What’s Behind Culture’s Obsession With Religious Horror Movies?

They say people died of heart attacks while watching The Exorcist. The consensus is the scares killed them, but perhaps it was the sacrilege. With boundary-pushing intensity (including a scene in which a young girl mutilates herself with a crucifix) and disturbing subliminal messaging (listen close at times and you can hear pigs squealing), The Exorcist is still considered one of the scariest and most controversial movies ever made. And yet, alongside the spider-walks and yellow eyes is a comple