True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Hell House
A weird form of evangelism that is slowly gaining among fundamentalists.
Churches in the Midwest construct vast “hell houses” to scare
visitors to Jesus. Originally begun as a response to Halloween haunted
houses, these elaborate stagings, crammed with theatrical effects and
high-school actors on October 31, try to outdo each other in their ultra-realistic
depiction of sin and horror. This documentary follows one church
as they embark on another year of creatively presenting depravity – a labyrinth
of rooms each seeded with a different sin (suicide, drug addiction,
prostitution) realistically reenacted. Innocent kids scare themselves sick
by how realistic they’ve made their own hell. The film works because it is
sympathetic to those possessed by their enemy, and because it doesn’t
overdo the obvious irony that hell houses are so spooky in concept that
they scare in the wrong direction. On the other hand, nobody creates
such amazing haunted houses like they do.
By George Ratliff
2001, 86 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
A mock bullet wound in the forehead in a mock gun murder,
a mock botched abortion, a mock suicide via slit arm,
a mock goth, and opening day!
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