** SPOILERS **

One character in Talk to Me who heeds this advice is Daniel. He is dating Jade, who assures her mother that he is “a serious Christian” who doesn’t drink, smoke, or have pre-marital sex. After one round with the creepy hand, Daniel repents and says, “Never again!” As others without his faith meet their terrible ends, he survives.

Daniel could even be considered a male version of the stock horror movie character, “the final girl.” In many of these films, kids who are mean, promiscuous, on drugs or otherwise sinful get dispatched by the killer or the demon. By the end there is only left “the final girl,” who manages to survive due to her innocence or virtue. (Laurie Strode in Halloween is an example.)

Whether consciously or not, Hollywood is sending the audience signals about the power of purity.

[I’d bet on “not,” but I’m actually not sure of that. The horror genre has made that power-of-purity signal so often that it has almost become a cliché. The excellent deconstructive horror film “Cabin in the Woods” (which I highly recommend) explicitly honed in on that issue, although rather tongue in cheek, while “explaining” its utility to the overall purpose of horror. At any rate, Mark is spot-on about dabbling in spiritual warfare without proper formation, which is what the occult is designed to do. — Ed]