I feel that the genre of horror movies purposely try to make daemons look evil. There’s a movie called “hereditary” that makes King Paimon look very evil. There’s also a bunch of other movies such as the exorcist, the amityville horror, etc… etc… which perpetuate nasty stereotypes about daemons. As someone who actually works with and allows possession by daemons I can say I’ve never had issues with convulsing, head spinning, and I’ve never felt the urge to vomit pea soup on a priest. I’ve never felt the urge to sacrifice and animal or a baby either. Not only are these types of films offensive to demons, I also find them offensive as a magician and I think they only serve to perpetuate lies about the magickal community.
I feel people put these movies out to make people fear working with daemons and I find it offensive how daemons and magicians are portrayed by the media.
I know this isn’t fully magick related but it’s an opinion I wanted to express to people I think may feel the same way.
What does everyone here think about the horror genre?
Every culture in the world has its own version of what we call demons, negative entities that are believed responsible for sickness, death, and all of the other ills that have plagued mankind since the beginning. It is something common to humanity.
And just because you and others here have had positive experiences with demons, doesn’t mean everyone has. It also doesn’t mean the demons are not capable of evil deeds like those portrayed in the movies and books. If they weren’t, then their worshippers wouldn’t sic them on their enemies, now would they?
Worshippers have a tendency to whitewash the entities they worship. Whitelighters believe angels are all cute and fuzzy and always want what is best for us, and demonolators seem to think demons are all suave gentleman in three-piece suits who just want to help and maybe a little bit of snu snu on the side. Both perspectives are wrong because they are ignoring the negatives aspects of the beings in question.
There are people who have been harassed and terrorised by angels, and there are people who have been harassed and terrorised by demons. To be offended because of how demons are portrayed is not an issue with the media, but with you. For many people, the portrayals in media are very accurate.
There are always two sides. Demons are good and bad, and to forget that is to be blind in one eye.
They aren’t, actually. Demons and other entities understand that humans are storytellers and don’t take it personally.
If anything, demons see it as an opportunity to reach out to people and encourage them to seek them out and discover the truth for themselves. That’s partly how I got into the occult.
I personally don’t find it offensive. In fact, you’d be surprised by how many people don’t.
I’m a little particular about my horror movies, as I feel that too many jump scares cheapen the sense of unease that’s supposed to be conveyed in horror. Otherwise, I enjoy it.
I wouldn’t worry about this at all. Like I said, demons don’t really care. And if they don’t care, then why should you?
Of course they have negative aspects and I don’t deny that but the issue is that there really aren’t any films that show their positive aspects. There are hundreds of films out there showing the negative aspects of daemons, I really can’t think of 1 that shows the benefits of working with daemons. It seems very imbalanced. If a movie ever came out showing things from the side of the “fallen” angels or daemons I would pay to see it.
Not only that, I get really freaking tired of people saying dumb things like like “satanists kill babies, animals, etc… etc…” It’s usually from the most ignorant people who don’t actually have an interest in learning what Satanism or Luciferianism or Paganism actually is but would rather get all of their information from Hollywood.
Well it also bothers me as a black magician. If I’m out wearing a sigil or something and someone asks what it means and I tell them I don’t appreciate being asked if I sacrifice animals or something similar.
Well, I do not like the stereotype around witches and other types of practitioners, I understand it’s simply for comedic purposes to go off of a stereotype, and I believe most people know this.
However, I do not see the demon part as offensive. Demons are divine beings. They understand we use our media to bring stories that explained the ways of life to the public. While yes, any divine being has the capacity to get angry or annoyed (amongst many emotions) they would not do it to people that they’re well aware do not genuinely understand the divine.
Subjectivity is also a thing just DarkestKnight said. While I highly doubt most divine demons unconsensually possess human for the hell of it, that doesn’t mean that every person has had a good experience with demons. You connect well with the demonic divine because you see them as benevolent beings. Christians rebuke the demonic divine because their religion and FAITH says they should. I personally would not get offended by these things as they’re simply fictional works based on a mythological text.
The media is influenced by people, not the other way around. People thinking demons are evil has been a concept for millennia and comes from different cultures like @DarkestKnight said. And there are people who practice black magick who sacrifice animals, but these people are rare.
This sentiment, however incorrect, is going to stick around for a long while.
It doesn’t mean that I have to like it. I don’t believe in banning things I disagree with but I wish there were at least more unbiased pieces of cinema regarding magick and daemons.
The stereotypes go back hundreds, if not thousands of years, to folklore and myth so they aren’t going to change any time soon.
One horror movie that I liked was called 5 Girls, and it was about a woman who agreed to sacrifice five souls to Belial in order to get her little sister back from hell (she had been taken because she was an innocent, a major turn on for demons apparently). It was mostly your typical horror fare, but what made it different in my eyes was that one of the girls was Wiccan, and actually cast a circle in the name of her Goddess to protect herself and was successful, at least until Belial tempted another girl in the circle to break it. It was a nice, positive, view of a non Christian magick based religion.
There will always be that stereotypical thinking sadly because of the negative picture they’ve put on demons or any type of spirit/god/entity that isn’t of an abrahamic faith. I mean demons like any being with a certain level of unworldly arcane-esque power can do negative or bad things to someone if they’ve done something that was disrespectful or person or persons have angered them. I’ve known of black magicians also that only did more harm when asked because it was their job. So, people generally look at one side of the coin and think they know everything, they also do not understand that almost no spirit is good or evil, each are capable of doing good and bad things. They should more be pitied.
I personally have used angels to cause devastating curses as well as demons and the angels can be more vicious since if anyone knows what angels are, they’ve been used to lay waste to cities. I’ve used demons to create holy water because they are still “holy” there are lot of things people do not understand yet.
I watch a lot of horror movies and read a lot of horror novels. It is by far my favourite genre, and I have seen some really, really bad movies, as well as some pretty good ones.
I’m not a fan of the Conjuring movies, not because of their subject matter, though, but because I found them boring. They were very slow, with 85% of the movie just following around the Warrens as they lectured on demonology.
I like movies that show how different cultures deal with negative entities aka demons (the demons generally have no name rather than the Big Names from the Christian grimoires). I recently watched a horror movie about Malaysian black magick which was very interesting.
Satanic Panic was a humorous take on making a pact (remember, there is a hierarchy and there is always something bigger out there)
You might like “We Summon the Darkness” it is a horror movie on Netflix but it takes a different outlook for Demonic Ritual Sacrifice, I don’t want to give away too much.
I had a recent insight along these lines regarding the “Friday the 13th” movies and “Cabin in the Woods”. They make forests which would typically be peaceful, healing and magical places into something scary. It’s much safer to stay home, watch t.v. and eat junk food.
