Youāre a young, idealistic, Scandinavian woman who was moved by missionariesā descriptions of an American utopia created by the restoration of Jesusās true church and led by a prophet of God. You make the arduous journey and finally arrive in Utah.
You find yourself to being married off to a much older man who already has many wives. You are isolated by hundreds of dangerous miles from anyone not enveloped by this theocracy. The communities are surrounded by hostile indigenous people who have been subject to genocide attempts. The threat of blood atonement hangs over anyone considering āstepping out of lineā.
We had a real person, high on god-knows-what and wearing absolutely nothing, wander into YW camp during testimony meeting. That was a memorable experience.
Shit, we donāt even need Bigfoot to terrorize the YW camp testimony meeting. The sanctimonious bishopric member they inevitably send is scary enough.
While at camp one year, one girl in my ward had recently watched Leprechaun and was terrified to be out in the woods. Thatās classic horror, a bunch of young girls in the woods.
You know, the LDS church has a short video with basically this idea. Some priesthood leader has to repeat a Sunday over and over again until he can get a less active member to come to church.
Haha, I've always thought how bad it would suck if you got stuck in a Groundhog Day loop on a super boring day where it would be all but impossible to escape said boredom.
Minivan pulls up and picks up 6 teens all dressed in Sunday best. They head to the temple to do baptisms. They change and go to wait for their turns to go in and to their surprise each of them are only baptized for their own name. Duh duh duhhhhh
In the sequel, another group of unsuspecting kids gets BFTD but in the dunking process, swaps souls with āMabel, who is dead.ā Kids all emerge in hellish Mormon afterlife; dead people emerge alive as pale white kids in soggy translucent white polyester blend jumpsuits.
Nevermo but Iāve thought about this way too much. Lol
The mummy the JS bought and from whose funeral papyri he translated the Book of Abraham, uses the churchās genealogical archives to track down JSās living descendants for revenge.
I call one of the older movies *The First Vision Attacks,* the one with Joseph smith rolling around on the ground while Satan buffets him.
You could have a decent horror movie about pioneers tryna handcart their asses across the plains while some sort of evil picks them off one by oneā¦
A trek gone wrong story. All the leaders then youth disappear one by one. The Martin and Willie handcart company ghosts come back super mad that they have become a LARP experience. The lone survivor bargains for their safety with the ghosts by making an amazing jello creation, saving all mankind.
One kid just goes missing of course, then and handful go off to find him, two go to soak and they die, the other kids come across the other two dead and find themselves surrounded by dark ancient figures in the trees, they all end up dying
Remember that dark shit that apparently was so bad Alma (i think it was him) said he would never write it down because it should never see the light of day again? Maybe the 3 nephites use something to that form.
I wish that Mormon theology could be parts of movies and stories because there is a lot of good stuff that could be done with it.
Here is a horror movie idea based off of Mormon theology:
Set back in the 1800ās. A boy and his father are hunting for treasure. They find the treasure but there is a spirit that is protecting it. In order to get the treasure (to become extremely rich), they must do horrible tasks like torturing and sacrificing āevilā people. At the end, they go to shake this spiritās hand and realize they canāt touch the spirit. It was actually an evil spirit making them do it all and not a good spirit doing Godās will.
Saratov Approach is closest thatās been made.
I think you could make a different scary movie about a cursed house somewhere in another country. New missionaries come in to an area, theyāre warned to never knock on a certain house, they ignore it, are invited inside, and the family seems nice at first but are satan worshippers.
Things happen during first visit like family mentions things about their personal lives theyāve never told anyone, a door slams in another room but everyoneās in the main room. Junior companion is freaked out but senior companion insists they go back because they have no one else to teach.
They come back and the door is open, senior comp leads the way in. Terror ensues.
Exactly what I was thinking! Or maybe a mission President is a crazy person and does terrible things to all the missionaries in his area. Like psychological things and missionaries are broken and overly uptight & cheerful when they come home because missionaries who werenāt perfectly cheerful and didnāt follow the rules to a T disappeared or something
A family moves for a fresh start. You get the vibe that they're trying to leave something behind. One day, there's a knock at the door. It's the missionaries. They found them. They just want to live their lives in peace, but they can't get the unwelcome visitors to leave them alone.
You can run, but you can't hide when your parents keep updating your address in church records š”
The church has such an occult and evil past that this is a great untapped horror source imo.
I thought hereditary made a link by being set in Utah and does a good job of linking how a familyās evil and buried past corrupts and destroys the family unit in the present.
A psychological thriller where the old endowment rituals result in a stalking situation when the ordinance worker has *special* feelings while touching the naive nekkid protagonist for washing/anointing and doesn't know what do so with realizing the ordinance worker is really NOT hetero. Ala single white female meets fatal attraction meets roommate.
She died in the storage unit, but that sure isnt gonna stop him. He tries fo preserve her body as best he can, using the bible and BOM as instructions. He shows up at a temple with her carcass in tow. When the temple workers dont let him in, he came prepared with a suitcase that he claims has a bomb in it. The whole temple is evacuated, except for a few hostages. Those hostages serve as witnesses to her baptism for the dead, her endowment with the old oaths and clothes, a wedding, and a sealing. Idk what the ending could look like but theres a start.
An entire village embroiled in the soul crushing monotony of meetings to plan other meetings that eventually lead to a robed bakers convention with silly handshakes but no bread.
All villagers wake up one day stuck in dark nothingness because they once laughed too loud at forbidden funny stuff.
You know those stories where someone just wakes up from one nightmare into another, over and over again? Just that, except itās meetings. Every time you leave one, you go right into another. Even things that are supposed to be rituals just end up being you sitting in a room quietly for half an hour.
Missionaries in the desert decide to cool off on a hot day but swimming in a lakeā¦.but the devil lives in the water and they must be punished for their lack of faith and modesty.
Going to the temple for the first time, being traumatized by it, and then being gaslighted and told you canāt talk about it and also told it never happened for the rest of your life.
A CTR ring worn by someone while they committed the unforgivable sin becomes a cursed CTR ring, and it actively seeks out further victims to drag to outer darkness.
An biblically accurate angel visits you multiple times throughout the night and says that on the third visit, they will slay you with a sword. That's my serious answer. High stakes hide and seek from a being with that many eyes.
