W. Scott Poole

A handful of conservative groups are frothing at the mouth over the current season of American Horror Story. But it may not be over the sex or the violence, or even the sexy violence and violent sex…

Zombie Jesus might seem silly to you and horror may not be your thing. But spiritual seekers might want to ponder the imagery of horror precisely because it runs against some of their instincts. Freud famously argued in his essay “The Uncanny” that horrific fairy tales terrified us as children because they reminded us of the vulnerability of our bodies. The horror tradition, maybe especially the zombie narrative, does the same for adults.

Take your monsters seriously. The language of metaphor and symbol is not enough to explain and explore their meaning. You may just want to be left alone with your tub of popcorn but there are layers and layers of meaning in the horror genre…and a larger historical experience the monsters we love were born from.