Horror and The Holy
The Silence of God, Surrealism, the Supernatural, and the Plain Creepy If Not Downright Eerie
A very religious dynamic, believe it or not, is found in the idea of the silence of God. Two phrases illustrate this quite well: the idea of a deus otiosus and the deus absconditas are Latin phrases to describe a god who withdraws or who hides.
Here what I think about the silence of God.
The Silence of God
Horror stems from the uncertain. I wake up everyday in terror. I go to sleep in terror. Nothing is certain. Why am I here? I don’t know. What am I doing with the ticking hours which pass by? This fear, this terror, this uncertainty, it has created a multiple personality disorder within my consciousness. I hear a voice comforting me, a personality stronger than I. I call it God. How does horror lead to Holiness? The same demented processes which work in the mind of a serial killer, that creates the distorted perceptions of a schizophrenic, could be the exact same processes which give me comfort.
My fear of the uncertain has given birth to the divine. For it, and only it, this creation of my consciousness, could allow me to live a life so horrid, in a world, a void, truly devoid of compassion. Where presidents steal and power corrupts all, a jungle of concrete in which we are all prey, hence why we as a species have created the concept of God.
But let’s talk about my favorite movie “Constantine,” where from the start to the end, viewers see the absence of God and God does not intervene in human affairs. The content of the movie is very appealing, as it shows how horror leads to holiness, regardless of whether it is horror or not. Nevertheless, the movie overall has religious dynamic; the main character of the movie, John Constantine, is an advocate of God and possesses psychic abilities. He frequently notices Demons roaming the earth and he aims to do something about it by sending them back to hell! Therefore, he goes on a campaign to fight demons. Ever since childhood, he has possessed these visions that have made him feel both abundant and alienated, due to his unique psychic powers. For that reason alone, he tried to commit suicide at age 11, causing him to be damned. The very tagline of the movie even states: “Hell Wants Him. Heaven Won’t Take Him. Earth Needs Him.” No wonder Constantine thinks he is cursed for having psychic abilities that allow him to see angels, demons, spirits, and “half breeds.” He officially was pronounced dead for two minutes and he went to hell. However, he is given a second chance to live but he is expected to go to hell after his death. That is why, to gain entry to Heaven, he becomes God’s advocate, by hunting down demons and performing exorcisms.
In one of the episode Constantine meets Gabriel to negotiate his entry to heaven. But Gabriel tells him that he is the one who chose the lifestyle that sealed him a spot in hell. Constantine is razing questions if he hasn’t served God enough already. He is fighting demons, on a daily basis, taking demons out from little girls and all else God would want from him. Gabriel tells him, that he does all for himself, to earn his way back to his “good graces.” The only thing God wants from him is self-sacrifice and believes. Because of the criteria (for who goes up and who stays down) alongside the rules and regulations that God created; Constantine has grown angry, as he begins to tell Gabriel, stating loudly that Gabriel deserves Hell, not he.
Isabel’s death brings Angela and Constantine together. Angela feels guilty for her sister’s death, and wants to solve the mystery behind her death. As a devout Catholic, she knew that her sister would never commit suicide. Because she knew that her “soul would go straight to hell, where she’d be ripped apart over and over, in screaming brutal agony, for all eternity.”
Angela tries to prove that there wasn’t any suicide, so her sister will be berried accordingly. She is begging the priest to allow her sister to be berried as a catholic, but priest is denying. This is an irony of God. Isabel was a good and devout catholic all her life, but now when her soul should be in God’s hands, it was in Satins hands, suffering in hell. If this is not the silence of God, what is it then?
Angela asks for Constantine’s help to discover the cause of her sister’s death. At that point Angela is already being followed by demons. Since Constantine can see demons, he protects her from attack.
Then he explains her what is happening, that Heaven and hell are right here, it is everywhere, angels and demons are around them, and they call it balance, which he calls a “hypocritical bullshit”. And he explains to Angela that God and devil made a wager, some kind of standing bet for the souls of all mankind. No direct contact with humans, just influence, or a whisper on their ears, to see who will win. It’s similar to the Job’s story in the Bible.
And because Mammon, Devils son, does not like his father’s rules comes to Earth bringing the hell into mankind’s lives on Earth. The whole point of the movie is based on the Arch-Angel Gabriel trying to unleash Holiness through horror. I quote from the movie, when Gabriel tells Constantine: “If sweet-sweet God loves you so, then I will make you worthy of his love . . . it’s only in the face of horror that you truly find your noble self . . . I will bring you terror, I will bring you horror . . . So that those of you who survive this reign of hell on Earth will be worthy of God’s love.” Gabriel makes a deal with the son of the devil, to unleash all the dread of hell upon the earth, to enrich mankind through suffering by handing the earth to the hands of Devil.
In the end, just as Constantine is about to die, he prays to God asking for forgiveness, and pleads for God’s help, but as always, God ignores him. When Constantine has no choice he commits suicide second time, knowing that Satin will come after him, since he is the only soul on the Earth that Satin himself would come to collect. And when Satin comes to take him to hell, Constantine uses this opportunity to save the Earth, and makes sure to send Satin’s son back to hell to get the balance back on the Earth. Satin, grateful that Constantine did favor to him, by stopping his son taking over his place on Earth, asks him if he wants life extension, or anything else. Constantine gives up his life for Isabel’s soul. He asks Satin to free Isabel’s soul, and send it Home, where it belongs.
The rule was if Constantine would do self-sacrifice he would go to Heaven after death. But Satin wants him so bad that hills his lung cancer, giving him long life, during which he can proof if he belongs to Heaven or Hell.
And as the movie ends, we realize that the whole time God is absent, while Devil and angels of Satin are active on the Earth, interfering in humans lives. And unfortunately, the same is happening in our everyday lives. I felt God’s silence on my own skin, when I lost my brother at age 20. God left him alone; He left all my family alone, when the evil was attacking us. I asked God’s help, but He was silent… very silent and ignorant…
