I don’t watch horror movies. I despise them.

I’m the world’s biggest hater of jump scares, and I can’t understand how someone finds something enjoyable that would plague my nightmares.

The other day, my friends and I were figuring out what to watch for movie night, and a classic horror film was brought up – I immediately vetoed it. Why in the world would I want to watch “The Nun”? I love nuns! Apparently, that isn’t a shared feeling.

What I learned from that night — and many more conversations that followed — was that most people are absolutely creeped out by nuns.

I was shocked. So I decided to do some digging and find out what made these women so terrifying to everyone else. My biggest, most obvious conclusion was that it stemmed from these movies I refused to see.

As I went through my internet deep dive, I learned a lot about the history of a process known as “nunsploitation.” This theme all began in the ’70s as nuns got introduced to psychological thrillers and horror movies, which depicted nuns as an array of things: violent murderers, possessed psychos, sexually repressed lustful creatures and just plain scary.

Although this all started so long ago, iconic horror films that star creepy nuns have continued to come out more recently. Significantly, “The Conjuring 2” came out in 2016, “The Nun” was released in 2018, and “Immaculate,” starring the infamous Sydney Sweeney, recently hit the theaters in 2024.

As cancel-culture particularly thrives, and the internet decided they hated Sweeney — especially after her blue jeans/genes ad — her image on the face of a nun did not do much to help the dwindling reputation and stereotype nuns have.

But this doesn’t answer my question — why did the movie industry become so interested in religious sisters all of a sudden? And why was the public so receptive to it?

The movie industry itself is always trying to come up with new ideas to spice up or change films and the genres within them. The most viral things are always controversial. Directors and scriptwriters knew this and wanted to challenge viewers’ beliefs about nuns and sisters. Postmodernist themes of unstable, changing meanings were becoming the norm, rather than a single, correct and stable significance.

Meredith and Marcus Harmes perfectly explain the realities behind imagery in film revolving around nuns in a recent article, published by The Irish Catholic.

“What we see is disconnected from reality,” Meredith and Marcus Harmes said. “Nuns in full habits and gothic convents in film are not like the plain clothed nuns of reality, who are more likely to be found in a community centre than a creepy old convent.”

By showing nuns as evil and horrific, film directors said they intended to challenge beliefs and make something different. However, their mental provocations ended up becoming the foundation of a drastically untrue stereotype that most people hold about nuns.

I can’t hate a director for doing their job and being creative, but I can hate the misconceptions that ensued from it. Nevertheless, I cannot attribute the whole stereotype to the movie industry, although I believe that it is the biggest cause, as older generations have had more real-life experiences.

During the baby boomer generation, the amount of nuns who taught in schools peaked, and they left a name for themselves.

If you’ve ever talked to someone who went to a religious school back then, they probably have lots of unpleasant memories to share. Sisters were heavy on corporal punishment, and the image of a nun with a ruler in hand became the icon associated with their name.

However, as the world progressed and people moved forward, so did the way nuns went about teaching in schools. Once characterized by physical punishment and verbal abuse, nuns are again recognized by their kindness and compassion.

In 2011, corporal punishment was officially banned from the last school, St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, that was still actively using it. In a 2011 article published by EWTN News, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said, “My image of Jesus is that he said, ‘Let the children come to me.’ I cannot imagine Jesus paddling anyone.”

Although I’ve never known a nun as anything other than nice, I can understand where these ideas come from. But again, why do people still hold onto these ideas of violence when the sisters no longer teach in that manner?

The peak of violence by nuns in schools was also the peak of their presence in schools in general. Today, the number of nuns who are teachers has diminished to over half of what it was. As their presence declines significantly, they become much less well-known to the average person.

Their reputation from previous decades is what sticks with them in modern times. There is this everlasting preconception people have towards nuns because of their history, which is now shameful and unfair.

Nuns becoming less common in schools reflects their overall rarity. As with any fear, people are more afraid of what they do not see or regularly come into contact with. From what I’ve found, the decrease in people joining the sisterhood and the sisterhood’s misguided representation directly correlate with an increase in people becoming afraid of them.

What I’m confused about is why, in a world where people care so much about breaking stereotypes and accepting everyone, no one has moved to do the same for nuns. Why are they not receiving the same inclusive treatment?

Anyone online will receive incredible amounts of hate and threats for mocking or shaming other religious and cultural groups. But it feels like no one bats an eye when people make sexual jokes about nuns or show them as literal demons.

Ignorance has led people to leave their biases and stereotypes unchecked. I urge you to reconsider the opinions you hold about women you might never have met.

Everyone gets so upset that this world is full of evil and difficulties, but then they sit down and watch a film that portrays the organized, honest women demonically and sexually. If there is already so much corruption in our world that you don’t like, why sit down and create or enjoy a film that ruins one of the few bits of pureness we have left?

Rose Skees is a freshman at UT this year studying communication studies. She can be reached at [email protected].

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