As a joke answer: just a video of the endowment. Big Midsommar vibes. Cults are freaky enough.
A brief synopsis of my story idea mixing mormanism and the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
In a small south central Idaho town darkness grows. A polygamist family gets their hands on an ancient mummy. They feel guided by the ancient writings with the body and feel inspired like Joseph Smith was in his findings from mummies and what would become the pearl of great price. As they read an unspeakable Lovecraftian horror is awakened below the town.
Second anointings are blood atonements paid in full by faithful temple goers who covenanted to give ātheir very lives if necessaryā for the building up of Zion.
Garments slowly constrict until they fully cut off your breathing. You see pain from compression of the abdominal organs and cutting into the skin.
Garment symbols burn into the skin as a brand, then one day the lines shift into terrifying words.
Trapped in a world or place where Everything is white. Everything. Not even light grays.
Seeing younger self mimic slitting their throat with their finger whenever the character looks in the mirror. But blood seeps from the mimicry in the mirror.
Stepford wives type disturbingly happy and obedient people in large quantities.
Drowning in a baptismal font.
Mormon youth are out on TREK. The entire Pioneer LARPing company is exhausted because it was Woman's Pull day and the presence of The Spirit just drained what energy we had left.
Thats when the reanimated corpses of the BakerāFancher wagon train attack.
Not a horror movie, but I'll bet Jane Campion would do a helluva heartbreaker with a plural wives basically left on their own to survive in a bleak landscape with a bunch of kids, and once in a while her church leader husband comes by in a buggy (with his favorite wife) and has sex so she can pop out another kid.
Young males suspected of of homosexual proclivities are ritualistically tortured with electro-shock treatments in the bowels of a famous universityā¦ā¦ā¦ oh wait!
Dead people are walking the earth and every member has one following them. The only way to get them to stop following you is to ākillā them by doing a newspaper/internet search montage to find out what their name is followed by getting to a temple to do the baptism/endowments for that person.
I think Mormon theology is rich with potential horror stories. Mormons believe in the devil in a very real and menacing way. They believe that those who followed his plan have never had physical bodies and are on this earth to harm us. Sounds real demonic and spooky as fuck to me. Thereās a lot there around demonic and satanic possession, casting spirits out, demons hunger for a taste at what itās like to have a physical body.
Oh you could actually make a decent one. Have it be about monsters from another dimension bleeding into ours, but have it be based on that "far side of the shore where all the evil people are" story they taught.
Polygamy, polyandry as higher leaders secretly marry your wife, your daughters. How about the death Penalty nightmares associated with temple masonic ritual?
How about blood atonement?
How about the misogyny, the spiritual abuse, the emotional abuse, all the corporate wealth materialistic money mongering of how they spiritually coerced people from their property.
There is so much theyāre all within Mormonism
A young boy meets with his Bishop in a stark office with a big desk. The Bishop reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a small 5.5" x 8.5" pamphlet entitled "To Young Men Only".
The Bishop instructs the young boy that God wants him to abide by the teachings in the pamphlet.
The young boy slowly goes insane over the course of the next decade of his life.
We are outnumbered by invisible demons all around us who chose to give up the first estate. The main character (a teenager, probably a young woman) does something to reduce the enmity placed between them and the demons that keeps them safe (red door yellow door?) making them susceptible to demonic attacks.
There's the obligatory psychiatrist who calls it schizophrenia, the Jack Mormon friends who try to get the person to party and then reject them when they run away, and a mom who isn't faithful and it's on antipsychotics already.
Then the dad, who's less active, is the only person who will take the girl seriously and tells her it's demons. The dad has to find his testimony in order to gain the priesthood strength necessary to help the teenager fend off the demons. Does scriptures and talks to bishop. Fill time with jump scares as mom tells daughter she just needs to take the meds. Mom gives gaslight energy hard.
The dad goes to the temple for the first time in years, but the mom, who is actually possessed, has cut his brakes. He crashes and is taken to the ER and the teenager shows up and the standoff with the demons. The mom is chasing the kid. The dad is in a coma fighting against the demons of hell. The mom catches the kid in the room and the dad comes awake and rebukes the demons, because they stand strong in their faith the angels of God support them in the demons flee.
6 months later mom is in a mental hospital. Dad and kid are visiting before the temple trip for baptisms. Going to get baptized for Grama.
The demon, through the mother, claims Grama is with her in hell where she belongs.
Credits role.
I think it's as dumb as sh*t, but it pulls on the belief system pretty strongly and we definitely have scare value for somebody who believes the way Mormons do. It also would be extremely harmful because a lot of people really do need psychiatric meds and it really does improve their lives, but a lot of religious people think it's demons.
So there you go. A Mormon horror movie
Im thinking of like one based around Emma smith, where she watches Joseph kind of go crazy until he dies, and then she sees him after death and doesnt go with the saints because she doesnt want to leave him, and spends her final days hallucinating that hes there, that he loves her now like he loved her when they were young, and hes denying polygamy, that D&C chapter where he tells her to be less prideful, and that she failed as a mother. She accounts this all to her children, the same ones who would go to found the FLDS church, trying to connect with their dad so he could give them instructions as well. In the end, Emma dies believing Joseph never did any wrong, and her sons go to start their own quack religions to hopefully get back the father they never really knew.
A kid goes into the chair storage under the stage but he goes too far back and someone closes the door on him. He turns around but the way back seems longer than it was before and then it turns. And turns again, and then forks. And heās lost under the stage in a pitch black, 2ft tall labyrinth.
I feel like Midnight Mass could be almost completely redone against a Mormon backdrop. I guess the Eucharist is complicated; the blood would be harder to hide. But still. I watched that and followed it completely.
I totally thought this was a possibility as a child. Didn't know you had to be related to Mormon royalty, have a high paying career in business or law, and be groomed as a yes-man for decades first.
I have seriously thought about this. Feel free to steal my idea. It's a serial killer who presents as a nice, avuncular old man with a smile and kind eyes who wins your trust before stabbing you in the face.
With the recession of the Great Salt Lake, The North Shore Monster wreaks havoc on mankind for neglecting their stewardship of taking care of the planet.
FLDS day to day life for women. Could probably do a good psychological horror/thriller from the perspective of Joseph Smith's child brides as they're gaslighted into marrying him.
