One theme that I only encountered in the later movies was the idea of possessive possession or a subversion of the sacred. These subversions came in a few different presentations, such as minor utilization of sacred objects in a profane context. For instance, the film trailer for Devil’s Advocate portrays the anthropomorphized Satan figure dipping his finger in holy water, only for it to boil at his touch. These profanities were not only used for visual elements, but in the larger plots of the films as well. The trailer of the 1998 film Vampires shows a man who had been groomed since childhood by the church to be the generation’s greatest slayer, until he meets a vampire who could possibly be too powerful for him to slay. In the trailer, this vampire slayer is riding around in his car with a priest who subverts all expectations– he is young and shaggy, sporting both a patchy beard and a clerical collar. Already, the audience is being told to not expect the old school, stuffy Catholic Church. This makes the true subversion all the more impactful when we learn about this master vampire, who “was a priest, it’s the first known case of vampirism” who is seeking more power to enable world domination (ScreamFactoryTV 2019).
Credit: “Still 00:00:24 of ‘John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998) – Official Trailer (HD).’” ScreamFactoryTV (ScreamFactoryTV). YouTube.
Again, these subversions were not always made in attempts to disparage the church. For instance, in the trailer of the movie Bless the Trailer (2000), we see a child who has something I’ll be referring to as positive possession. After referencing a possible autism diagnosis, the trailer begins to show the child, Cody, is capable of performing acts beyond what any secular human could. She resurrects a mourning dove, makes plates clatter together, and lights prayer candles just by looking at them (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers 2019).
Credit: “Still of 00:00:34 of ‘Bless the Child (2000) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers.’” Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers. (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers). YouTube.
However, this is not a spiritually uplifting tale as Cody is taken by a cult-like group as their messiah. Moreover, she is initially taken by them due to her birthday, seeming fulfilling a predetermination of sorts. Mirroring this, in the trailer for the film Stigmata (1999), a young woman is similarly a kind of chosen-one.
Credit: “Still 00:01:10 of ‘Stigmata Official Trailer #1 – Gabriel Byrne Movie (1999) HD.’” Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers. (Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers). YouTube.
These two characters are unwillingly holding divine power, and must protect themselves from those looking to take such divinity for their own personal gain. Part of why this trend is so interesting is how unexpected these findings were. At the beginning stages of this research, the initial assumption was that the later movies, post Satanic Panic, would not dare to make a character with divine powers, but rather that the filmmakers would leave possession up to Satanic figures. The corruption of not only a person but a divine person by cult like man points to a belief that the true lingering fear of the Satanic Panic was possibly not the demonic, but rather the human.