Hell House (2001)

Wanna get the crap scared out of you? And I don't mean that in any respectfully horror-ish way when referring to HELL HOUSE. I mean it in a way that'll cause you to doubt human sanity.Technique-wise, I have to give the creators of this idea a definite thumbs up. Utilizing graphic imagery to frighten people toward God, the Assembly of God Church has accomplished something quite unique every October 31st. Threatening sinners with eternal damnation if they have premarital sex, are gay, or attend a rave party, this church puts on a haunted house filled with gore and violence each Halloween. The actors and actresses are pulled from their congregation annually. Some are young women who dip their crotches in fake blood and scream in mock pain while perched on a makeshift hospital gurney (their dialogue during this horrific scene is centered around "the morning after pill" and how dangerous it is ...which is completely untrue of course, but we're talking self-induced abortion so this little fib is obviously okay.) Other scenes include a homosexual man dying of AIDS. A ghoulishly evil creature hovers around him and comments on his "evil lifestyle choice" as he groans his last breath and is ushered into everlasting pain and devilish servitude (never mind that the man may have been a pediatrician who cured a type of cancer that saved thousands of lives. Homo? You're going' to Hell!) At the end of peoples' tour through these strange Halloween acts, prayer groups are offered up for those who wish to be saved. Never mind that the pressure put on the guests by the aforementioned scenes and the "limited time" they have to act on this compulsion are stressed to the maximum ("You have six seconds to walk through that door and be saved by Jesus. One...") Probably the biggest downer here is that this is a growing phenomenon. Forget that God is merciful or full of love or wants you to be happy. That's not what this is about. This is all about fear and the tactics used to instill it by a group of individuals who claim to be "religious." Excuse me but isn't religion supposed to be about acceptance, caring, and the loving nature of Jesus/God? Maybe I'm missing something.The other issue is that these Assembly of God members obviously have no idea what Halloween is about nor its history (Note: All Hallows Day – also known as "All Saints' Day". The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although we now consider All Saints' – or Hallows' – day to be on the day after Halloween, they were, at that time, considered to be the same day.) The church also shows how suicide is a sin. But God (nor the bible) ever said this (Note: "In the early Christian era suicide was not only tolerated, but condoned by the church, as a result certain sects such as the Donatists and the Circumcellions jumped off cliffs in great numbers to hasten an afterlife that promised greater rewards than those found on jolly old Earth. Faced with the loss of so many of its members, and rapidly shrinking collection plates, in the sixth century the church decided that anyone else who committed suicide was going to hell." Bet you won't be hearing that "biblical history" during a sermon any time soon.) There's a brief shining moment when a group of young men and women confront the designers of Hell House and tell them how wrong all of this is (thus my two star rating). But it falls on deaf ears and is quickly swept under the rug in the documentary.

I spent 5 years of my life at the Church that the above film took place at and over that time span, thousands of young people made a choice to visualize that the path that they were heading on was leading them down one that later in life they did not want to find themselves on. All we ever did through the ministry of HellHouse was to make visual the reality of some choices that people make in their life have consequences. To compare us to Bin Laden and the Taliban is so out in the extreme.Yes we showed graphic images and we showed non graphic images, but the above users has no problem watching the films below Friday the 13th, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Wild Orchid, Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue, Faces of Death, Road Trip, to name a few and I know that they were watched because they are all commented on. In a majority of these movies lets see pick a topic. Sex, Violence, Murder, Drugs, Death, and they are all commented in the sake of entertainment. We do they same, and show in the very end a positive outcome and we are considered extremist, and the others are nominated for movie awards. Somethings a little off don't you think. You can ask over the 50 thousand people that have gone through Hellhouse and the 20 thousand+ who's life have Been changed by it if we are extremist or a ministry. Find the whole story before you comment on anything you don't try to change but add to as a growing problem in the social environment that we live.

I should say at first that I predict documentary films will undergo the cash infusion that Miramax and others have brought to "independent" films over the past 15 years. The time is right especially with the interest in more vacuous reality programming on TV. And yes that will definitely be a mixed blessing.Documentarian George Ratliff gets pretty open access to this incredible phenomenon of a church exploiting media exploitation. This film offers no catharsis for us the viewers, but there's catharsis aplenty for the actors portraying various "stations of the crass" at Trinity's haunted house.Others here have tried to apply rationality and argue against the beliefs of the church members. But I think that is not the point of this film, driven home by the strident sophistry of the young lad in the "Fear Factory" t-shirt with the off-duty police officer. Now that was hell for me.Fighting fear with fear, will only result in more fear. And I'm always leery of those who are so obsessed with their "evil" enemies. Meanwhile every generation thinks they are on the brink of the apocalypse, something I take as confirmation of the Church of the Doubting Thomas.While the end of the film talks about the importance of spending time with Jesus, the revelation for me here is spending time with other people. Especially spending time with those we may be predisposed to dislike or dismiss. The glimpses of humanity in the young girl who confronts her rapist, and the man whose wife has deserted him, these show a most amazing grace to me. And yes, I know we are only hearing their sides to the story...still...how can you not watch them both and wish them their own private happy endings.Personally, I still look forward to living on the Planet of the Agnostics. I hope we'll still be on friendly terms with the WWF galaxy and its various religious planets.This is a film that might be interesting (or disastrous) to see with a wide variety of folks. It's neither a trick, nor a treat...but I give it a 6/10

The filmmakers do a good job of letting the irony reveal itself without hitting you over the head with the obvious connection of the Christian religion's entire doctrine being based on fear. What is revealed is something a little different than the typical greed motivation of most religions. Then again the hiearchy of these nuts isn't really explored. You do get to see the sheer ignorance, pain and fears that the Trinity Church members experience due to their own oppressive beliefs. There just wasn't enough background into the social and economic status of the region to paint a clear picture.The film could benefit with a trim to the current content and the editing could have been a little more professional. There were some pretty rough audio cuts from one segment to the next.A very funny moment in the film is at the end when a naive teenage member of these kooks states her belief that the world has never been this horrible and the end is near. I only wish she could of been transplanted to a Nazi death camp or Camp 751 in China during WWII. Gee, if they had only excepted Jesus. Ha! Way to stupid to get any serious thinker in an uproar. But, when it's all said and done, I can't recommend this. Not due to it's goofy content. It's just not very good. The film did remind me of one thing: It sure is embarrassing being an American.