By Cassie Eack

Are we and our children being influenced by these terrible movies, shows, violent video games?
MY EXPERIENCE!!
When I was baptized as a follower of Jesus I remember being told that watching demonic horror movies and ghost tv shows allowed negative energies into my life and at first I thought…” It’s just a movie, it’s not a big deal and it’s all fake” I loved horror movies and everything about them I was like addicted. I didn’t want to give that up because that was my favorite genre of movie and my favorite show was Ghost Adventures. I fell asleep watching the show every night, would binge watch indie horror films, and loved paranormal activity and all the following movies.
But after I was baptized I had this feeling of pure dread when I went to watch these movies. It wasn’t guilt at all. It wasn’t me saying to myself “I really shouldn’t be doing this because it’s against what I believe in”. I just had this gut feeling like this really isn’t a good idea. And I NEVER had this feeling before. I would start to sweat and get anxiety and I just didn’t want to feel those things so I said to myself that it just wasn’t worth it. If I did find myself giving in to the urge to watch it, I would test myself at the beginning or watch the trailer. And if there was something I didn’t like or see or felt was offensive I either wouldn’t watch it or would stop watching it halfway through. I’m a little biased because I don’t believe every horror movie is bad. I think that the people who create the worst ones are definitely under some struggles in their lives and have a scary sense of imagination. And some horror movies are just that. Made to scare you senseless for fun and are totally silly and made up like “the blob” or “attack of the killer tomatoes”. But today’s horror movies are almost all demonic or possessive and scarier in that way because it gives you a sense of “man this could really happen” or it will tell you “based on a true story. Which then you OF COURSE have to look it up and freak yourself out. It’s like the older we get, the more graphics we use and the fact that we need SCARIER AND SCARIER MOVIES..the realer the creators want to go with them because they really want these movies to affect you and terrify you.
Before I was baptized I had seen this trailer for a movie I honestly could not wait to see. About a month after I was baptized I FORCED myself to watch it. Kind of like a last hoorah. It didn’t feel good to watch it, I felt like I was being stared at but I chalked it up to me getting myself worked up and finally FORCED myself to watch it. And soon after relaxed and watched the first half which was of course boring… At one point in the movie the cop was doing an exorcism on someone. Speaking in tongues and in Latin. My windows and doors were closed. Everything was fine and then in a matter of MAYBE 2 seconds I started to smell something disgusting. It wasn’t skunk, farts, or anything like that it was like rotten eggs and sulfur mixed with death. I checked to see if the dogs were in the bedroom and they weren’t. I literally thought the dog had farted so bad but he wasn’t in the room. It had just come out of nowhere as if it came from the corner of the room where there is no door or window just the left side of my bed.
The exorcism in the movie was still continuing as I was trying to figure the source of the smell out. And then all of a sudden I had this unreal feeling like something was standing next to me and the smell got immensely stronger. It went from “this is my imagination, something outside, or the movie was freaking me out that’s all” to “okay this isn’t funny anymore. This WAS NOT an anxious feeling…it was not a panic attack…the movie was not scaring me. Because majority of the time I watch these movies in ridicule as to how dumb they are and how they never scare me. But the feeling got stronger, the hairs on my left arm and neck stood up and that was it. I jumped to the other side of the bed, grabbed my Rosary beads and I screamed “Jesus protect me!!” And grabbed the remote and turned off the movie, deleted it from my list, turned off the TV, and kept praying “Jesus protect me, go away evil please I am sorry Jesus Jesus Jesus”.
In seconds…the feeling of being watched was gone….the smell just left. As if something vacuumed it up. It didn’t dissipate like a fart or a skunk spray through the window.. it just stopped. I got up to smell around and that was it. Over just like that. I felt clean again and peaceful. Never ever ever in my life did I feel something like that, smell something like that, or experience something like that feeling. Never. I never want to again because it was one of the most real and scariest moments of my life.
STUPIDLY, the next day I just HAD to finish the movie because I wanted to find out what happened. So I did. I didn’t watch it alone this time and when that scene came up I muted the TV, covered my eyes and ears, and prayed the entire time. No excuse for my actions knowing what I went through the night before. The movie sucked. I felt foolish. I swore I would never watch that kind of movie again. That was almost 2 years ago.
It is very hard when you find yourself in a group of people and all of them want to watch a movie like that. You feel pressured so you do it even though it makes you uncomfortable. So in situations like that I give myself an option. I can sit there and play with my phone and pray to myself, find something else to do like straighten up in the other room. But I don’t let myself in to that movie even if it’s playing around me. That’s just me. Everyone including Christians are entitled to make their own choice and I truly believe that. I made mine and I felt attacked, I really did. When it comes to personally watching similar types of shows or movies, there are guidelines I give myself. Some movies are okay, NOTHING demonic, I stick to strictly science fiction and thriller movies now. For example, I’m not going to watch poltergeist but I’ll watch clover field. It’s about an alien sea monster who smashed down Manhattan. It’s a little scary a little thrilling the storyline is okay and it’s entertaining. Or Godzilla I don’t particularly like the name but the new one was pretty good! The 5th wave was a great movie! Very imaginative very well done. These movies have amazing artists, graphic designers, actors, things like this I find myself feeling safe to watch and if I see something I don’t like I turn it off RIGHT AWAY and leave it at that. And honestly, it took months to feel clean from all the stuff I had loaded my body with. I can’t explain the “clean” feeling but all I can say is it feels safe and peaceful like you have a loving bodyguard. Jesus is my body guard and his angels protect me!!
How do you feel about this topic and what do you think about my experience? Do you think there needs to be happier adult movies and I don’t mean “adult movies”. Like happier movies that aren’t just for kids. Heaven is for real is a great movie. I love happy ending movies and they don’t have to be religious either. What do you think!