The Constant Battle against the Evil Lurking Within: Spiritual Gems from the Movie, “The Conjuring”

Ever since my childhood years up till now, I have been an avid fan of horror movies. By horror movies, I do not mean those gory and bloody types like “Chucky” or “Nightmare on Elm Street”—in fact, I hate those kinds of movies which I find cruel and sickeningly brutal. I particularly like, however, those types of horror movies with intelligent twists and chilling revelations at the end; horror movies that do not give-in the entire story in the middle with all those silly narratives and explanations that end-up spoiling the climax of the story. I enjoy watching horror films, the likes of “Hide and Seek”, “The Others”, “The Orphan”, “The Orphanage”, and “The Exorcist”. Last night I watched the movie “The Conjuring” which really brought me to the edge of my seat, and made me experience vicariously the whole story long after I finished watching it. In fact, it was only at around half past four o’ clock early morning when I was able to sleep. The movie was so scary that my equally dreaded insomnia returned back to me right after watching it.

The movie “The Conjuring” is about a house that is possessed by evil spirits lurking particularly in the basement cellar. In this movie, the evil spirits gained strength because it was fed with negative emotions by the conjurer, who some years back, had committed suicide at the front yard of the house. The movie shows that it was primarily the entire house that was possessed by demons rather than the persons residing in the house. The evil spirits lurking in the dingy underground cellar were plenty and they tried to find every means and opportunity to attack the residents of the house. What made this movie specifically interesting to me is that it provides powerful metaphors about ourselves and about the formidable evils we face in ourselves and in others. Along this line, I am thinking that our mind, especially our subconscious and our unconscious, can be put into metaphor, as the possessed house. Our subconscious and unconscious mind are full of our own demons—of negativity, repressed emotions, sinful desires, narcissistic cravings, egotistic scheming, and paralyzing depression. These demons lurking in our mind are only waiting for opportunity to beset us. For example; when we dwell in self-pity and negativity, we will be taken-in by the demon of depression who will make us suffer, feel despondent and hopeless, once we give-in to this demon’s insinuations.

In the movie, the exorcists advised the residents of the possessed or haunted house to prepare for the rite of exorcism, undertaken to purify the house from the evil infestation of demonic spirits. This ritual of exorcism is a metaphor about the need for us to purify our minds from all negative thoughts against ourselves and against our fellow humans: by being able to forgive and forget all the wrong things that are being done to us by our own selves and by the injustice of others. In this process, we will be free from the demons of bitterness, hate, revenge-seeking and anger that are hiding in the center of our being. Part of the exorcism process as shown in the movie is that the conjurer’s name, i.e., the one who called the demons into the house, has to be identified, called by name, and forcefully commanded to leave the place. This naming of the conjurer or the chief demon contains a beautiful metaphor: this means that in order for our psychological health to return to us in the midst of an emotional crisis and in order for us to emotionally recover from our deep personal crisis, we need to be able to identify our mistakes, our complexes, our psychological conflicts, our hang-ups, our emotional and mental baggage: in short our own internal demons; by naming them one by one, acknowledging them with all honesty, resolving within ourselves to struggle and fight against them, commanding them to leave us, and eventually be willing to part with them.

The last scene of the film showed that the housewife, who was molested by an evil spirit, was able to escape from her impending demonic possession by continually remembering and holding in her mind and heart all the beautiful and loving memories she had with her children and her husband. As flashbacks of the beautiful memories she had with her family came to her, so too the hold of evil begins to loosen in her mind and spirit, and when she began to acknowledge her love for each member of her family, the evil demons of loneliness, boredom, discouragement and isolation immediately left her. This story reminds me of what St. Paul tells each one of us; that we need to be positive in our minds and actively refuse to dwell upon negative feelings and bitter emotions in our heart. St. Paul, the Apostle strongly exhorted us: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think upon these things (Philippians 4:8 [Authorized/Anglican Version]).” Positive and loving memories are effective weapons against the demons of pessimism, negativity, envy, resentment, bitterness and anger. The demons of untruth can be easily defeated by the angel of truth and the ugly genie of hate can be easily defeated by the beautiful fairy of love. St. Augustine of Hippo likewise reminds us: “Darkness is an illusion and light is the truth. When the light comes, the darkness flees away. Seek the light for it is the light which drives away the darkness in your soul.” (St. Augustine’s Shorter Confessions for Teens, Surrey: Anglican Beacon, 1966; p. 78.).

I see that “The Conjuring” contains valuable metaphors in confronting our own inner demons. When we call our own demons by name, we begin to be aware of how to fight them, and thereby such naming and identifying our own demons can give us insights on how to overcome them and to eventually get rid of them. The movie likewise tells us that in our war against our own demons, we are still free—we can choose the demon over ourselves, or we choose ourselves and defeat the demons lurking within us. The evils and demons within us can gain power over our lives only if we allow them to. We can choose the path of least resistance by allowing the demons to get hold of us or we can aggressively fight back these demons by arming ourselves with love, joy, peacefulness, gentleness and honesty against the demons of hate, unhappiness, confusion, cruelty and lies. We can defeat the evils living in our midst by love and positive virtues of faith, hope, and reliance in God’s grace and mercy.

Therefore, we can watch a horror movie such as “The Conjuring” and yet benefit hugely from the positive spiritual messages hidden within the story and plot of the movie, but of course, we must watch these types of movies with spiritual discernment, sound psychological insights, and authentic philosophical reflections at the same time praying for God’s hedge of protection and His gift of guidance.