25 Movies That Question Religion And Faith
25. The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
Praise the Lord and pass the cash. Jessica Chastain’s heartbreaking, uncanny portrayal of Tammy Faye Bakker reveals the grotesque theater of televangelism. The glittering performances, the crocodile tears, the weaponized homophobia…all masked as faith. The most disturbing part? Tammy might have actually believed in it all. This is a cautionary tale where capitalism wears a clerical collar.
24. Boy Erased (2018)
Conversion therapy is one of religion’s most insidious lies and ‘Boy Erased’ strips it bare. Based on a true story, the story follows Jared, played with heartbreaking nuance by Lucas Hedges. He is forced into a program meant to “correct” his sexuality. News flash: you cannot pray the gay away. What results is not healing, but erasure of self, of love, of truth. This film is a stunning, devastating condemnation of conditional faith.
23. Mother! (2017)
God is a narcissist in Darren Aronofsky’s allegorical fever dream. We see Earth (Mother) exploited, defiled, and destroyed in the name of a Creator who only wants worshippers. Jennifer Lawrence’s character is violated emotionally, then physically not once, but repeatedly. On the other side, Javier Bardem’s "God" character smiles serenely. It's Genesis by way of Kafka, you know, sacred texts rewritten in blood.
22. Higher Ground (2011)
Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut, ’Higher Ground,’ is not an attack, but an elegy. It is an intimate portrayal of a woman’s slow and painful estrangement from the faith that once gave her life meaning. The God of Corinne's world is patriarchal, authoritative, and suffocating. The deeper she plunges into her evangelical community, the more isolated she becomes. When she begins to question her subservient role, the silence she hears is not spiritual, it’s deafening. In essence, the movie is a cry from within the church walls, not from outside them, and that is what makes it all the more devastating.
21. Whatever Works (2009)
In Woody Allen’s acerbic and underrated film, ‘Whatever Works,’ religion isn’t dramatized, it’s mocked, dissected, and dismissed as one of many illusions that keep us from facing the void. Larry David plays a cantankerous atheist who takes in a young, God-fearing Southern runaway, sparking a bizarre romance and an even more bizarre existential awakening. The film dances on the edge of nihilism, suggesting that belief in God, like belief in fate or love, may simply be a trick we play on ourselves to make life tolerable. Yes, it’s absurd and funny because if the universe really is indifferent, then maybe laughter is the only respite.
20. Saint Maud (2019)
Loneliness wears a crucifix in this psychological horror masterwork dripping with religious dread. Maud, a pious, newly converted nurse, believes she is the hand of God, tasked with saving the soul of her dying patient. What we witness is not salvation, but sanctified madness. Religious fervor turns into psychosis, and penance becomes a grotesque ballet of self-mutilation. In ‘Saint Maud,’ the line between ecstasy and agony is indistinguishable and disturbingly holy.
19. The Witch (2015)
Set in Puritan New England, Robert Eggers’ folk nightmare is a chilling indictment of religious paranoia and misogyny. A family’s blind devotion leads to isolation, madness, and ultimately, damnation. But as their daughter Thomasin is cast out, she finds not horror, but liberation. A devil’s promise becomes more merciful than any god’s.
18. Carrie (1976)
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” In Brian De Palma’s iconic adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, religion isn’t a source of comfort. It’s a trap—claustrophobic, brutal, and soaked in menstrual shame. Carrie’s mother sees sin in her daughter’s body. God, to her, is wrath incarnate. But when Carrie is humiliated at prom, her telekinetic vengeance becomes Old Testament-level retribution. Fire and blood for purity and prayer.
16. Agora (2009)
What happens when reason confronts the fury of blind faith? ‘Agora,’ set amidst the slow death of the ancient world, centers on Hypatia, a brilliant woman scientist in the waning days of Roman Egypt. The city trembles under the rise of Christianity, not as a creed of peace, but as a furious movement armed with scripture and righteous vengeance. Hypatia is torn between philosophical inquiry and the chaos outside her observatory. In this vision of early Christian zealotry, truth becomes heresy, and the pursuit of knowledge becomes a crime punishable by death. Here, religion is not a balm, it is a bonfire.
17. The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008)
This is what happens when men use God to justify murder. Based on a true story, this searing film chronicles a woman falsely accused of adultery by her husband so he can marry a younger bride. The punishment? Public stoning. Religion here isn’t flawed, it’s weaponized. And Soraya’s death isn’t a tragedy, it’s a calculated execution in the name of divine law.
15. Contact (1997)
How does the infinite affect our beliefs? In ‘Contact,’ science and faith are not merely in dialogue, they are at war. Jodie Foster’s Ellie Arroway, a scientist driven by reason, receives what could be a message from an alien intelligence. But her quest to make contact becomes a national crisis when religious forces demand that faith not reason should lead Earth’s first steps into the stars. The film dares to ask if belief without evidence can coexist with a scientific mind. It’s not just about aliens, it’s about whether, when the universe finally speaks back, we’ll have the courage to listen… without a Bible in hand.
14. Calvary (2014)
He was innocent and that’s exactly why he had to die. Father James, played with grave beauty by Brendan Gleeson, is told in the confessional: "I’m going to kill you next Sunday." His crime? None. He’s a good priest targeted to pay for the sins of his brethren. ‘Calvary’ is a moral earthquake. It does not offer catharsis, just a crucifixion for the faithful.
