Horror Hotel: Witchcraft, Pagan Rituals & Cheap Special Effects

It’s ironic that most horror fans derogate religion. Horror is a decidedly Christian genre. I can’t count how many fright flicks I’ve seen that depict apostate cynics as being insular and ignorant. The man of science is always proven to be ill-advised. Talk of the supernatural is simply rubbish, that is, until the rationalists are importuned by vampires or zombies. Horror films are aerial, suppositious morality plays. What is The Bible, if not a fantastical morality play? This crushing irony is made even more ironic by the fact that I’m not religious myself. 

Why would I make such an observation and write this unapt preamble? Well, watching Horror Hotel last night substantiated the notion that this beloved genre of ours is more pietistic than uber-Christians would ever admit. Many of the film’s characters are dissenting scientists who scoff at those who study witchcraft. “It’s just a bunch of fairy tales,” they proclaim. Stories of thaumaturgy and the occult don’t seem so ridiculous when these same skeptics are affronted by incontinent Satanists.


Wordy tangents aside (hey, I need to “reflect” every once in awhile), this is a cool movie. It combines Hammer’s refined pedantry and Universal’s moody theatrics. The plot concerns a disquisitive student who travels to the small, colonial town of Whitewood to gather research material for a term paper. Of course, her paper is on witchcraft, and Whitewood’s history is brindled with witch trials. She never returns from her didactic retreat, however, which moves her loved ones to retrace her every step. Whitewood itself is the “horror movie” town.