Hell House

Hell House director George Ratliff doesn't have to try hard to show the bizarre side of the Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas and their annual Halloween sideshow. Rather than any reasoned attempt to invite converts to Christianity, this is old style 'fire and brimstone' scare tactics straight out of the Old Testament and reminded me of a modern day Chick tract. The topics are somewhat predictable, ranging from abortion, homosexuality and suicide right through to the alleged evils of Harry Potter and role playing games. The horror show is complete with high pressure sales tactics at the end to convert and accept Jesus. Disturbingly, the emotional intensity of the show is quite effective, especially on the younger teenagers in the audience who appear somewhat shell shocked as they are given a last chance to repent.

Pastor Jim Hennesy opens the documentary and is probably the most disturbing character shown, with his authoritarian nature and expressionless stare. His church group is clearly a cult, complete with hysterical followers weeping, swaying in trances and speaking in tongues. Every single character that comes onto the screen has a downbeat story, from the single father struggling with four children to assorted rape victims and even an amateur wrestler.

In parts, the documentary becomes unintentionally hilarious, with a six sided 'pentagram' (actually the Jewish Star of David), a DJ who can't remember the name of the date rape drug he is supposed to be warning people about and a Christian teenager showing an inexplicable fascination in playing an imagined 'victim' of the morning after pill.

Overall Hell House is more an illuminating insight into the bizarre beliefs of this Pentecostal church than any cutting edge social commentary, but somehow it works. Ratliff's direction is neutral, and he merely observes the goings on rather than actively staking out a position. With a cast of characters this odd, nothing else is needed. The only signs of independent thought in the film was a small group of irate teens who gave one of the pastors their direct opinion on the Hell House.

A interesting footnote only mentioned briefly in the documentary. With 12,000 visitors at $7 a head, plus a concession stand, and all with volunteer labor. I guess what the Trinity Church doesn't make in converted souls, they reap in cash.

7/10

I thoroughly enjoyed this documentory. Although the principal characters had all the best intentions, they lacked any inteligence, thus, producing one of the funniest "fly on the wall" sagas I have seen. A teenage girl, programmed by her local church, sounds off about lesbians coming into the store, or diner where she works. The poor girl is reminiscent of a stepford daughter. How can she possibly make such an invalid, hateful remark when this child probably has never left her fold or been further than the church gates?. GROW UP!! Open your eyes. I chose to look upon the church folk with humour. Indeed, they strongly believe in their cause, but COME ON!!!! Youve got to be kidding. The zeal in which the kids, and the sweaty creepy father compete for places in the "horror" show, is in fact a Horror show in itself. I wonder if trying to conjure up so much hatred and fear is , or was Christs intention. I bet if he watched this movie He would indeed want to come and fetch his brides, (with a gun to His head perhaps). People prove to be scarey, and sweet ignorance takes hold of this grotesque flock. Laughable? yes, but then the reality that these people can manifest fear and loathing into a new batch of kids is HORRIFIC. Heavens forbid a gay child being raised in that community....... It may make you fat and sweaty, and wear skin hugging black lycra T shirts......YIKES!

As far as the actual film is concerned this is a pretty well done documentary. I found it to be pretty objective, and the film makers just presented the subject matter and let you the viewer decide. Now as far as the subjects of the film are concerned... Similar to Jesus Camp in the sense that the truly disturbing issues in the film are the people who are involved. These folks are complete nut jobs. They don't know anything about how the world works in their little brainwashed WASP Christian extremist world except for that which is over exaggerated on television. The "rave guy" was friggin' hilarious, everyone will have a good laugh at him. The real horror of Hell House are the whacko's of this community who participate in this nonsense, that was the truly terrifying part. Wow, I'm glad I don't live in that hell hole talk about "Land of the Dead"..."Land of the Brain Dead" more like.

I first came across "Hell House" about a year ago on Sundance Channel's "Doc Day," and having always been interested in films involving Christianity ("Saved!" and "Dogma" are my two favorites) I decided to sit down and maybe have a laugh or two at the down-south fundamentalism. What I saw wasn't much of a laugh: "Hell House" depicts young Christians in what has been called an "evangelical haunted house," in which they portray various scenes of people committing "sins," then being dragged off to hell by a demon in a cheap Halloween mask. In short, it's not a nice film for your Sunday afternoon.

Director George Ratliff first heard about this particular hell house when it attracted media attention for doing a school shooting scene just a few months after the Columbine shootings (though the house had been doing this particular scene for quite some time, it raised controversy in 1999 for being so soon after the Columbine massacre). He was allowed into the tight church community to make his 1999 documentary short "The Devil Made Me Do It," and went back a few years after to make this, the feature length-version, "Hell House." On the DVD features, Ratliff explains that the only way he would be allowed into the community to shoot the film was if he promised to portray things exactly how they are, and not put his own spin on them or try to counter the message of the church.

This is where the film sometimes gets criticism, as we are seeing some very offensive behavior from those putting on Hell House, and the only people there to dispute them are a bunch of drunken teenage Slipknot fans. To me, though, it shows how well the church has paralyzed the community with fear, as everyone goes along with this perverse project with smiles and clapping hands.

And yes, the Hell House itself is pretty disturbing- depicting scenes of botched abortions, a gay man dying of AIDS then renouncing God and being dragged off to hell, a girl killing herself after being raped at a club (then once again, being dragged off to hell), even a man burning for all of eternity because his uncle molested him as a child. To sum up, these people are "crazy" with three K's.

People seem to forget, however, that the film was not made by these religious fanatics themselves, but by an outsider. Most of the negative reviews for this are slamming the subject matter alone and the hideous people contained inside, which I think isn't fair. Yes, it's difficult to not be disturbed by "Hell House," (if I had seen this when I was younger, I would be convinced that I was going to hell) but you need to get past that and look at how Ratliff gets inside these people. I think I walked away from this movie feeling much more informed on the horrors of deep-south Christianity. Rather than having a vague idea from various stand-up comedians, this movie really gets to the nitty gritty of it all, which makes "Hell House" my all-time favorite documentary.

So if you want to be scared this Halloween, forget "Friday the 13th" or "The Exorcist" hunt down a copy of "Hell House" and prepare to be terrified.

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.