13. Wise Blood (1979)
‘Wise Blood,’ adapted from Flannery O’Connor’s grotesque Southern Gothic novel, introduces us to Hazel Motes, a war vet who starts a "Church Without Christ." Yeah, in a world full of charlatans selling salvation, Motes declares himself a prophet of nothing. His church promises no heaven, no hell, just the raw truth of this earth. But his attempt to rid himself of belief becomes its own form of spiritual fanaticism. The movie is absurd, bleakly funny, and profoundly disturbing, serving as a reminder that even the rejection of faith can be twisted into a kind of religion.
12. The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
‘The Magdalene Sisters’ dives into what happens when God becomes the jailer. This gut-wrenching historical drama exposes the Magdalene Laundries, where "fallen women" were imprisoned, starved, and beaten under the guise of spiritual redemption. The Church wasn’t offering forgiveness. It was wielding shame like a weapon. This is a horror story rooted in reality, a cathedral of cruelty masquerading as sanctuary.
11. The Invention of Lying (2009)
The first man to lie becomes… God. In Ricky Gervais’ underrated satire, religion is revealed as the first comforting lie…a desperate fiction to soothe fear of death. But with that lie comes power and entire civilizations built on it. The comedy is unflinchingly sharp, but its blade cuts deep: What if everything we believe is just to keep us from screaming into a meaningless abyss?
10. Silence (2016)
Here, faith meets fire. Martin Scorsese’s haunting epic follows two Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century Japan as they search for their mentor and confront a world where faith is punished with slow, agonizing death. ‘Silence’ hits us with the question whether apostasy can be holy and does God really require suffering to prove devotion? In the silence, what answers are left?
9. Inherit the Wind (1960)
The thundering storm in this film: Thou shalt not teach science. Set during the Scopes Monkey Trial, this classic courtroom drama is less about Darwin than dogma. Spencer Tracy’s Henry Drummond defends a teacher accused of teaching evolution, and in doing so, attacks the fundamental fear: What if we are not divine creations? What if we’re just animals who are afraid, flawed, and fleeting?
8. The Mission (1986)
In ‘The Mission,’ religion comes not as doctrine, but as haunting contradiction. Jeremy Irons plays a Jesuit priest spreading the Gospel in the South American jungle. On the other hand, Robert De Niro embodies a slave trader turned repentant convert who joins him. The lush paradise becomes a battleground as colonial politics, greed, and faith clash violently. The central tension is clear: can religion be used to liberate, or will it always be twisted to dominate? The final scene is a hymn and a requiem all at once—a reminder that sometimes, the cross is wielded like a sword.
7. The Sunset Limited (2011)
One apartment, two men and infinite despair. A suicidal atheist and a devout Christian debate the meaning of life, death, and suffering. Based on Cormac McCarthy’s play, 'The Sunset Limited’ never leaves its single room, but it traverses the cosmos of belief. Every sentence feels like a prayer, or a dagger, if that’s your inclination. The film ends, not with an answer, but with a silence more terrifying than death.
6. Life of Brian (1979)
Always look on the bright side… of mass delusion. Monty Python’s most controversial comedy turns religion into farce without disrespecting faith itself. It skewers blind devotion, misinterpretation, and those so desperate to believe, they’ll worship anyone with a beard and a catchy slogan. The result? One of the most theologically significant comedies ever made.
5. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ might be accused of heresy, but it’s about humanity. Willem Dafoe’s Jesus is not the serene, preordained savior of Sunday school illustrations, but a man torn apart by doubt, lust, fear, and the unbearable weight of divine expectation. In his final moments, he is tempted not by Satanic power, but by ordinary life—marriage, children, peace. The film was condemned as blasphemous by many religious groups. But in reality, it’s one of the most deeply spiritual explorations of Jesus on screen. It asks the most dangerous question of all: What if God did understand human weakness because He lived it?
4. The Tree of Life (2011)
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth? This sprawling, meditative epic asks cosmic questions without demanding religious answers. It blends the Big Bang with backyard swings, dinosaurs with dinner tables and God, in ‘The Tree of Life,’ is not a man on a throne. He’s a question mark floating in the universe—a presence as unknowable as childhood, as fleeting as light.
3. Winter Light (1963)
No director understood the silence of God quite like Ingmar Bergman. ‘Winter Light’ is a brutal, austere chamber piece set in a cold, gray village where faith is shriveling like frostbitten flesh. Pastor Tomas, abandoned by his faith and his flock, stumbles through sermons that feel more like eulogies. When a desperate man comes to him for solace and leaves with despair, Tomas realizes his church is a tomb. God never appears, grace never descends. The movie is perhaps the darkest portrait of religion ever committed to screen and yet its bleakness is what makes it feel so unflinchingly honest.
2. First Reformed (2017)
God is silent and the Earth is screaming. Ethan Hawke’s Reverend Toller is doubting everything he has ever believed in. His unraveling intensifies as he grapples with climate change, grief, and God’s conspicuous absence. ‘First Reformed’ is a slow, simmering exorcism of modern despair. Paul Schrader, with a script soaked in existential dread, channels the ghost of Bergman and the fury of Kierkegaard. This isn't a crisis of faith. It's a funeral for it.
1. The Seventh Seal (1957)
“God, you are silent.” Ingmar Bergman's legendary meditation on faith follows a knight who plays chess with Death during the Black Plague. As people die, priests cry about penance, and God remains conspicuously absent. The knight doesn't seek salvation. He seeks answers. But silence echoes louder than scripture, and the dance of death cannot be delayed.
