Religious horror, Catholic edition
May 5, 2024 7:08 AM Subscribe
I’m trying to unpack the bits of my upbringing that occured in a convent school. You know, morning prayers, Sunday mass, and a whole lot of guilt.
I’ve found some comfort in religious horror films; stuff like Saint Maud and Sister Death - now I’m looking for the same flavour of Catholic horror but in literary form. Ideally, the books you’ll recommend me are less Midsommar and more Saint Maud. I’m looking for nuns and confessionals. Fasting. Maybe some self-flagellation, if it’s not too graphic.
If my request is too limiting or specific, I’ll take anything that comes to your mind. Thanks in advance!
I’ve found some comfort in religious horror films; stuff like Saint Maud and Sister Death - now I’m looking for the same flavour of Catholic horror but in literary form. Ideally, the books you’ll recommend me are less Midsommar and more Saint Maud. I’m looking for nuns and confessionals. Fasting. Maybe some self-flagellation, if it’s not too graphic.
If my request is too limiting or specific, I’ll take anything that comes to your mind. Thanks in advance!
Not conventional horror, but Hilary Mantel’s novel “Fludd” takes on the social and economic coercion that go into the choice for holy orders in 1960s industrial Yorkshire. It did a lot for me as a survivor of conservative Catholic education.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:26 AM on May 5 [2 favorites]
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:26 AM on May 5 [2 favorites]
This is definitely in the anything-that-comes-to-mind category but His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:32 AM on May 5 [4 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:32 AM on May 5 [4 favorites]
Agnes of God.
posted by Melismata at 10:18 AM on May 5 [4 favorites]
posted by Melismata at 10:18 AM on May 5 [4 favorites]
Immodest Acts This is an early historical account of a suspect nun that has a lot of descriptions of formal Catholic strictures.
posted by effluvia at 12:05 PM on May 5
posted by effluvia at 12:05 PM on May 5
Film Benedetta (2021) Here's a recent film based on the biography I mentioned above. It has five stars on Rotten Tomatoes, so there's that. I have not seen the film, and I would not exactly classify it as horror, but I hope it is a helpful suggestion.
posted by effluvia at 12:16 PM on May 5
posted by effluvia at 12:16 PM on May 5
The Keepers This is a true crime investigation of a nun's murder against a narrative backdrop of women recounting their sex abuse stories by priests at a Catholic school. It's a compelling story, but there's lots of trauma and difficult to watch.
posted by effluvia at 12:31 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]
posted by effluvia at 12:31 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]
I recently listened to an excellent podcast, The Turning, based on the memoir (“An Unquenchable Thirst”) of a former nun. The podcast was nicely paced with some of the elements you are looking for, so I assume that the book would be likely to fit your criteria as well.
posted by dreamphone at 4:39 PM on May 5
posted by dreamphone at 4:39 PM on May 5
I’ll take anything that comes to your mind
So, I get that you've moved on from film to books, but Agnes (2021) was received so poorly that it'd be easy to overlook--and I thought it was kind of awesome? And also, allegorically, on point for this question. The first clue that it was going to be something special was the camera started lingering on genuinely random stuff, and I was like, "Wait ... these look like homages to New Wave cinema?" But it goes on with its really basic, familiar, "possessed nun needs an exorcism" plot for long enough to seem serious about it--until it deflates itself and deflates itself again and maybe has more to do with muddling through life with a lot of baggage connected to religion and/or Catholicism specifically. I don't have that kind of background, but I still really enjoyed the movie for its quirkiness. Hardly anyone else did--3.9 out of 10 at IMDb with only 1.6k people rating it--and I don't know if that's because the religious content threw people off or if its intentionally odd, uneven, wobbly plotting did, but either way it didn't reach its ideal audience.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:52 PM on May 5
So, I get that you've moved on from film to books, but Agnes (2021) was received so poorly that it'd be easy to overlook--and I thought it was kind of awesome? And also, allegorically, on point for this question. The first clue that it was going to be something special was the camera started lingering on genuinely random stuff, and I was like, "Wait ... these look like homages to New Wave cinema?" But it goes on with its really basic, familiar, "possessed nun needs an exorcism" plot for long enough to seem serious about it--until it deflates itself and deflates itself again and maybe has more to do with muddling through life with a lot of baggage connected to religion and/or Catholicism specifically. I don't have that kind of background, but I still really enjoyed the movie for its quirkiness. Hardly anyone else did--3.9 out of 10 at IMDb with only 1.6k people rating it--and I don't know if that's because the religious content threw people off or if its intentionally odd, uneven, wobbly plotting did, but either way it didn't reach its ideal audience.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:52 PM on May 5
Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. It's not entirely set there, but several chapters deal with horrors of being in a convent, especially one mean nun, and it's some of the best writing I've seen on that topic.
posted by mxjudyliza at 12:18 AM on May 6
posted by mxjudyliza at 12:18 AM on May 6
Response by poster: Thanks, all! Lots of great film and book recommendations here for me to sift through. Have a great week!
posted by antihistameme at 3:53 AM on May 6
posted by antihistameme at 3:53 AM on May 6
I don't know if it's available anywhere but I thought the film The Devils was terrific when I saw it many many years ago. Vanessa Redgrave as a tormented nun, yeah! Based on Aldous Huxley's book The Devils of Loudon, which I do not remember reading.
posted by mareli at 4:36 AM on May 6
posted by mareli at 4:36 AM on May 6
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posted by antihistameme at 7:14 AM on May 5