The original horror, preceding horror in film and indeed as old as dirt – horror in religion, with the source of the horror as the antagonistic supernatural beings of that religion. In Western popular culture, that religion is Christianity – usually defaulting to Catholicism. Hence the supernatural beings will usually be the Devil, demons or other forces of Hell – with exorcism and possession often featuring prominently as the opposing sides of the battlefield.

No prizes for guessing the top two entries, which for me will always be the two leading religious horror films – but there’s other religious horror films, enough for this top ten, but those two are the biggest.

So here’s my Top 10 Religious Horror Films on the spot

 

S-TIER (DEVIL TIER)

 

1 – THE OMEN (1976)

 

Damien!

Antichrist horror.

And yes – it spawned a franchise. The first two sequels were okay enough but neither equalled the first film. 2024 saw The First Omen as a decent prequel.

 

2 – THE EXORCIST (1973)

 

Another franchise – the title gives you the basic premise.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

3 – ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968)

 

More Antichrist horror

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

4 – AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)

 

Iconic haunted house horror – or rather, possessed house horror. Also spawned a franchise.

 

5 – ANGEL HEART (1987)

 

Seemingly starts off as film noir, ends up as religious horror. Nice turn by Robert De Niro – going by the transparent moniker Louis Cypher.

 

6 – THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (2005)

 

More exorcism horror

 

7 – PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007)

 

More haunted house horror – or rather, haunted family horror. Also spawned a franchise, albeit with ever diminishing returns in quality.

 

8 – THE CONJURING (2013)

 

More haunted or possessed house horror, even if I otherwise think of the Warrens, like all mediums or psychics, as frauds. Yet another franchise – I’m also counting the Annabelle and Nun spinoffs, the latter being even more religious horror than the Conjuring

 

9 – HEREDITARY (2018)

 

More haunted family horror, similar to the premise of Paranormal Activity – but without the stretches of nothing on “found footage”.

 

10 – LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL (2023)

 

Sadly not Satan hosting a late night TV show but that’s close enough to the premise for the film

 

HONORABLE MENTION:

 

(1997 – 1999) THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE  & END OF DAYS

 

Not really horror – more supernatural thriller, hence the honorable mention. There was just a thing about the upcoming millennium that saw these two films with the similar premise of an apocalyptic plot for the birth of the Antichrist.

 

(1998) FALLEN

 

A serial killer turns out to be something else.