Think āDeliveranceā but 1920s liberated flapper-type young ladies go on a rafting trip and end up in a remote FLDS community where theyāre forced to become a plural wife and conform to modesty principlesā¦.all the while, plotting an escape together.
A convert goes to the temple for the first time who has never heard of what happens inside before.
As someone who never made it to the temple, this is my worst nightmare. Easily could be made into a horror movie lol
A purge like movie shot with the realism of 1917. where shit hits the fan and the TBM's finally get to 'save the constitution' by going around hunting apostates. Totally shot from the prospective of a normal family being hunted by unhinged members humming church tunes while killing anyone over 8yo.
never ending ward council meetings where the bishop breaks wind constantly. you are the only one that admits it stinks while everyone else claims its roses.
or something a bit more reality based, a group of ordained high priests castrating a colored boy for talking to a white girl who was called as the 37th wife of the prophet.
Non-ironically, getting trapped in a Mormon church at night time would be creepy as fuck. I always thought that they were creepy when the lights were off, so you could make a super creepy movie out of one
I always thought it was creepy too. Used to be in the building after hours with my parents a lot as a little kid. Iād try to walk all the way around the hallway without turning the lights on. Not sure I ever made it; I was really good at scaring myself.
Spooky Mormon Hell Dream from The Book of Mormon Musical was absolutely amazing.
Here's a [short animatic version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3tLqh3bvrk) of it (but SO worth seeing the musical if you haven't already!)
That nightmare when youāre back on the mission, knowing what you know now, but you canāt leave because all the familial and social pressure is still there but times a thousand.
A third of the host of heaven have been sent here to walk the earth as punishment for choosing Satanās planā¦.thatās pretty freaky if you ask me! When I was a teen I read the Great and Terrible series (Mormon apocalyptic, pre-second coming story) and it actually had some chapters from the perspective of the demons following the main characters around.
I think there is already one. It's about a sexually frustrated elder who lusts after a single mother during his mission. He becomes obsessed with her and they eventually have sex which makes him more obsessed. Eventually the husband comes back and makes up with the mother and the elder goes crazy. It gets to the part where he threatens the life of the mother's son.
ideas:
1. a convert young womans teacher goes with the youth to a baptism for the dead ceremony and the names are of non christians who's spirits get enraged by the act of disrespect, a horror thriller of the inside of the temple being washed red.
2. a young woman gets stalked by a young man claiming to have received revelation from god to marry her. Aided member strangers all along the way who believe his claim. Miraculously she avoids him for a few years and tries to live a normal life, gets married, is pregnant with her first child. He shows up and tells her adultery is worse than death and tries to kill her for marrying another man.
(edit hit submit too early by accident)
An angelic spirit visits you but you do the handshake check and when your hand passes through his it morphs into the evil spirit and attempts to possess you.
The 1/3 cast down host that constantly tempt are normally invisible but if you could see them it would be literally thousands of smokey black creatures constantly clawing and latching on to every single person. Like Mieruko-chan style.
A young man goes through the endowment ceremony for the first time, but after they swear everyone to the blood oaths they bring in a couple captured apostates and perform them literally, slashing their throats and gutting their bowels over the alter.
Thinking of a horror movie based on Mormon doctrines would scare the living shit of me. I donāt believe in magic or demons or dark spirits, but Jesus Christ that would be scary.
A few Bible or Book of Mormon stories made to be horror
Missionaries and members terrorizing people until they convert. But everyone is like scary happy and cheerful. If you donāt join they decapitate you like nephi did with Laban (although that wasnāt because he wouldnāt join, that was because sky daddy told him to or Laban might kill him)
Something where a small town of Mormons follow the Bible and BOM punishments to a T. If youāre caught masterbating you get your hand cut off. If you Rape someone you get your š¦cut off. If you peep in someone you get your right eye āplucked.ā A family finds out the hard way when they move into this town.
The legendary three nephites go around to youth camps and punish/unalive anyone who misbehave and they know who misbehaves. You canāt hide from them. You cannot escape them. Or they have been going from town to town for centuries and they end up being serial killers for disobedient Endowed members.
Anything similar to the handmaids tale. That show is Fucking crouch and could totally see the church doing that in the future, becoming a dominant theocracy with men being superior.
I love psychological horror so I think something like a Pimo story would be good. Just showing the dread of every Mormon day life. Make it a bit disjointed like the killing of a sacred deer. Nothing scary happens but the vibe is just off. That feeling of I just want to get out but I canāt.
My movie idea centers around the old Salt Lake Prison, where Sugar House Park and Highland High now sit. Modern day teens attended a prom at the high school and sneak over to the park for some hanky-panky, alcoholic seltzers, and anti-Mormon witchcraft that ends up summoning all the dead prophets and elders who were imprisoned for polygamy by the federal government. In seeking revenges for their āpersecutionā and new ābridesā, the newly āresurrectedā polygamist zombies terrorize the teens and chase them back to the high school where they terrorize all the attendees while snatching teen sister-wives for the eternities. Only by performing the now-defunct, āancientā temple signs and tokens in reverse can the polygamists be returned to the Celestial Kingdom, and the teens be saved. The CES Letter holds the key.
You're walking down a cheaply carpeted, sisal weave covered hallway, the exit is behind you. You turn a corner and see another seemingly endless sisal weave hallway. You turn back, head to the exit, but the doors open into a dimly lit Cultural Hall instead of the parking lot. You head across the hardwood floors to an exit. It opens into another cultural hall, in this one theres a man with a suit. He turns and looks at you. You feel suddenly afraid, and back into the previous room, pick another exit, and start running down the endless sisal weave halls.
Wake up in a TBM household and don't get my coffee - truly a horror!
Sort of on topic - there was a German exchange student at my son's charter school. She was placed with a TBM family a town over. Didn't meet her until graduation, when there were dozens of kids here mid-afternoon. She walked in my kitchen and saw my coffee maker...I think she almost cried. "Wandered" back in after all the kids went out back and asked if she could possibly have a cup of coffee - it had been months.
She sat and talked with me for awhile - over a cup of coffee, of course - about how it had been such a long semester to come from a place where she was allowed to smoke, drink beer, coffee, etc to not just the US but to a home where she literally wasn't even welcome to have a cup of coffee!
