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Best Religion Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of religion cinema — measured across 3,345 indexed frames from 45 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Religion films over-index on crucifix, book and blood — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Carrie (2013)

    Kimberly PeirceDP Steve YedlinIMDb 5.8TMDB 6.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    The outcast teenager Carrie White is bullied by her classmates at high school. Her mother, Margaret White, is a pious and paranoid woman that sees sin everywhere and the need of self-inflicting punishment. When Carrie has her first period, she does not understand what is happening to her and her classmates humiliate her in the changing room. The spiteful Chris Hargensen videotapes Carrie with her cellphone and posts it on the Internet. Their teacher Ms. Desjardin punishes the students, but when Chris challenges her, she is suspended and consequently is banned from the prom. Meanwhile, Carrie discovers that she has telekinesis and learns how to control her ability. Sue Snell, one of the girls that tormented Carrie, feels bad and asks her boyfriend Tommy Ross to invite Carrie to go with him to the prom to make up for what she did to Carrie. But Chris and her boyfriend Billy Nolan plot an evil prank with her friends to get back at Carrie.

  2. 2

    Conclave (2024)

    Edward BergerDP Stéphane FontaineIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.2See in full on FrameThrower →

    Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church's most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope's wake--secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.

  3. 3

    Lords Of Salem (2013)

    Rob ZombieDP Brandon TrostIMDb 5.2TMDB 5.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Heidi, a blond rock chick, DJs at a local radio station, and together with the two Hermans (Whitey and Munster) forms part of the "Big H Radio Team." A mysterious wooden box containing a vinyl record arrives for Heidi, a gift of the Lords. She assumes it's a rock band on a mission to spread their word. As Heidi and Whitey play the Lords' record, it starts to play backwards, and Heidi experiences a flashback to a past trauma. Later, Whitey plays the Lords' record, dubbing them the Lords of Salem, and to his surprise, the record plays normally and is a massive hit with his listeners. The arrival of another wooden box from the Lords presents the Big H team with free tickets, posters and records to host a gig in Salem. Soon, Heidi and her cohorts are far from the rock spectacle they're expecting. The original Lords of Salem are returning and they're out for blood.

  4. 4

    Apostle (2018)

    Gareth EvansDP Matt FlanneryIMDb 6.3TMDB 6.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    The year is 1905. Thomas Richardson travels to a remote island to rescue his sister after she's kidnapped by a mysterious religious cult demanding a ransom for her safe return. It soon becomes clear that the cult will regret the day it baited this man, as he digs deeper and deeper into the secrets and lies upon which the commune is built.

  5. 5

    First Reformed (2017)

    Paul SchraderDP Alexander DynanIMDb 7.1TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    Forty-six year old Reverend Ernst Toller is the pastor at the historic First Reformed Church in upstate New York. It is seen as the "tourist" church or the "souvenir shop" (its historical significance partly it being a stop on the underground railroad before the slaves crossed into Canada) by Abundant Life, which owns the church and which operates a modern self-named five thousand seat church overseen by Reverend Joel Jeffers. First Reformed is celebrating its two hundred fiftieth anniversary this year, for which a major event is planned, modest in size only at First Reformed itself although the dignitaries like the governor and mayor will be at attendance there, while the event will be simulcast at Abundant Life. Most of the speech-making will be done by local industrialist Ed Balq, a major benefactor of Abundant Life and who is the major donor for the necessary upgrades at First Reformed to be able to hold the event there, and for the event itself, while Toller's participation will be minimal beyond the introductory sermon. First Reformed is generally a sparsely attended church meaning that Toller doesn't have to do much direct ministering, although he does have the stock answers when asked how God factors into this or that situation in one's life. Toller himself has long been divorced, his marriage which could not survive the death of their son, Joseph, in war. Because of that history, Toller believes he is incapable of human love, despite a brief relationship with Esther, the choir mistress at Abundant Life, she who is arguably still in love with him. Toller is neglecting the warning signs about his poor health, the symptoms pointing to a probable diagnosis of stomach cancer, which is only exacerbated by his largely liquid (i.e. alcohol) diet. Toller is already examining his life and work in writing a daily journal for a year, that journal which he intends no one ever to read, but these issues in Toller's life become more pointed when a new pregnant congregant, Mary, asks him to speak to her husband Michael, who Toller will learn is an environmentalist concerned about bringing another human life into what he already sees as a world doomed because of man's role in climate change.

  6. 6

    Longlegs (2024)

    Osgood PerkinsDP Andres ArochiIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    FBI Agent Lee Harker is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.

  7. 7

    Event Horizon (1997)

    Paul W. S. AndersonDP Adrian BiddleIMDb 6.6TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the year 2047 a group of astronauts are sent to investigate and salvage the long lost starship "Event Horizon". The ship disappeared mysteriously 7 years before on its maiden voyage and with its return comes even more mystery as the crew of the "Lewis and Clark" discover the real truth behind its disappearance and something even more terrifying.

  8. 8

    The Omen (1976)

    Richard DonnerDP Gilbert TaylorIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Robert and Katherine Thorn seem to have it all. They are happily married and he is the US Ambassador to Great Britain, but they want nothing more than to have children. When Katharine has a stillborn child, Robert is approached by a priest at the hospital who suggests that they take a healthy newborn whose mother has just died in childbirth. Without telling his wife he agrees. After relocating to London, strange events - and the ominous warnings of a priest - lead him to believe that the child he took from that Italian hospital is evil incarnate.

  9. 9

    Assassin’s Creed (2016)

    Justin KurzelDP Adam ArkapawIMDb 5.6TMDB 5.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar de Nerha, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.

  10. 10

    The Whale (2022)

    Darren AronofskyDP Matthew LibatiqueIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    Idaho, 2016. Scarred by the profound wounds of grief and guilt, couch-bound Charlie, an online writing instructor living with chronic obesity, now has a crystal-clear view of his secret intentions. And confined to his claustrophobic and musty apartment, the self-destructive shut-in has all the time in the world to contemplate the damaging faults of the past, fatherhood, and reconciliation. Because, more than anything, flawed Charlie longs for communication and reconnection. After all, he hasn't spoken to his estranged, angry teenage daughter, Ellie, in years. But everyone knows whales don't live in the shallows. Can love and forgiveness wipe away the tears and the painful mistakes of a lifetime?

What religion films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a religion frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — crucifix is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • crucifix13.5×
  • book2.2×
  • blood2.2×
  • door1.7×
  • eyes1.7×
  • skin1.6×
  • bed1.6×

How religion films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate religion from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 49%low keyvs 40% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Women Talking (2022) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 3,345 frames from 45 films carrying the religion label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/religion

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used