Rating: 
Summary: Interesting....
Review: An interesting look into how far some religous groups will go to put forth their beliefs and gain new members. I think this does a good job in holding a light up to a particularly odd practice that is called Hell House. The sense of judgement that comes forth from these houses of secular horror seem a little heavy handed to me, but that's my opinion. Seems more of a novelty to me than anything else, but again, I think the people who made this did a fine job in presenting the material as it seemed obvious that a concerted effort was made not to be one one side or the other, but to give us a window to look into and let us formulate our own views.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening faith
Review: George Carlin got it right when he described America as a great country with a strange culture. The peculiar form of "praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" Christianity that exists in this country has done its part to contribute to the weird underbelly of the American cultural landscape -- from Jack Chick's Christian comic tracts to snake-handling congregations to the subject of the documentary "Hell House."
Each year, Trinity Assembly of God Church in Cedar Hill, Texas, puts on "Hell House," a Halloween attraction intended to scare people onto the straight and narrow. George Ratliff's documentary follows the young church members who form the cast and crew through early script meetings, auditions and scenery building to their performances on opening night.
Like similar attractions at churches around the country, "Hell House" contains the usual scenes -- a girl bleeding to death after taking the abortion pill, a homosexual AIDS sufferer angrily denouncing God, a boy who shoots himself in front of his class. Throughout the documentary, Ratliff neither condones nor mocks the congregation's beliefs, allowing viewers to make their own judgements.
The church members seem like decent-enough people, but what is most frightening about them is they are blissfully unaware of their own ignorance. They purport to show, through "Hell House," the reality of things like rave parties or occult ceremonies, but it's glaringly obvious how little they know about what they're portraying. Even the church member who claims he regularly attended raves before accepting Jesus does not know the name of the common date-rape drug slipped to an unsuspecting young woman in the "Hell House" rave scene.
Other examples: The narrator in the occult scene blames "Goosebumps" and "Harry Potter" books for leading children down the road to Satanism. A church member painting a "pentagram" on the floor while building scenery actually draws a Star of David in a circle. In "hell", the actor portraying a dammed homosexual writhes in agony while crying out, "When I was little my uncle used to do things to me. He convinced me I was born this way."
Members of the youth group offer simple, cut-and-dried solutions to complex problems. The young lady who plays "abortion girl" blames Satan's influence for her mother's Internet affair and estrangement from the family. A father exclaims, "Oh God," when his disabled son has a seizure, then credits his "calling on God" for the boy's quick recovery. Church members state the world is worse than it has ever been, a sure sign of the End Times.
Before opening night, church members gather to ask God's blessing on their enterprise in a prayer meeting that ends with weeping and "speaking in tongues" -- inane babble that sounds more like something that would issue from the mouth of Beelzebub. "Religion is the opiate of the masses?" One is inclined to believe so after seeing such religious mass hysteria.
Rating: 
Summary: Moving and amusing, sympathetic and factual
Review: George Ratliff has made a gem of documentary in "Hell House." He exposes the scary ignorance of fundamentalist Christians by letting them speak for themselves, while at the same time showing their humanity and that, however misguided, they do care about their fellow human beings and want to save them. The only objection I could offer is that from what appears in the documentary, the only critics of the Hell House are incoherent raging teenagers, whose objections are skillfully and calmly responded to by a member of the church. Yet I know from first-hand knowledge that there are critics of fundamentalism (Christian and otherwise) who are capably of equally calm and skilled rational debate. Perhaps they just aren't found in that part of Texas...
Rating:
Summary: Moving and amusing, sympathetic and factual
Review: George Ratliff has made a gem of documentary in "Hell House." He exposes the scary ignorance of fundamentalist Christians by letting them speak for themselves, while at the same time showing their humanity and that, however misguided, they do care about their fellow human beings and want to save them. The only objection I could offer is that from what appears in the documentary, the only critics of the Hell House are incoherent raging teenagers, whose objections are skillfully and calmly responded to by a member of the church. Yet I know from first-hand knowledge that there are critics of fundamentalism (Christian and otherwise) who are capably of equally calm and skilled rational debate. Perhaps they just aren't found in that part of Texas...
Rating:
Summary: Move over, Errol Morris, there's a new kid in town.
