Hell House

Wow! Last night on the Sundance Channel, I had the opportunity to watch a truly frightening film "Hell House"- a documentary, mind you. The reason why I think this film is certainly scarier than the run of the mill Halloween/Fri. the 13th sequel is that it reflects a honest depiction of just how whacko some Christian fundamentalist groups are in this country. You will often see segments on CNN on Wahabi schools for Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia, but you won't often see them go into this dark corner of our country. I was struck, and this was perhaps not intentional, how commercialism is wide spread throughout the film. I thought a simple moment where a kid asks his father for 50 cents which he doesn't have on him to get a Coke from the machine is telling of how we are paralyzed by rampant commercialism and technology. As someone whose grandfather grew up in a Central Turkish village, I have to wonder if these aspects of our world have driven us all mad to the point where we look to some kind of "SuperJesus" out of a DC Comic book to come down and save us from all the sins of the world. I was also struck by how a youn girl jumps up and down when she gets to play 'the abortion girl.' It's as if she is so trapped by her fundamentalist upbringing that she actually looks forward to playing a troubled young girl getting an abortion perhaps so she can pretend to be bad and find some sort of temporary emotional release. Ultimately, the way church uses fear to promote its' message is what is most disturbing of all. You see fear shown through all dimensions of the church, including a segment where a Hispanic teacher, who provides the voice of Satan on stage, tells his class that there are such things as stupid questions and one should not waste time trying to ask them. Clearly if we all do what we are told, as this church wants us too, then one has to ask what is this difference between living in the film's setting, outside Dallas, and living in Baghdad?

The more I think about the way this movie was put together, the more interesting I find it to be. The pastor of a fairly large church allows a secular film crew to wander in and out of meetings, services and other events with a camera and apparently with no restrictions. The fact he allowed this is pretty amazing to begin with. Poor lighting, mediocre equipment and an editing process that is not under the control of the church could have easily resulted in a product could have been a disaster for the pastor and the church. The director sorts through what must have been hundreds of hours of filming to select what would be in the final movie and this documentary is the result. There is no opportunity for the church to go back and explain or clarify things that were said by any of the people that were filmed, including teenagers. You have to admire the pastor's courage. You also have to admire the fact that the director didn't use any apparent twists to push for a perspective, either for or against the church. This is not the norm in todays media.

The desired message of Hell House is pretty simple, yet easily distorted. "There are many traps to get us off the track for what God wants to do for us in our lives. It doesn't matter what we have done - drugs, violence, sexual sin, abortion, or even occult worship and the consequences from those things. He still loves us and is ready to forgive us. Eternity is beyond our comprehension, but we need to consider all of the information and make a decision on where we want to spend eternity. It's up to us. This church is just trying to use an unusual, yet contemporary method of communicating some of that information that we need to consider, so we can make an informed decision."

I'm sure Hell House was intended by the deeply religious people who appear in it as a means of saving "the lost". Instead, what it becomes is a shocking and horrifying look at religious extremism (yes, Islam is not the only religion burdened by extremists).

The one image that kept flashing through my head was of the low-budget cult classic "Faces of Death", in which a phony "Doctor of Death" presents a series of scenes (some authentic, some obviously fake)depicting various ways living things can die, including animal attacks, footage of autopsies, etc. Hell House has the exact same low-budget, creepy feel that Faces of Death had for me.

The most frightening thing is that the participants in the actual Hell House are convinced that they are saving young people by showing them their own extreme Judeo-Christian version of reality: girls who undergo abortions will go to hell, etc. What they are really doing is unnecessarily exposing young people to horrible graphic violence.

The way the people speak to each other is disturbing as well: everything is about "The Church"... the whole thing reeks of brainwashing. The discussions going on during the brainstorming session about what to do in the Hell House this year, as well as those going on during the casting reminded me of the films Bin Laden and his toadies send in to Al Jazeera TV talking about killing the infidels. The message is a little different, but the behavior and absolute mindless devotion to the "cause" is absolutely the same.

But the most horrifying and disgusting part for me was the footage from the "Christian school", where the teacher was talking about how they teach everything from the "Christian viewpoint", while the camera panned over a pile of textbooks with titles like "Spanish for Christian schools" and such. Reality and fact know no religion.

I see little difference between Muslim extremism and Christian extremism, with the exception that Muslim extremists engage in suicide missions. In both cases, the message is "Our way is the only way and if you don't follow it, you are doomed".

Jesus taught acceptance and love for fellow creatures. However, the people who participated in Hell House missed the point and are examples of the extreme right of Christianity, just as Bin Laden and the Taliban are representative of the extreme right of Islam. Unfortunately, too many people lacking direction in their life choose these paths that inevitably lead to their complete brainwashing and, effectively, losing sight of the real and usually very helpful teachings of their prophets and/or messiahs.

Hell House is an interesting documentary looking at a church's annual performance that demonstrates to people how easy it is to be flung into the screaming maw of Hell. The filmmakers are careful not to be too judgemental of this bizarre phenomena but in doing so miss the chance to look at the moral complexity that the story really offers.

The church's Hell House appears to condemn people who are victims of others - in one section a girl, who we discover was abused by her father, has drugs plied upon her, is raped and then in despair commits suicide - for which she is condemned to Hell. Another vignette features a young man, abused as a child by his uncle (is there a theme here?), dying from AIDS - naturally he gets dispatched to Hell too. The church don't actually bother condemning the abusers as much as they do their victims. Presumably the abusers repent and the pearly gates open wide for them whilst their victims languish in a hell of red lights, dry ice and perspex ceilings.

The film is fascinating and yet leaves the feeling that it could have been so much more. It also opens for debate the true morality and humanity of the people who organise this ghoulish performance.

A previous review for this film infers that the documentary makers lose respect for their subjects. After seeing the documentary, I couldn't come to the same conclusion. These people with all their good intentions bring ridicule on themselves. Bringing hell back into religion and trivialising disturbing scenarios with gory reenactments can breed the sort of hatred towards margianlised people that seems the antithesis of a Christian message. While sophisticated film festival audiences might be in fits of laughter at the planning and execution of hell house, there is a serious undercurrent. The makers should be congratulated for their subtle approach in dealing with the personal problems of the protagonists and the way such a seeming laughable freak show can 'convert' people to this form of religious belief.

If Hell house is preaching to the converted, the actual subjects of the documentary are definitely NOT preaching to the converted. They are preaching to those lacking direction or disillusioned with their life. As the ending shows, the scenes which seem ridiculous to us, lead some people to convert to the close-knit web of this Christian group. To me, this is a pretty frightening scenario. What is the community doing wrong that would make young people so susceptible to such an outdated morality? I just hope that this documentary will be shown more widely, particularly to younger people within the context of discussing the issues the documentary raises. And for most of us who will not subscribe to the often demented views espoused by some of the subjects of the doco - it's one of the most amusing and entertaining documentaries around.