts, etc. rather than use holy stuff/props against them. We don't see the force of Catholicism, the Vatican or the Church a lot on the silver screen either.
Question is, has religion lost it's significance in most of the latest horror films? Or is it still pretty much a force in them?
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"Has religion taken a backseat in most contemporary horror films?"
I'd answer the thread title question like this: religion has always taken a backseat in the US film industry, and it still is. And it's always been the same story in Horror films. There's really only a handful of films in any genre that displayed the religion at hand with any sort of accuracy. Like Totem said, it's used as a plot device or a setting.
In the Horror genre, basically the only films that display religion in any actual form is exorcism films. The repulsing of vampires by a cross became rahter comical... the Van Helsing holding up a cross when the film's story displays Christ has no meaning in the character's life. So much so that Stephen King famously exposed it by having the vampire chide the cross holder, "it only works if you have faith."
So to wrap up my point, religious artifacts in stories may have lessened in contemporary films, but real religion has never had a front seat.