With Halloween being just a few days away, you might be surprised to see so many houses in your neighborhood decorated with creepy monsters or ghoulish designs. Or maybe not. After all, Halloween is the most lucrative holiday after Christmas. Putting up cutesy ghosts or pumpkins is one thing, but I’ve discovered that many people enjoy putting up disgusting and disturbing decorations that are truly frightening. Such fascination with death and darkness is not good, and yet our culture is obsessed with it. Horror movies are more popular than ever before. More people are getting into mystic arts and the occult. The big question is, why? 

 

First, why are horror movies so popular today? I suppose the easy answer would be because many people enjoy getting scared. But it goes deeper than that. A recent study of horror fans discovered that this group was more likely to be high in neuroticism—a personality trait characterized by high anxiety. These fans enjoyed horror movies that had to do with mental illness, ghosts, serial killers, and insanity. However, if you struggle with anxiety, it’s not healthy to further feed that anxiety. And yet, many want to get an “anxiety high” by watching gruesome murders or deadly stalkers on a screen. 

 

For Christians, we must be very careful. I’m not saying you should never watch a horror (or scary) movie—that’s between you and the Lord—but the Bible clearly tells us to think on things that are pure and lovely (Phil. 4:8), and bloody killings would not fit into those categories. Also, a Christian who struggles with anxiety should not seek to feed that anxiety with horror movies; rather, overcoming your anxiety through the power of Christ should be your goal. Horror movies (which are often demonic) cannot help you spiritually. 

 

Second, our culture is obsessed with the occult. In a 2017 study, Pew Research Center found that 60 percent of American adults believe in New Age beliefs such as astrology, reincarnation, and spiritual energy. Also, TV shows like Charmed and Sabrina the Teenage Witch are causing people to become interested in magic and spells. It should be no surprise that people are naturally fascinated with such things, and yet, we know that such things are dangerous and can open the door to demonic activity. 

 

Social media has only increased the culture’s obsession with the supernatural. Laura Bolt, who has studied the occult for years, explains, “With social media, it's easier than ever to discover the occult. In the past, most people learned about witchcraft through a family connection… [but] as social media made us more connected, access to information about subcultures of all kinds proliferated. Now, witches of Instagram are stepping into the spotlight not just as teachers and healers, but as lifestyle gurus.”

 

So the question remains: if our culture is obsessed with the supernatural, why are they not interested in God? After all, God gives us power through Christ (we even have the Holy Ghost). The answer is simple. II Corinthians 4:3-4 states, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” You see, the devil wants people to be into the occult instead of the Bible because it is a substitute for the truth. If people are focused on tarot cards, stargazing, palm-reading, or witchcraft, then they will most likely be closed to the truth of the Bible. 

 

A final point to make would be that people do not want to find God. Romans 3:11 plainly tells us, “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” People who get into the occult don’t want to find God, they simply want spiritual power. Or maybe they want to know their future. Whatever the reason might be, it’s a poor substitute for having an intimate relationship with God. And so, we must not hide the light of the gospel. Christian, please—shine the light! Especially during this dark season of Halloween, when the culture celebrates death, may be celebrate the life and truth of Jesus Christ.