Escape from Hell

This Christian movie does an excellent job of using out of body experience as a tool to communicate the Gospel message. I am surprised by good acting, storyline, and camera work on this low budget production. It is not a cinema movie, but captivating and it does what it was made to do. Make people think about life after death.

Some reviewers bash the movie for lack of theological integrity, but I disagree. No movie can perfectly portray heaven or hell. Books, painting, or movies can only give a glimpse of what heaven or hell might be. The movie shows hell does exist and only faith in Christ can save you, while stressing the fact that your good morality cannot save you.

I have to say, the movie's biggest theological weakness is the 70's and 80's presentation of the Gospel. There is a heavy emphasis on faith in Christ. There is a lack of communicating that living a godly life must also be integrated to your faith. James clearly says faith without works is dead.

This movie begins with a doctor and an assistant trying to revive a man who has just suffered a massive coronary. The man's name is "Dr. Eric Robinson" (Dan Kruse) and he has purposely brought the condition upon himself. The cardiologist happens to be his best friend, "Dr. Carl Burke" (Terry Jernigen) and the woman assisting him is a psychiatrist named "Dr. Marissa Holloway" (Emilie Jo Tisdale). Anyway, as Eric is being brought back to life the first words he utters upon regaining consciousness is "Loose lips sink ships". Not long afterward he gets up out of his hospital bed and steals an ambulance. Now, rather than reveal too much of the plot and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is a movie about "Near Death Experiences" and how they relate to Christianity. That said, even though I think that this is an extremely interesting subject I must admit that I found the graphics, dialogue and some of the acting to be rather second-rate. No doubt the low-budget had much to do with this. In any case, although this film had its moments I thought that the end result was rather disappointing and I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

This has to be one of the best films ever made on the subject of Hell. A skeptical doctor is shaken by the death of his estranged father and a fellow doctor enthralls him with tales of people going to Heaven. He believes Hell is a cruel myth and sets out on a radical course of action. He plans to kill himself in the boiler room of the hospital while providing his best friend, the tools to bring him back to life before it's too late.

The drama and tension of the film begins from the opening credits and doesn't stop until it's over. The plot is clever and the acting believable. A must-see movie for Christian and unbeliever alike. I haven't seen any other films from DRC productions, but this one will be a tough act to follow.

I've read most of the reviews for this movie. Some like it some hate it. I rated this movie a 10 not for quality of production but for correctness of the Biblical message. Those who reviewers who hate it seem to hate the message that there is a literal hell to be shunned, and since they likely don't believe in God they must argue away the existence of hell. I agree with the nay sayers that technically this is not a high quality production, but forget that aspect. What did Jesus say about hell in the Bible? That's the real issue. Is there a literal hell? Jesus mentioned hell 42 times. He talked about hell more than he talked about heaven. His warnings about hell were very serious. Read Luke 16:19 for one of his hellish warnings. Jesus came to earth to rescue us from hell. Hell is the default destination of all those who reject or ignore Jesus/God. But humans can avoid hell by choosing to believe in God, and asking Jesus to save them from their sins and from hell. In the movie a "good man" went to hell. That would surely shock some viewers, but that was also Biblically correct. The Bible teaches that we are not saved by good works or good deeds, but we are saved by Grace, which is God's unmerited favor towards us when we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It's YOUR choice. Heaven or hell?

This film is a lie. It's one big outright lie from start to finish. I'd like to start off as saying that I am NOT anti-Christian; I have nothing against Christ and believe in Him myself. What I am against is any religion, Christianity or otherwise, using fear and lies to try to frighten people into believing what they believe, and "Escape From Hell" is a prime example of just that.

First of all, it's absolutely appalling how misinformed the makers of this film are regarding the concept of near-death experiences. Anyone who has any understanding of near-death experiences knows that experiencers Christian and non-Christian alike have had wonderful, heavenly experiences involving a Being of Light and tangible Love unlike anything they've ever felt. While there are also hellish near-death experiences, they typically occur to people who are filled with either hatred or fear; the majority of hellish near-death experiences in the United States alone come from people with a fire-and-brimstone Christian background. Why? Because our thoughts become manifest in the spiritual realm. Those who are dominated by love created heavenly experiences; those who are dominated by hatred or fear create hellish experiences.

The second appalling thing about this movie is that the filmmakers apparently don't know all that much about what Jesus taught about spirits, considering that He said that a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 12:33). The fruit He refers to is that of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This test was applied to spirits to test whether they were godly or demonic (Matthew 12:35). The problem with the mentality of people like these filmmakers that is that anything that doesn't fit their extremely narrow-minded views is automatically labeled "Satanic." They really ought to be more careful about that, considering another warning given by the One they profess to worship with regards to crediting works of God to Satan (Matthew 12:31-32). I'm sure said filmmakers would undoubtedly come back with with the argument that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), but all that reminds us is that demonic forces can be deceptive, and this passage does nothing to nullify the aforementioned test Jesus has given to us. If a spirit or other paranormal being bears love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, then you have nothing to fear. If it doesn't, run like hell.

If you really want to learn about near-death experiences, then start reading up on them. Don't limit yourself to the near-death experiences of people from any one religion; God is far too big of a Concept to be confined to any one religion, and so is the afterlife. As for tripe such as "Escape From Hell," the filmmakers have forgotten how one of the Ten Commandments instructs them to not lie, something they would do well to remember if they truly believe themselves to be so pious.