Sheen Center Begins 2026’s ‘Horizons of Hope’ Film Series with Vatican Film List
By: Patrick Grady
The first installment screened F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” to visualize how evil can spread through people’s souls
The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture began its second annual “Horizons of Hope” film series on Monday, March 9. This year, the series focuses on the Vatican Film List, which Pope John Paul II and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications compiled to mark the 100th anniversary of the Lumière brothers’ first public screening.
The series is hosted by Boston College professor Matthew Clemente, Ph.D., who brings his expertise from both his film courses and philosophical musings to “Horizons of Hope.”
When asked about this selection of films from the list, Clemente said, “[These films] ask us to be quiet. They ask us to pause. They ask us to take time away to reflect. They’re not the types of works of art that can be consumed, but they actually make demands upon us to make space for things. Often, things that we are uncomfortable with, or we struggle with.”
1922 classic of horror cinema, F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” was this year’s first film
“There are many people who would look at a film like this, and say ‘Well, you know, a person of faith should avoid films like this because they give you the wrong idea. They’re occult!’ Pope John Paul II, there’s perhaps no greater authority on our faith, and he put this list together to… get us thinking about these philosophical [and theological] questions,’” Fordham University’s Professor of Moral Theology, Father Thomas Massaro, S.J., said, joining Clemente for a discussion of the film.
Clemente also brought an interesting reading in the connection between transubstantiation and the mythology of the vampire noting, “In the Church, the Eucharist is the body and blood of Jesus, and in [Nosferatu] what you get is your body and blood becomes a feast for something else. Something horrifying.”
The series continues through Lent and into the Easter season with “Little Women” on March 23 and “Metropolis” screening on April 13, and to use the executive director of the Sheen Center, MaryLou Pagano’s, own words to sum up this series: “Each year, we wanted to find three films that you would leave [the Sheen Center] feeling hopeful.”