Published: 10/03/2023
This year's speaker is award-winning film critic and writer Sister Rose Pacatte, F.S.P.
Why is it that horror films can engage human fear and assuage it at the same time? Do horror films carry a deeper meaning than merely wanting to "scare the hell out of us" as the great film director Alfred Hitchcock used to say?
At 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, award-winning film critic and writer Sister Rose Pacatte, F.S.P. explored the theological and symbolic relationship between Catholicism, horror films, and our deepest fears and social concerns as well as critical and spiritual ways to engage in film-watching in the university’s annual Loftus Lecture, held in the Yehl Alumni Ballroom of the Waldron Campus Center.
She used clips from "The Nun," "Get Out," "It" and "The Passion of the Christ" to examine theology, motifs and methods that support her belief that horror films are indeed Catholic.
Watch the 2023 Loftus Lecture here:
More about the speaker:
Daughter of St. Paul, Sister Rose Pacatte has a Master's of Education in Media Studies from the University of London and a doctorate in pastoral ministry from the Graduate Theological Foundation. She is a media literacy education specialist and has co-authored two books on the subject. She has multiple books on film and scripture, including two biographies, one of which focuses on the actor Martin Sheen. Sister Rose grew up in Southern California and since joining the convent has lived and carried out the communications mission of her community in the U.S., Guam, the U.K., and Italy. She has traveled to 28 countries to train parents, youth, teachers and clergy about being critical consumers of media.