In Depth:  film

Niv Lobo

One should never watch anything that wounds one’s conscience; Romans 14:23 tells us there are terrible consequences of acting against our conscience.

I don’t often, therefore, speak about my fascination with the horror genre in cinema. And yet, the popularity of horror films is worth pondering. Rather than engage at any length with the film which prompted these reflections — Robert Eggers’s 2024 remake, Nosferatu — what might its success teach us?

Milla Ling-Davies

What do you do when a friendship goes wrong? Do you call them up and explain how you were hurt - or do you stop replying to messages and remove them from your life entirely?

If you are a part of Gen Z, you might do the latter. Sociologist Jenny van Hooff recently published a paper exploring how our culture views ‘toxic friendships’^[1] and found ‘dispiriting’ results. Toxic behaviour was described as anything ‘unsympathetic or simply negative’ and ending a friendship like this was seen as a ‘desirable… even courageous’^[2].

Emma Scrivener

I’ve always had a sneaking fondness for horror films. Growing up, my favourites were the old-school ones with dodgy prosthetics, creaking doors, flickering candles, and Indian burial grounds.

There was something cathartic about watching scary things happening to other people, knowing you were safe in your room… or were you? (Hollow laughter echoes). Plus you felt secure knowing that you were smarter than the idiots investigating the creepy noises, in the cellar, by themselves, in their underwear.