I posted a rave review of the new Sam Raimi film, Send Help, the other day and triggered a debate I didn’t expect: is it OK for Christians to watch horror films? Send Help – a “gore-laced plane-crash survival face-off”, according to the Guardian review (which was less kind than mine) – is more comedy-horror than horror, or maybe horror/thriller. But there’s definitely horror there – you get the point.

The most extreme response was the man who said that not only are horror movies verboten, Christians shouldn’t even watch soap operas. So, for him, Emmerdale is as bad as The Exorcist – which itself seems a bizarre film to rule out, given its hero is a priest. Who rediscovers his faith after an encounter with evil. Which he wins. I call that a positive religious message.

Of course, I can see why some of the language and the projectile vomiting might be too much for the more sensitive viewer, and I wouldn’t show it to the church youth group. But then I wouldn’t show them Saving Private Ryan either – and I have used a clip from The Exorcist to introduce a serious discussion (with adults) on faith and doubt.

I hadn’t encountered this kind of........

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