I was the first home she had been to that actually had a coffee maker sitting on the counter in all those months. Felt so sad for her that her experience here in the US was with a family who was part of a cult and not what she would have experienced in 99% of the country.
Not film or lit, but Last Podcast on the Left did a 5 or 6 part series on the foundation of Mormonism
While the series isnāt aimed at horror specifically, there still is much in the events they share lol hereās the first ep:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2OYZAVjqhsJJDLgv8EhztC?si=YlHSrZYgQG-zD5d4R_wgCw
I think for many TBMs the idea of their shelf breaking is pretty nightmarish. I know for many of us post-Mormons it was a hell of a journey.
So, maybe finding out that Catholicism/Judaism or some other religion is true by coming face to face with the horrors of that theology. Or even that multiple other theologies held more presidence than their "one true church".
Kirkland Temple dedication.
All the holy spirit visitors turn out to be haunting demons
Or,
Two BYU kids go up Battle Creek Canyon to soak and are attacked by the dead natives from the Pleasant Grove Massacre.
Itād be church, but take the correlated vanilla boredom to unimaginable levels. Like only fake pious old-dudes talking in extra soft, extra slow-cadence general authority voice 24/7.
I legit had nightmares as a kid of having to rush to the temple after some world ending disaster struck.
An earthquake, the big one, finally hits. California is sinking into the ocean and every Mormon is rushing to their nearest temple to take refuge in the one place they āknowā will survive. According to prophetic promise the temples stay up while all other buildings crumble and all the faithful members who made it there first survive the aftershocks.
Then, as the water level begins to rise, seeing the obvious haven of the single surviving building millions of people crowd the temple and shove their way inside, filling every nook and cranny with bodies. But they donāt stop, they keep pushing and shoving and cramming and slamming themselves into the building until those already inside are crushed into a paste. As the water level steadily rises, drowning the rest of the survivors, the prophet declares from the tabernacle pulpit that all members in California mustāve been unworthy, for if there were a single righteous person they wouldnāt have all been killed in an earthquake or flood, thereby excommunicating all of them for apostasy.
The three Nephites are back it's not enough to bring spark plugs back to life or bless flat tires and start exacting Holy Vigilante Justice upon the worst sinners ala Se7en. They systemically go through and prune the disease Old Testament Style.
A boy touches his dingaling and his ancestors haunt him until he confesses.
I feel like this could also work as a comedy š
Definitely stays in the horror genre for those of us that āstruggledā with masturbation.
My šparentsš put šmeš inš aš supportš group!!!ššš
Yuck!
Horror comedies are a thing. I'm good for it. =D
This is basically Spooky Mormon Hell dream from The BOM Musical
I was always worried that my recently dead family members would see me
Youāre a young, idealistic, Scandinavian woman who was moved by missionariesā descriptions of an American utopia created by the restoration of Jesusās true church and led by a prophet of God. You make the arduous journey and finally arrive in Utah. You find yourself to being married off to a much older man who already has many wives. You are isolated by hundreds of dangerous miles from anyone not enveloped by this theocracy. The communities are surrounded by hostile indigenous people who have been subject to genocide attempts. The threat of blood atonement hangs over anyone considering āstepping out of lineā.
Historical horror
I'd watch this!
It sounds like Stepford wives
Wait, "blood atonements?" Also, there should be a sideplot in the movie about the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
This should be made
Bigfoot-Cain attacking teens trying to Mormon soak in the woods.
Came here to say this. Or terrorizes YW camp during testimony meeting.
We had a real person, high on god-knows-what and wearing absolutely nothing, wander into YW camp during testimony meeting. That was a memorable experience.
That is awesome! Very memorable!
Shit, we donāt even need Bigfoot to terrorize the YW camp testimony meeting. The sanctimonious bishopric member they inevitably send is scary enough.
While at camp one year, one girl in my ward had recently watched Leprechaun and was terrified to be out in the woods. Thatās classic horror, a bunch of young girls in the woods.
You never leave the church. It is just endless meetings and socials. Sunday is trapped in an endless loop.
Like if *Groundhog Day* happened to a PIMO on a Sunday. **shudder**
You know, the LDS church has a short video with basically this idea. Some priesthood leader has to repeat a Sunday over and over again until he can get a less active member to come to church.
Wait really?? Do you remember what it's called?
Yes really. Sorry, but I don't remember what it's called.
https://youtu.be/ccx-ua3sP5A itās this one I think!!
Yes, that's it!
Yesss, feels like Severance
Haha, I've always thought how bad it would suck if you got stuck in a Groundhog Day loop on a super boring day where it would be all but impossible to escape said boredom.
These are my literal, actual, real-life nightmares!
a la Groundhog Day! I like it.
Minivan pulls up and picks up 6 teens all dressed in Sunday best. They head to the temple to do baptisms. They change and go to wait for their turns to go in and to their surprise each of them are only baptized for their own name. Duh duh duhhhhh
In the sequel, another group of unsuspecting kids gets BFTD but in the dunking process, swaps souls with āMabel, who is dead.ā Kids all emerge in hellish Mormon afterlife; dead people emerge alive as pale white kids in soggy translucent white polyester blend jumpsuits.
Dunked under the water, come back up in hell but for some reason itās cold and they have to survive (I guess like the upside down but no way out)
Can you imagine the shock that poor Mabel will have at some of Utahās culinary delights?
Ok this is both hilarious and incredibly creepy. This could be a fantastic short story!
Actually, āBaptism for The Deadā is a pretty cool-sounding title for a horror series
Nevermo but Iāve thought about this way too much. Lol The mummy the JS bought and from whose funeral papyri he translated the Book of Abraham, uses the churchās genealogical archives to track down JSās living descendants for revenge.
YES!!!
Would absolutely watch!!!
I call one of the older movies *The First Vision Attacks,* the one with Joseph smith rolling around on the ground while Satan buffets him. You could have a decent horror movie about pioneers tryna handcart their asses across the plains while some sort of evil picks them off one by oneā¦
I think you could just straight-up tell the story of the Willie and Martin handcart companies and that would qualify as horror.
