From creature features to indie horror flicks find out what happens when sex horror and the religious imagination come togetherThroughout history religion has attempted to control nothing so much as our bodies what they are and what they mean what we do with them with whom and under what circumstances how they may be displayedor more commonly how they must be hidden. Yet we remain fascinated obsessed even by bodies that have left or been forced out of their proper place. The Forbidden Body examines how horror culture treats these bodies exploring the dark spaces where sex and the sexual body come together with religious belief and tales of terror.Taking a broad approach not limited to horror cinema or popular fiction but embracing also literary horror weird fiction graphic storytelling visual arts and participative culture Douglas E. Cowan explores how fears of bodies that are tainted impure or sexually deviant are made visible and reinforced through popular horror tropes. The volume challenges the reader to move beyond preconceived notions of religion in order to decipher the religious imagination at play in the scary stories we tell over and over again. Cowan argues that stories of religious bodies out of place are so compelling because they force us to consider questions that religious belief cannot comfortably answer Who are we Where do we come from Why do we suffer And above all do we matter As illuminating as it is unsettling The Forbidden Body offers a fascinating look at how and why we imagine bodies in all the wrong places.