Hell House (2001)
“Some people think it’s propoganda
for the church, some people think it’s making fun of
them. People take it absolutely differently everywhere.
I love that.” - Director George Ratliff in the Austin
Chronicle
If you need any proof that the Assembly of God church
is a freaky, weird-ass cult as well as a corrupter of
the minds of children, look no further than “Hell House.”
A documentary about a AOG church in Cedar Hill Texas
(outside Dallas) that puts on a haunted house at Halloween,
“Hell House” generally succeeds at being “objective.”
It presents its subject in a straightforward manner,
never mocking them nor praising them. It might very
well be the most objective documentary I’ve seen in
a long time. The subjects here, the pastor, his inner
circle and the church’s teen congregation are allowed
to speak freely and rarely edited to make them look
buffonish or even small minded or bigoted. ***(dble
space)*** The gimmick here is the gimmick of the subjects.
Their haunted house is not the traditional structure
with ghosts and goblins. The horrors here are real life
situations: rape, murder, incest, abortion, drugs, suicide,
and going to hell for your sins. While these haunted
house vignettes are played out to thousands of people
a year using the most formulaic and uninformed “Afterschool-Special”
type scenarios, the tone of a few other presentations
is quite hateful. In one scene, a homosexual man who
is dying of AIDS rejects God and is banished to hell.
This scene in the “Hell House” is one of the most horrific
and putrid displays of homophobia, ignorance and disgrace
that I have ever had to witness. It is one of the most
vile and unconscionable displays ever filmed. If anything
ever grants these self-righteous asshole entry into
eternal damnation, it is this scene. The others are
merely juvinile and stupid. This one is hateful and
vile.
A climax of a sort appears in the film when some
young patrons of “Hell House” talk to one of the members
of clergy involved and calls them on their stereotypes
and hatefulness. The clergy, of course, rationalize
this hate as being about the gay man not accepting Jesus,
not his homosexuality. That is a ridiculous, of course.
There is a reason, a purposeful decision in making it
the gay man who burns in their supposed hell. Repulsive.
Even the objecting teens walk away in disgust.
Regardless of its subject’s hate mongering, “Hell
House” is a fascinating look at this situation. There
are a couple of tangential storylines about some of
the congregation members involved. The most interesting
of these has a single dad (his wife met someone on the
Internet and left him) struggling to raise four children.
One of the youngest has Cerebral Palsy, and we actually
witness a seizure on camera. It is raw and poignant
stuff. And it makes the family’s involvement in Hell
House all the more troubling. These are good people
receiving bad guidance.
But watching these harmless lower-middle class
folks and the numerous squeaky-faced teenagers here
being manipulated and brainwashed by their church leaders
is so disturbing, so sad, that the film becomes the
ultimate American disgrace. We see these young people
seeking desperately for honesty, truth, morality, and,
most importantly, social community. The church, in all
its horror, offers this last element as its most important
asset. The “Hell House” experience is one of community,
thespianism and moral pride. The young participants,
some of them not even teens, want to belong so desperately.
They are seeking no less than truth and goodness. Instead,
with the repugnant Assembly of God religion, they find
only self-righteousness and hate. Here’s hoping that
they get out into the real world and see the error in
their ways. Before it’s too late.
Notes:
Directed by UT alum George Ratliff.
Music by Matthew and Bubba Kadane (of the bands
Bedhead and The New Year).
|
Report
Card
Content:
A+
Completeness: A
Cinematography\Lighting: B
Special Effects\Make Up: C
Music: A+
Final
Grade: A+
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