The outcome of an audience study supports theories stating that stories are a primarymeans by which we make sense of our experiences over time. Empirical examples ofnarrative impact are presented in which specific fiction film scenes condense spectators’lives, identities, and beliefs. One conclusion is that spectators test the emotional realismof the narrative for greater significance, connecting diegetic fiction experiences with theirextra-diegetic world in their quest for meaning, self and identity. The ‘banal’ notion of themediatization of religion theory is questioned as unsatisfactory in the theoretical context ofindividualized meaning-making processes. As a semantically negatively charged concept, itis problematic when analyzing empirical examples of spectators’ use of fictional narratives,especially when trying to characterize the idiosyncratic and complex interplay betweenspectators’ fiction emotions and their testing of mediated narratives in an exercise to findmoral significance in extra-filmic life. Instead, vernacular meaning-making is proposed.