The authors of the book "The Exorcist Effect" looked at the way horror films and culture shape each other as well as the dangers of simply pinning the blame of horrific real-life cases on supernatural beliefs without addressing the underlying causes or getting down to the truth of the matter, as what happened in the trial of The West Memphis Three.
Another example they gave which might be interesting was how serial killers like David Berkowitz (the Zodiac Killer), and Jeffrey Dahmer had used the film The Exorcist as a means of stacking up a defense for the horrible things they had done. Or the fact that Ed and Lorraine Warren, who were the inspiration for the film The Conjuring, had argued that Arne Johnson was not guilty of murder because he was possessed.
With this book, they are not trying to debunk supernatural beliefs or advocate for censorship in horror media, but rather, they want to urge people to use critical thinking when looking at real-life scenarios, instead of immediately jumping the gun on someone simply because they looked like a member of a cult or an occultist. -via The Daily Grail
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