Review: Hell House (George Ratliff, 2001)Hell House is a documentary, a quick look at the infamous haunted house rnu every October by a Pentecostal church in Texas. One gets the distinct feeling that the church members had no idea Ratliff was making this documentary to poke fun at them, as earnest as they are. The best scenes in this are those where Ratliff is using wordless, lingering shots to show how little these people actually know about what they're doing. The funniest thing in the whole movie is one church member describing the "occult" scene, which uses a pentagram; actually, it's not a pentagram, it's a Star of David in a circle. (It continues to amaze me no one there, seemingly, knows how to count to five.) Moments like this happen with regularity in the film, if you're paying close enough attention. Most of them are more subtle, but the payoff is just as grand. For those of you unfamiliar with the increasingly-popular Hell Houses, a quick rundown: a Hell House is a Christian "haunted house"-type Halloween attraction put on for the purpose of converting the heathen. Everything from the amusing (raves, satanic sacrifice) to the boring (kid commits suicide because his peers are picking on him) to the morally repugnant (at this congregation, at least, AIDS is still strictly a "gay disease") is depicted in an attempt to scare the heathen straight and get them to convert. Does it work? This documentary would lead you to believe not, despite the claims of one church member that a number of people converted that month. (Entirely possible; Ratliff couldn't film all the groups being ministered to, of course, and the church (backed up by news reports) claims three thousand coming through per day. Like the old mama said, if you throw enough spaghetti against a wall... Best watched for the amusement factor, but prepare to be horrified as well. Yes, folks, people still think like Neanderthals in 2001. ****
Rating: 
Summary: BIZARRE RELIGIOUS SHOCK SCHLOCK
Review: HELL HOUSE is a Halloween Horror Funhouse designed as an evangelical soul-saving tool by the Trinity Assembly of God Church on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. Begun in 1990, the tradition has grown to include actors and special audio and lighting effects crews. Special tour guides dressed as demons guide 10,000 visitors through scenes of high school massacres, date rapes, bloody botched abortions, gruesome drunk driving crashes, AIDS related death scenes and more. The filmmakers -- in true verite style -- make no commentary as they record everything from initial script meetings through the lavish stage production of this peculiar, over-the-top sermon meant to scare the hell out of non-believers. I was absorbed by the intimate portrait of this individuals in this religious community -- so isolated from mainstream culture -- who fervently believe in their enterprise. The film features a score by Bubba and Matthew Kadane.
Rating:
Summary: The real threat to America...
Review: HELL HOUSE is one of the most frightening movies you could ever see, because it proves beyond any doubt that the most serious threat to America and the American way of life are religious fundamentalists. The filmmakers give their subjects enough rope to not only hang themselves, but to hang the entire religious right in the process. Truly disturbing, and well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: Turning the Good News into Bad News
Review: I grew up in an evangelical church where scare tactics and repeated warnings that Jesus' return was imminent were used to keep you on the straight and narrow path. I thought the scene where the leader confronts a group of offended teenagers who obviously didn't appreciate that rather black and white portrayal of life, and made no bones about it. As much as I agree with a theology that places Jesus at the center of life, I found myself agreeing more with those that took offense than to the leadership of this church that doesn't seem to realize what the implications of what they're doing really are. I wonder how the members of this group would feel if there was a similar house set up that portrayed the worst aspects of church life and scared people away from every coming to church. How about a room where a Sunday school teacher is found out for cheating on his wife, or an authoritarian pastor steamrolls over the life of one of his parishioners or misappropriates church funds? How about seeing the fallout that comes after one of these Pentecostal-type pastors intimates that he knows the date of the Second Coming? How about a room where a priest is buggering an altar boy? I wonder what the reaction to that would be? I really wonder sometimes if God appreciates his calling card being offered in the guise of fearmongering and extremism. I can think of nothing better than people having God encounters; but I am thinking that if the impulse is fear and not love, then the encounter is dimmed if not tarnished altogether. My gut feeling is that people who get scared into the kingdom are spiritual parapalegics; yes, they are in the door but they are forced to get around in wheelchairs. Jesus... save us from your followers...
Rating: 
Summary: Some Human Silliness
Review: I have noticed from these other reviews that although they may disagree on the world-view of these fundamentalist protestants, this documentary is fascinating. Actually, I have found it quite dull.
Most of this film takes place during the creation of Hell House, featuring its construction, the research (or what they think passes for research), and auditions of the actors. Peppered throughout this tedium are some anectdotes concerning the faith of these people, including church meetings where they sing, dance and babble. (Or as they call it, "speaking in tongues").
The presentation made me feel like I was waiting for this haunted house to begin already. When opening night finally arrived, what I got was a campy, poorly acted freak show on how a sadistic God will torment forever anyone that so much makes a mistake in their lives.
My personal feelings aside, I gave this film two stars on account that the premise is interesting; the idea of building a haunted house that scares people into accepting Jesus. Also, the filmakers did a good job in remaining neutral and allowing us to draw our own conclusions about the doings of this Pentacostal church.
So if you don't mind seeing a bunch of christian rubes waving their arms and jumping up and down like monkeys, then by all means see it.
Rating:
Summary: Former Cast Member
Review: I spent ten years working various scenes at the Trinity Church Hellhouse. Yes, it is a bit campy, and yes, it is often over the top, but I can say that the people are well intentioned, just a bit off target. I attended Trinity Church from birth until I was 22 years old. I do not attend their anymore because of the close-minded attitude that is prevalant in this documentary. I stopped doing HellHouse when they added the decision room my last year. I just felt it was an un-biblical scare tactic. I now feel that way about the entire operation. The worst feeling I get is knowing the young teenagers are blindly following the leadership without doing any research themselves. I know because I was once one of them. I have found that a growing number of former Trinity Youth Group members my age do not attend there for the same reasons I listed above. This movie will open your eyes to the way teens are herded like cattle in fundamentalist Christian Churches.
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