Cults and fictional religions in movies are often deemed as interesting because of the mystery and controversy that surrounds their origins. They are often born of the vices and the iniquities seen in real world religions and cults and glamorized to such a degree that if they ever were real the truth about them would be too horrifying to accept. A few of these do manage to follow set religions in some ways but otherwise take a different path altogether and do their own thing in a design that can only be described as diabolical in some cases and even necessary in others. The thing about fictitious religions and/or cults is that at least a few people will walk out of the theater wondering ‘what if?’.
Now that’s a scary proposition.
5. Village of the Damned
This is a remake of an older movie but it was just as creepy and just as underrated for the horror it could bring. Think about it this way, these kids that were born under strange circumstances have few if any limits, they have a child’s understanding of how to control their temper, and they don’t take kindly to being told what to do. Just imagine if your toddler could make you walk into traffic if you didn’t hold them enough.
4. The Village
This is when PTSD goes to a whole new level that people haven’t thought of before. Forgive the PTSD crack but that is exactly what it is, an entire community/cult/religion melded into one because a group of people could not and did not want to deal with the world they lived in any more. Because of this they created a fictitious village and instilled a level of fear in their own people that goes beyond the realm of unhealthy.
3. The Wicker Man
The gods demanding sacrifice is an old, old facet of religion that might actually predate the bible if you really go by the timeline of events as they’ve occurred. This however is just flat out murder no matter which way people want to try to spin it. The original film isn’t much better than the remake, but the whole point of the movie is to get this one guy to the colony and offer him up as sacrifice. They’ve never heard of kidnapping?
2. Children of the Corn
This movie was so flat out creepy mostly because for the longest time you get the feeling that it’s simply the kids making up this warped religion of He Who Walks Behind the Rows as they go along. And then eventually you get to find out that this entity is real, and the kids have been doing its bidding without really knowing who, or what, they were serving.
1. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
Come on now, you didn’t think this would be left off of the list did you? The Jedi are one of the most popular religions throughout all of pop culture, and whether some fans like it or not the prequels were the films that showcased the order in the greatest way. At one time the Jedi Order was thousands strong, until the Dark Times.
Anytime you hear the word ‘religion’ in a film you know things are about to get complicated.
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