El infierno ardiente

I thought this was a very interesting movie. I believe they should do a re-make of this movie. With the graphics we have now this would be a hit. I hope Hollywood does not let this movie collect dust and be forgotten. Someone please clean off the dust and at least put the movie on DVD even if they don't do a re-make. Young people will truly get an eye opener off this one. With our society changing so fast and so much, it's time for a reality check. I am sure in this day and time this movie will cause great controversy but facts are facts. Who really wants to go to hell. Not I. I can hardly stand the heat in South Florida. After seeing this movie, it changed my whole perspective about life and who I wanted to be in charge of my life. I can certainly tell you that I definitely want to be in heaven with the Lord and not in the burning hell with the devil.

I can only assume Ron Ormond made these religious films at the end of his career to atone for all the horrid B-flicks he inflicted upon moviegoers in the '50s. That is understandable. "The Burning Hell" was exhibited mainly in southern Protestant churches, Sunday schools and Christian schools - who then plastered every storefront in town with placards advertising the film ("20,000 Degrees Fahrenheit - and Not a Drop of Water!" One wonders how they came up with that measurement). It was in a "Christian school" that I was subjected to this cinematic Hades, in glorious 16mm. The reaction from our 11th grade class was anything but reverent. There was much for us to titter and chuckle over as we were shushed by the Bob Jones-alumni faculty. The Southern-accented Moses with the fake beard ("Y'all let mah people go") - the pasty-white desert dwellers - - the idiot teen bouncing around on the seat of his motorcycle before crashing it, literally losing his head, and plunging into HAYull - and the silly Satan whose face was painted like the Partridge Family's bus (the tricycle-riding Tom Waits in the "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" video was a more plausible devil) - we couldn't take this seriously at all, despite the teachers acting like this catchpenny film was as much Holy Writ as the leather-bound Bibles they clutched. I'm not about to enter into a theological discussion - I will only say that with the amateur histrionics, Estus Pirkle's incessant preaching, and Ormond's inept-as-ever direction, those who view this film may well enter heaven, for they've already been through "The Burning Hell."

Ridiculous, but quite hilarious evangelical edification sermon pulls all the usual triggers to scare you from going to hell; full of remarkable gory depictions of hell, amateurish reenactments of Biblical scenes and lots of insincere preachers and bad acting.

Movies don't get much worse than this. Even though I agree somewhat with the point it means to make (there is a real hell, it is horrible, and those who don't trust in Jesus Christ will go there forever), I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone for any reason. It is inexcusably bad art. It made the rounds in conservative evangelical circles in the late 1970s doing little more than turning hard people into harder ones. Worse yet, two of the featured preachers, Hyles and Gray, were later discovered to have lived secret lives of sexual degeneracy. Both have now passed away and may well know all too well the truth of their words to which they themselves would not listen. If movies could go to hell, this one would spend eternity in its deepest pits.

An utterly bonkers 'scared-straight' tactic by evangelists. For its time, the imagery of the hellscape depicted must have been terrifying for susceptible southerners, but today, this level of fear-mongering is akin to a cult's bombardment of brainwashing. The acting is god-awful and so wooden you could nail someone to it. I understand why this was not intended for public release as this is a production not even the Mother Mary would be proud of. Ironically, this is one of the most unethical films I have ever seen and should only be viewed for comedic purposes, or for a glimpse into the mind of a narcissistic preacher with too much power.