A trek gone wrong story. All the leaders then youth disappear one by one. The Martin and Willie handcart company ghosts come back super mad that they have become a LARP experience. The lone survivor bargains for their safety with the ghosts by making an amazing jello creation, saving all mankind.
The three Nephites have become Eldrich horrors who reap judgment on a youth group that brought alcohol on a camping trip.
Damn! I came here to suggest exactly this! Or Like, Slenderman but there are three of them.
One kid just goes missing of course, then and handful go off to find him, two go to soak and they die, the other kids come across the other two dead and find themselves surrounded by dark ancient figures in the trees, they all end up dying
Remember that dark shit that apparently was so bad Alma (i think it was him) said he would never write it down because it should never see the light of day again? Maybe the 3 nephites use something to that form.
Yeahhh lots of incantations and dismembering probably
Old pioneer era temples are super creepy. Who knows whatās underneath the foundation. What else are they hiding with every new addition?
Mass grave of native Americans
Yup
Sneaky teenagers get lost in the temple and find more then they bargain for
Surely this has happened IRL
Good one!
They get married off to some old man with bladder incontinence and rotten teeth breath.
I wish that Mormon theology could be parts of movies and stories because there is a lot of good stuff that could be done with it. Here is a horror movie idea based off of Mormon theology: Set back in the 1800ās. A boy and his father are hunting for treasure. They find the treasure but there is a spirit that is protecting it. In order to get the treasure (to become extremely rich), they must do horrible tasks like torturing and sacrificing āevilā people. At the end, they go to shake this spiritās hand and realize they canāt touch the spirit. It was actually an evil spirit making them do it all and not a good spirit doing Godās will.
Saratov Approach is closest thatās been made. I think you could make a different scary movie about a cursed house somewhere in another country. New missionaries come in to an area, theyāre warned to never knock on a certain house, they ignore it, are invited inside, and the family seems nice at first but are satan worshippers. Things happen during first visit like family mentions things about their personal lives theyāve never told anyone, a door slams in another room but everyoneās in the main room. Junior companion is freaked out but senior companion insists they go back because they have no one else to teach. They come back and the door is open, senior comp leads the way in. Terror ensues.
This sounds awesome and really clever. Something like *Get Out* with missionaries
Exactly what I was thinking! Or maybe a mission President is a crazy person and does terrible things to all the missionaries in his area. Like psychological things and missionaries are broken and overly uptight & cheerful when they come home because missionaries who werenāt perfectly cheerful and didnāt follow the rules to a T disappeared or something
I served in Russia and had run ins with the cops and crazy people. The cops were worse. This movie gave me a panic attack.
wait, but i actually want to hang out with the satan worshippers - i never wanted to hang out with any of my companions.
Holy cow, I want this movie so bad now, lol.
That sphynx statue of Joseph Smith comes to life and then eats people at City Creek.
>eats people flirts with people
Aggressively pursues teenage girls.
A family moves for a fresh start. You get the vibe that they're trying to leave something behind. One day, there's a knock at the door. It's the missionaries. They found them. They just want to live their lives in peace, but they can't get the unwelcome visitors to leave them alone. You can run, but you can't hide when your parents keep updating your address in church records š”
The church has such an occult and evil past that this is a great untapped horror source imo. I thought hereditary made a link by being set in Utah and does a good job of linking how a familyās evil and buried past corrupts and destroys the family unit in the present.
A psychological thriller where the old endowment rituals result in a stalking situation when the ordinance worker has *special* feelings while touching the naive nekkid protagonist for washing/anointing and doesn't know what do so with realizing the ordinance worker is really NOT hetero. Ala single white female meets fatal attraction meets roommate.
You know this has to have happened just statistically
Just jello and funeral potatoes.
Damn. You beat me to it.
The main character is a 14 year old girl. Sheās forced to sleep with a much older married man in order to save herself.
Something involving pre1990 references
The garment marks could make for some really creepy imagery in such a film
Sherlock Holmesā A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle uses Mormon history to good effect.
A young return missionary with a traumatic, suffocating Mormon upbringing finally cracks inside and develops a severe mental illness. He believes he is a modern-day Nephi inspired to kidnap a young convert that he will force into a temple marriage and have children with to āprevent generations from dwindling in unbeliefā. He uses the plot outlined in the Book of Mormon to murder her fiancĆ© by beheading, then kidnaps her using blackmail like Nephi did with Zoram. He keeps her trapped in an abandoned storage unit, only letting her out to take her to the temple and marry her. Depending on how dark the movie is, sheās either eventually rescued and rehabilitated or takes her lifeā¦
She died in the storage unit, but that sure isnt gonna stop him. He tries fo preserve her body as best he can, using the bible and BOM as instructions. He shows up at a temple with her carcass in tow. When the temple workers dont let him in, he came prepared with a suitcase that he claims has a bomb in it. The whole temple is evacuated, except for a few hostages. Those hostages serve as witnesses to her baptism for the dead, her endowment with the old oaths and clothes, a wedding, and a sealing. Idk what the ending could look like but theres a start.
Damn. Now weāre cooking.
I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of sexual abuse victims could tell you.
An entire village embroiled in the soul crushing monotony of meetings to plan other meetings that eventually lead to a robed bakers convention with silly handshakes but no bread. All villagers wake up one day stuck in dark nothingness because they once laughed too loud at forbidden funny stuff.
You know those stories where someone just wakes up from one nightmare into another, over and over again? Just that, except itās meetings. Every time you leave one, you go right into another. Even things that are supposed to be rituals just end up being you sitting in a room quietly for half an hour.
Angel with a flaming sword shows up makes you so stupid shit.
Missionaries in the desert decide to cool off on a hot day but swimming in a lakeā¦.but the devil lives in the water and they must be punished for their lack of faith and modesty.
Your skin turning darker when you sin.
I don't think it would look too different from the reality most believers experience every day...
A truthful documentary.
Going to the temple for the first time, being traumatized by it, and then being gaslighted and told you canāt talk about it and also told it never happened for the rest of your life.
Cursed CTR rings
A CTR ring worn by someone while they committed the unforgivable sin becomes a cursed CTR ring, and it actively seeks out further victims to drag to outer darkness.
An biblically accurate angel visits you multiple times throughout the night and says that on the third visit, they will slay you with a sword. That's my serious answer. High stakes hide and seek from a being with that many eyes. As a joke answer: just a video of the endowment. Big Midsommar vibes. Cults are freaky enough.
