Movies that attempt to merge Science with Spirituality/Religion ...
I recently watched The Asphyx for the first time. Well done, underrated movie with a concept that could do wonders with a better budget and updated effects (unfortunately a remake likely wouldn't feel as authentic or natural as the original). The Creeping Flesh was similar. Both movies philosophized spirituality into science.
In this movie, it's intriguing how the Christopher Lee character and the Cushing character were both doctors whose respective interests, beliefs, and experiments contrasted one another's.
One doctor believed in pure evil. The other doctor believed only in insanity (two concepts that Father Damien Karras is torn between in The Exorcist). Both were performing experiments to prove their theories, both were willing to venture into the realm of unorthodox or unethical practices. Both of them lied or deceived at some point or another. Lee's character was quite the dickhead skeptic, while Cushing wanted to play God by ridding the world of evil as if it were a disease and bring back Paradise to the world. Both men were flawed in these ways, but only Cushing's character experiences the worst of it, while his villainous counterpart wins in the end. The movie sides slightly with spirituality over psychiatry in this way, by painting the spiritual doctor as the victim, while the villainous psychiatrist goes on to get the better of him and win awards based on ideas that the movie shows us (by revealing the supernatural qualities of the skeleton) are not entirely correct.
By illustrating the fact that Lee's character actually (and wrongly) wins a science award by the end of the film, the movie wants us to rethink the things we "know" about psychology, and the things that have been accepted as fact over the more (seemingly) farfetched spiritual side of things.
None of this necessarily reflects my personal view, incidentally. I just thought I'd share.
Does anyone have any recommendations of other Horror films that do this same thing? Below is my list...
The Asphyx - Greek mythology and the spirit meets scientific ingenuity here, with the ability to utilize advanced scientific methods and properties to trap death itself.
Prince of Darkness - Wedging science and religion beautifully, it has a good story and a great concept, and while unfortunately with wooden or lifeless acting, 'tis still worth a watch. The idea of Jesus Christ actually having been an alien with preachings that were scientific warnings of a future Anti-God manifestation is handled nicely. To my knowledge, the sophisticated merging of physics and religious doctrine is never applied anywhere else as smoothly as it is here.
The Exorcist - The story we all know of a Jesuit psychiatrist torn between his priestly beliefs and his psychology education as he works to save a little girl; the extensive efforts by various doctors to investigate or comprehend the girl's condition, and their failing one by one, is genius here in this classic that is almost more a Drama than it is a Horror.
The Creeping Flesh - Of course, as broken down above..
The Shining - Perhaps to a lesser extent, there is a subtextual struggle at work in this classic tale of a mentally unstable man driven to (attempting) murder, leaving the psychological aspect versus the ghostly nature of things ambiguous by the movie's end..
Suspiria - Not really a perfect fit for the criteria, but there is a scene just before the climax in which our protagonist holds a conversation with two men; one of them is a psychiatrist who is skeptical and believes only in the "physical world," while the second man (referred to her by the former) is a believer of magic and witches; makes for an interesting conversation just before the story's climax
Poltergeist - We know what happens in this one; in attempts to retrieve a little girl from a spirit realm just beyond the television set (literally), "innerspace" is hinted at in this tale which combines paranormal activity with a scientific means to clock it all..
Ghostbusters - Need I say more?
The Sixth Sense - Ah... the tale of the psychiatrist and the boy who sees ghosts; this doesn't exactly combine science and spirituality in its second half once the latter is in full swing, but it's a thought-provoking way to propose where psychiatry may end and spirituality might begin
The Legend of Hell House - Well done and underrated haunted-house story involving four characters of various expertise (one a physicist, one a psychic); a certain matter about the potential for reserving one's soul in the afterlife is significant here.
The Stone Tape - I have not seen this one yet, but heard that it is rather good (written by the person who wrote the screenplay for 1989's The Woman in Black, which I have seen and is damn good).
I'm sure there are many more, but these are some prominent examples. Of course, not all Horror films attempt (nor do they need) to mesh Science with Spirituality (The Changeling is a great one that does not, as is The Woman in Black and A Cold Night's Death).
Feel free to suggest some others...
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way share