May 17, 2002

Hell House

Saw Hell House last night. This is a documentary about a sort-of haunted house run by the Trinity Church of Cedar Hill, right here in Texas. The church runs this every year, and it’s a huge production all aimed at scaring people into being good Christians.

The movie was fascinating, disturbing, and funny. The documentarian avoided taking an angle, which is probably best. The Hell House project itself was incredibly weird–I think there was some wish-fulfillment on the part of the participants, and there was definitely a lot of cluelessness. One thing that struck me in the Hell House enactment was that the one character who had accepted Jesus was accepted by God into heaven at the end. But God refused all the others, accusing them of taking “the easy way out.” The form of Christianity that these people believe in is all about taking the easy way out.