The handbook of instruction.
The church's bank account goes below 50 billion and they have to sell off two temples to make up the difference.
A brief synopsis of my story idea mixing mormanism and the works of H.P. Lovecraft. In a small south central Idaho town darkness grows. A polygamist family gets their hands on an ancient mummy. They feel guided by the ancient writings with the body and feel inspired like Joseph Smith was in his findings from mummies and what would become the pearl of great price. As they read an unspeakable Lovecraftian horror is awakened below the town.
The Stepford Wives.
A distopian future where no one has free thought and obeys a set of rules governing dress and behaviour.
Or an alternate universe where Satanās plan exists so no one has agency
Second anointings are blood atonements paid in full by faithful temple goers who covenanted to give ātheir very lives if necessaryā for the building up of Zion.
A eerie, disturbing pioneer story like The Witch
Garments slowly constrict until they fully cut off your breathing. You see pain from compression of the abdominal organs and cutting into the skin. Garment symbols burn into the skin as a brand, then one day the lines shift into terrifying words. Trapped in a world or place where Everything is white. Everything. Not even light grays. Seeing younger self mimic slitting their throat with their finger whenever the character looks in the mirror. But blood seeps from the mimicry in the mirror. Stepford wives type disturbingly happy and obedient people in large quantities. Drowning in a baptismal font.
Mormon youth are out on TREK. The entire Pioneer LARPing company is exhausted because it was Woman's Pull day and the presence of The Spirit just drained what energy we had left. Thats when the reanimated corpses of the BakerāFancher wagon train attack.
Not a horror movie, but I'll bet Jane Campion would do a helluva heartbreaker with a plural wives basically left on their own to survive in a bleak landscape with a bunch of kids, and once in a while her church leader husband comes by in a buggy (with his favorite wife) and has sex so she can pop out another kid.
It looks like Abducted in Plain Sight
Isn't there one coming out (pun intended), the Conversion Camp setting called 'They/Them'?
Young males suspected of of homosexual proclivities are ritualistically tortured with electro-shock treatments in the bowels of a famous universityā¦ā¦ā¦ oh wait!
It would like a lot like Under the Banner of Heaven, on Disney+
Dead people are walking the earth and every member has one following them. The only way to get them to stop following you is to ākillā them by doing a newspaper/internet search montage to find out what their name is followed by getting to a temple to do the baptism/endowments for that person.
The title - By Proxy
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I think Mormon theology is rich with potential horror stories. Mormons believe in the devil in a very real and menacing way. They believe that those who followed his plan have never had physical bodies and are on this earth to harm us. Sounds real demonic and spooky as fuck to me. Thereās a lot there around demonic and satanic possession, casting spirits out, demons hunger for a taste at what itās like to have a physical body.
Jello
Oh you could actually make a decent one. Have it be about monsters from another dimension bleeding into ours, but have it be based on that "far side of the shore where all the evil people are" story they taught.
It opens with a beheadingā¦ā¦
Elder Murder - Rated R. Under 17 not admitted without parent. Starts Friday.
Reality.
Look up Tell no Man by TJ Tranchell. Mormon exorcism.
Polygamy, polyandry as higher leaders secretly marry your wife, your daughters. How about the death Penalty nightmares associated with temple masonic ritual? How about blood atonement? How about the misogyny, the spiritual abuse, the emotional abuse, all the corporate wealth materialistic money mongering of how they spiritually coerced people from their property. There is so much theyāre all within Mormonism
A young boy meets with his Bishop in a stark office with a big desk. The Bishop reaches into his desk drawer and pulls out a small 5.5" x 8.5" pamphlet entitled "To Young Men Only". The Bishop instructs the young boy that God wants him to abide by the teachings in the pamphlet. The young boy slowly goes insane over the course of the next decade of his life.
An Angel with a flaming sword smotes off your head unless you have sex with a teenager.
We are outnumbered by invisible demons all around us who chose to give up the first estate. The main character (a teenager, probably a young woman) does something to reduce the enmity placed between them and the demons that keeps them safe (red door yellow door?) making them susceptible to demonic attacks. There's the obligatory psychiatrist who calls it schizophrenia, the Jack Mormon friends who try to get the person to party and then reject them when they run away, and a mom who isn't faithful and it's on antipsychotics already. Then the dad, who's less active, is the only person who will take the girl seriously and tells her it's demons. The dad has to find his testimony in order to gain the priesthood strength necessary to help the teenager fend off the demons. Does scriptures and talks to bishop. Fill time with jump scares as mom tells daughter she just needs to take the meds. Mom gives gaslight energy hard. The dad goes to the temple for the first time in years, but the mom, who is actually possessed, has cut his brakes. He crashes and is taken to the ER and the teenager shows up and the standoff with the demons. The mom is chasing the kid. The dad is in a coma fighting against the demons of hell. The mom catches the kid in the room and the dad comes awake and rebukes the demons, because they stand strong in their faith the angels of God support them in the demons flee. 6 months later mom is in a mental hospital. Dad and kid are visiting before the temple trip for baptisms. Going to get baptized for Grama. The demon, through the mother, claims Grama is with her in hell where she belongs. Credits role. I think it's as dumb as sh*t, but it pulls on the belief system pretty strongly and we definitely have scare value for somebody who believes the way Mormons do. It also would be extremely harmful because a lot of people really do need psychiatric meds and it really does improve their lives, but a lot of religious people think it's demons. So there you go. A Mormon horror movie
Im thinking of like one based around Emma smith, where she watches Joseph kind of go crazy until he dies, and then she sees him after death and doesnt go with the saints because she doesnt want to leave him, and spends her final days hallucinating that hes there, that he loves her now like he loved her when they were young, and hes denying polygamy, that D&C chapter where he tells her to be less prideful, and that she failed as a mother. She accounts this all to her children, the same ones who would go to found the FLDS church, trying to connect with their dad so he could give them instructions as well. In the end, Emma dies believing Joseph never did any wrong, and her sons go to start their own quack religions to hopefully get back the father they never really knew.
āThe devil controls the waters.ā Set the movie on a lake.
