RT Article
T1 "Passion Tickets Bear Mark of Beast!": Otherworldly Realism, Religious Authority and Popular Film
JF Journal of religion and popular culture
VO 11
IS 1
A1 Pasulka, D. W.
LA English
PB University of Saskatchewan
YR 2005
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1692286315
AB Much of the scholarship that examines the connections between film and religion is based on the assumption that there is a clear distinction between film reality and the reality of everyday life. In other words, viewers suspend their belief structures while enjoying a film about the supernatural, but they always maintain a conscious separation between the film and reality. This assumption is complicated when considering the urban legends and stories surrounding films like The Exorcist and The Passion of the Christ. The discourse that surrounds these films, the urban legends, tales and folklore, reveal a realism with respect to the supernatural and religion that defies the assumption of the film's status as fantasy. They literally bring the supernatural to life. In this way, they blur the assumed boundary between film reality and ordinary reality. In this sense they function much like a religious icon as used in popular devotional practices.
DO 10.3138/jrpc.11.1.004