With Passover, one of the holiest of the Jewish holidays, right around the corner, my thoughts turn to another, lesser known kind of J-horror: Jewish horror. Religion has played a strong role in horror for as long as horror has existed, but religious horror really came into its own as a subgenre in the 1970s with the release of films like THE EXORCIST and THE OMEN. More recently, religious horror has seen something of a resurgence with books like the Left Behind series and movies like THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE and THE REAPING. Because most mainstream religious horror tends to view the world through a Catholic lens, or at least a Christian one, it's easy to forget there are plenty of horror stories out there that come from other religious viewpoints.

Admittedly, there isn't quite as much Jewish horror out there for mass consumption as there is Christian horror, but as a tradition, Judaism doesn't shy away from the darker stories. The Old Testament is filled with terror tales. For example, the story of Passover itself involves the Angel of Death creeping through Egypt to murder all the firstborn sons, while the Jews smear their own doors with blood as a signal for the Angel of Death to pass by their house and spare those inside. Pretty scary stuff.

Jewish folklore has even more of it. The Baal Shem Tov, a rabbi who lived in the 18th century and who is credited with founding Judaism's Hasidic sect, became a figure of legend after his death, transforming from a respected religious leader into something of a mystic adventurer. Tales were told of the Baal Shem Tov's encounters with ghosts, sorcerers, demons, and even a werewolf. Your local library should have plenty of books available detailing the stories of the Baal Shem Tov and his supernatural escapades, if you'd like to read more.

The other big names in Jewish horror also stem from folklore: the Golem, a hulking stone and mud statue brought to life to protect the Jews of Prague's shtetl from murderous raiders, and the Dybbuk, a demonic spirit that takes possession of the living. In pop culture, the Golem is probably the best known, appearing in classic movies like the silent German film THE GOLEM (1921) and IT! (1966), which stars everyone favorite ape, Roddy McDowall, and even TV shows like THE X-FILES. The Golem also makes appearances in novels like Cynthia Ozick's The Puttermesser Papers, Pete Hamill's Snow in August and Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

The Dybbuk hasn't fared quite as well. Aside from the 1937 movie THE DYBBUK and a small handful of novels, this spectral fiend hasn't been given much attention at all until this year's THE UNBORN, which features a Dybbuk possessing a young Jewish woman. Though the movie contains a run-of-the-mill exorcism scene, at least it's probably the first exorcism anyone has ever seen in a horror movie that involves the blowing of the shofar-- the traditional ram's horn trumpet sounded during the Jewish New Year services! Despite THE UNBORN being a dud, I have to admit, as a Jewish person myself, it's nice to see a mainstream, religious horror film from the Jewish perspective once in a while.

You'd think there would be more Jewish horror movies, what with so many Jewish writer-directors working in the genre like Eli Roth, J.J. Abrams, Lloyd Kaufman, Sam Raimi, John Landis and Zack Snyder, but so far they've all turned their lenses on other aspects of the human (and not-so-human) condition. While hope springs eternal that this will change, I guess it means we're going to have to wait a little longer before we'll see titles like BAR MITZVAH MASSACRE on our local multiplex marquees.

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When he's not celebrating Passover with his family, Nicholas Kaufmann is a Bram Stoker Award-nominated author, reviewer and interviewer. For more regular doses of Kaufmannia, visit his blog at http://nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com or his website at http://www.nicholaskaufmann.com.