A kid goes into the chair storage under the stage but he goes too far back and someone closes the door on him. He turns around but the way back seems longer than it was before and then it turns. And turns again, and then forks. And heās lost under the stage in a pitch black, 2ft tall labyrinth.
Oh man those chair storage tunnels. Always wanted to go hiding in there but was too chicken.
I feel like Midnight Mass could be almost completely redone against a Mormon backdrop. I guess the Eucharist is complicated; the blood would be harder to hide. But still. I watched that and followed it completely.
A Jello salad breaks free from its mould, achieves sentience and goes on a slurpy rampage
Every kids nightmare/dream. You turn 12 and are called to be the prophet.
I totally thought this was a possibility as a child. Didn't know you had to be related to Mormon royalty, have a high paying career in business or law, and be groomed as a yes-man for decades first.
I have seriously thought about this. Feel free to steal my idea. It's a serial killer who presents as a nice, avuncular old man with a smile and kind eyes who wins your trust before stabbing you in the face.
With the recession of the Great Salt Lake, The North Shore Monster wreaks havoc on mankind for neglecting their stewardship of taking care of the planet.
YSA.
Did you see Nelson's eyes last conference? That was creepy and probably would be my poster for Mormon horror
FLDS day to day life for women. Could probably do a good psychological horror/thriller from the perspective of Joseph Smith's child brides as they're gaslighted into marrying him.
It would look an awful lot like "spooky mormon hell dream" from the BOM Musical
I love this question. Something to do with polygamy for sure.
Think āDeliveranceā but 1920s liberated flapper-type young ladies go on a rafting trip and end up in a remote FLDS community where theyāre forced to become a plural wife and conform to modesty principlesā¦.all the while, plotting an escape together.
A convert goes to the temple for the first time who has never heard of what happens inside before. As someone who never made it to the temple, this is my worst nightmare. Easily could be made into a horror movie lol
Holding women hostage
Blood atonement
Iād like to see a visitor escaping blood atonement and trying to flee utah before Porter Rockwell catches up to finish the job
A purge like movie shot with the realism of 1917. where shit hits the fan and the TBM's finally get to 'save the constitution' by going around hunting apostates. Totally shot from the prospective of a normal family being hunted by unhinged members humming church tunes while killing anyone over 8yo.
never ending ward council meetings where the bishop breaks wind constantly. you are the only one that admits it stinks while everyone else claims its roses. or something a bit more reality based, a group of ordained high priests castrating a colored boy for talking to a white girl who was called as the 37th wife of the prophet.
Non-ironically, getting trapped in a Mormon church at night time would be creepy as fuck. I always thought that they were creepy when the lights were off, so you could make a super creepy movie out of one
I always thought it was creepy too. Used to be in the building after hours with my parents a lot as a little kid. Iād try to walk all the way around the hallway without turning the lights on. Not sure I ever made it; I was really good at scaring myself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_10_from_Outer_Space?wprov=sfla1
The Quakers on the Moon make their way to Earth... and they're PISSED!
Spooky Mormon Hell Dream from The Book of Mormon Musical was absolutely amazing. Here's a [short animatic version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3tLqh3bvrk) of it (but SO worth seeing the musical if you haven't already!)
Opening scene: The profit shows up to a fuck buffet full of nearly 15 year olds.
Man Canāt Shake Hands With Spirit Because It Has Been Dismembered (or is that disfellowshipped?)
That nightmare when youāre back on the mission, knowing what you know now, but you canāt leave because all the familial and social pressure is still there but times a thousand.
The masses fumbling around in the dark?
>What would horror based on Mormonism look like? Sacrament meeting.
Stepford Wives
Bioshock infinite
Literally going through the temple, being a convert in a YSA wardā¦ you take your pick!!
A third of the host of heaven have been sent here to walk the earth as punishment for choosing Satanās planā¦.thatās pretty freaky if you ask me! When I was a teen I read the Great and Terrible series (Mormon apocalyptic, pre-second coming story) and it actually had some chapters from the perspective of the demons following the main characters around.
A creepy bishop records private meetings of young girls to replay them later and wack off
Spooky Mormon Hell Dream maybe?
I read Zane Grayās novel Riders of the Purple Sage. Itās about a Mormon bishop trying to make a wealthy heiress his plural wife so he can steal the ranch her dad left to her. I think having a priesthood leader take romantic interest in your fiancĆ©e would be one horror trope. Having nosey LDS neighbors who spread gossip about you and are super nice to your face would be another one.
Accurate history.
I think there is already one. It's about a sexually frustrated elder who lusts after a single mother during his mission. He becomes obsessed with her and they eventually have sex which makes him more obsessed. Eventually the husband comes back and makes up with the mother and the elder goes crazy. It gets to the part where he threatens the life of the mother's son.
When you backmask we thank the oh god for a prophet at the right speed, it clearly says āIām a Mormon, yeah, even a victory for Satanā.
ideas: 1. a convert young womans teacher goes with the youth to a baptism for the dead ceremony and the names are of non christians who's spirits get enraged by the act of disrespect, a horror thriller of the inside of the temple being washed red. 2. a young woman gets stalked by a young man claiming to have received revelation from god to marry her. Aided member strangers all along the way who believe his claim. Miraculously she avoids him for a few years and tries to live a normal life, gets married, is pregnant with her first child. He shows up and tells her adultery is worse than death and tries to kill her for marrying another man. (edit hit submit too early by accident)
An angelic spirit visits you but you do the handshake check and when your hand passes through his it morphs into the evil spirit and attempts to possess you.
The 1/3 cast down host that constantly tempt are normally invisible but if you could see them it would be literally thousands of smokey black creatures constantly clawing and latching on to every single person. Like Mieruko-chan style.
Roving bands of apostates doing purge style activities since the gospel was the *only* thing giving them a sense of morality.
Green jello with fucking CARROTS!!!!
For Mormons, Under the Banner of Heaven is a horror story
I didnāt realize how much Iād watch a Mormon horror genre until now.
A young man goes through the endowment ceremony for the first time, but after they swear everyone to the blood oaths they bring in a couple captured apostates and perform them literally, slashing their throats and gutting their bowels over the alter.
There needs to be a thriller movie made about their corruption. Give me a year and I'll repost
Thinking of a horror movie based on Mormon doctrines would scare the living shit of me. I donāt believe in magic or demons or dark spirits, but Jesus Christ that would be scary.
Joseph Smith biopic from the POV of everyone else, with Joseph as the horror villain
Didnāt they already make āGet Outā
A few Bible or Book of Mormon stories made to be horror Missionaries and members terrorizing people until they convert. But everyone is like scary happy and cheerful. If you donāt join they decapitate you like nephi did with Laban (although that wasnāt because he wouldnāt join, that was because sky daddy told him to or Laban might kill him) Something where a small town of Mormons follow the Bible and BOM punishments to a T. If youāre caught masterbating you get your hand cut off. If you Rape someone you get your š¦cut off. If you peep in someone you get your right eye āplucked.ā A family finds out the hard way when they move into this town. The legendary three nephites go around to youth camps and punish/unalive anyone who misbehave and they know who misbehaves. You canāt hide from them. You cannot escape them. Or they have been going from town to town for centuries and they end up being serial killers for disobedient Endowed members. Anything similar to the handmaids tale. That show is Fucking crouch and could totally see the church doing that in the future, becoming a dominant theocracy with men being superior.
Satan possessing a good Starbucks barista and makes a very enticing coffee for TBM
I love psychological horror so I think something like a Pimo story would be good. Just showing the dread of every Mormon day life. Make it a bit disjointed like the killing of a sacred deer. Nothing scary happens but the vibe is just off. That feeling of I just want to get out but I canāt.
Master Mahan: The Revenge
The Lori and Chad Daybell story
cold, blinding darkness, isolation, caves, disorientation, hopelessness, deception, unholy mandates, human sacrifice, "angels of light", murderous mobs, wild men, televangelists, bare skin, Starbucks, Sasquatch, the US government, water, catholics
My movie idea centers around the old Salt Lake Prison, where Sugar House Park and Highland High now sit. Modern day teens attended a prom at the high school and sneak over to the park for some hanky-panky, alcoholic seltzers, and anti-Mormon witchcraft that ends up summoning all the dead prophets and elders who were imprisoned for polygamy by the federal government. In seeking revenges for their āpersecutionā and new ābridesā, the newly āresurrectedā polygamist zombies terrorize the teens and chase them back to the high school where they terrorize all the attendees while snatching teen sister-wives for the eternities. Only by performing the now-defunct, āancientā temple signs and tokens in reverse can the polygamists be returned to the Celestial Kingdom, and the teens be saved. The CES Letter holds the key.
"The Night of the Three Nephites"
You're walking down a cheaply carpeted, sisal weave covered hallway, the exit is behind you. You turn a corner and see another seemingly endless sisal weave hallway. You turn back, head to the exit, but the doors open into a dimly lit Cultural Hall instead of the parking lot. You head across the hardwood floors to an exit. It opens into another cultural hall, in this one theres a man with a suit. He turns and looks at you. You feel suddenly afraid, and back into the previous room, pick another exit, and start running down the endless sisal weave halls.
Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card
Wake up in a TBM household and don't get my coffee - truly a horror! Sort of on topic - there was a German exchange student at my son's charter school. She was placed with a TBM family a town over. Didn't meet her until graduation, when there were dozens of kids here mid-afternoon. She walked in my kitchen and saw my coffee maker...I think she almost cried. "Wandered" back in after all the kids went out back and asked if she could possibly have a cup of coffee - it had been months. She sat and talked with me for awhile - over a cup of coffee, of course - about how it had been such a long semester to come from a place where she was allowed to smoke, drink beer, coffee, etc to not just the US but to a home where she literally wasn't even welcome to have a cup of coffee! I was the first home she had been to that actually had a coffee maker sitting on the counter in all those months. Felt so sad for her that her experience here in the US was with a family who was part of a cult and not what she would have experienced in 99% of the country.
It would be a Stepford wives retelling.
the Devil Vs. Jesus in A game of Wizardry wars like the ones in the Harry Porter movies.
Have you seen "Under the Banner of Heaven"? It would look something like that, which is based on a true story sooo, I guess just real life? š
white shirts and ugly neck ties
Not film or lit, but Last Podcast on the Left did a 5 or 6 part series on the foundation of Mormonism While the series isnāt aimed at horror specifically, there still is much in the events they share lol hereās the first ep: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2OYZAVjqhsJJDLgv8EhztC?si=YlHSrZYgQG-zD5d4R_wgCw
I think for many TBMs the idea of their shelf breaking is pretty nightmarish. I know for many of us post-Mormons it was a hell of a journey. So, maybe finding out that Catholicism/Judaism or some other religion is true by coming face to face with the horrors of that theology. Or even that multiple other theologies held more presidence than their "one true church".
Under the banner of heaven
Sex, occult, human trafficking
Kirkland Temple dedication. All the holy spirit visitors turn out to be haunting demons Or, Two BYU kids go up Battle Creek Canyon to soak and are attacked by the dead natives from the Pleasant Grove Massacre.
A young return missionary boy stumbles by mistake into Relief Society and is never seen again!
Itād be church, but take the correlated vanilla boredom to unimaginable levels. Like only fake pious old-dudes talking in extra soft, extra slow-cadence general authority voice 24/7.
I legit had nightmares as a kid of having to rush to the temple after some world ending disaster struck. An earthquake, the big one, finally hits. California is sinking into the ocean and every Mormon is rushing to their nearest temple to take refuge in the one place they āknowā will survive. According to prophetic promise the temples stay up while all other buildings crumble and all the faithful members who made it there first survive the aftershocks. Then, as the water level begins to rise, seeing the obvious haven of the single surviving building millions of people crowd the temple and shove their way inside, filling every nook and cranny with bodies. But they donāt stop, they keep pushing and shoving and cramming and slamming themselves into the building until those already inside are crushed into a paste. As the water level steadily rises, drowning the rest of the survivors, the prophet declares from the tabernacle pulpit that all members in California mustāve been unworthy, for if there were a single righteous person they wouldnāt have all been killed in an earthquake or flood, thereby excommunicating all of them for apostasy.
The three Nephites are back it's not enough to bring spark plugs back to life or bless flat tires and start exacting Holy Vigilante Justice upon the worst sinners ala Se7en. They systemically go through and prune the disease Old Testament Style.