Hell House poster & wallpaper

Hell Houses are a distinctly American phenomenon which began in 1990 just outside of Dallas, at the Trinity Assembly of God Church. The original Hell House was conceived as a modern-day fire-and-brims...( read more  read more... )tone sermon. Today, this religious ceremony of sorts is replete with actors, extensive lighting equipment and full audio-visual tech crews. Inside the Hell House, tour guides dressed as demons take visitors from room to room to view depictions of school massacres, date rape, AIDS-related deaths, fatal drunk driving crashes, and botched abortions. Hell Houses have now spread to hundreds of churches worldwide. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, HELL HOUSE follows the process from the first script meeting until the last of the 10,000 visitors passes through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a verite window into the whole process of creating this over-the-top sermon, while showing an intimate portrait of the people who fervently believe its message. The film also features a score by Bubba and Matthew Kadane, formerly of the band Bedhead.

Flixster Users

66% liked it

2,190 ratings

Critics

94% liked it

33 critics

Unrated, 86 min.

Directed by: George Ratliff

Release Date: October 1, 2002

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: May 27, 2003

Get It:

Stats: 205 reviews

Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites
report incorrect info

Photos

None yet... Got one?

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (205)

  • Stinger839
    January 31, 2009
    Stinger839
    I don't feel like this documentary reveals anything we didn't know was already there. People so ignorant of reality and into their own viewpoint so intensely that they think the Star of David is a pentagram, that Harry Potter and Magic the Gathering lead to Satanism, that AIDs ca...( read more)n claim a victim in only a few days and that the disease exclusively targets gay men, that RU486 regularly kills people who take it and is as dangerous as late term abortions, that "date rape drug" or "mickey" is as technical of a name to give, that "speaking in tongues" is spiritual enlightenment and not a coverup for deep emotional trauma and possible mental illness. Just look at this country's voting records and one already knows how many and how deeply ignorant this section of the population really is.

    This film is good for a laugh and seeing how fundamentalists operate (by a hive mindset that brainwashes children and emotionally susceptible people). I do wish there had been more sequences depicting people who went through being openly outraged at those who put this show on; as it is, there is one sequence but I know that there were hundreds more of those confrontations. Also, some say that this is a non-judgmental film, and that's absolute shit; this film is clearly sympathetic to this ignorant and hateful lifestyle, allowing the people featured to engage in their contrary actions without questioning them (like the guy who acts at the Hell House and then does incredibly mock-violent underground wrestling matches). The film does clearly give these people ample opportunities to spout the doctrines they've been taught to repeat, and lets them do it proudly without any consequence of a followup question.
  • YosemiteSamFan
    January 25, 2008
    YosemiteSamFan
    Somewhat interesting how some churches will scare their youth into leading straight and clean lives. It's shocking how the performers in the house re-created scenes of urban and domestic horror. The choice the customers are given at the exit is interesting. A bit fanatical, but s...( read more)ome kids need a good scaring. I'd like to go through a Hell House for the thrill of the performance.
  • RashHunt
    March 22, 2006
    RashHunt
    A tour-de-force documentary - though one may wonder if there's any body really home with those being documented.
  • KLFilmmaker
    July 18, 2008
    KLFilmmaker
    Another very interesting religion doc. Had me laughing a few times during the preparations for the house.
  • cacutshaw
    February 8, 2008
    cacutshaw
    Great doc. Remember those fun haunted houses you could go through at fairs and carnivals and get scared silly by people jumping out at you, things dropping from the ceiling and eerie sound effects. Well, the Trinity Assembly of God Church had an even better idea. Instead of gh...( read more)osts and goblins, why not scare kids with the consequences of homosinuality (thanks Mr. Show), abortion and school massacres. A great look into the construction of this House and the grand opening.
  • kubrickian
    November 3, 2009
    kubrickian
    Along with Jesus Camp, one of the more disturbing films about religion gone too far. On full display, their ignorance of the world (i.e. star of david as the PENTAgram) and the use of fear to convince people to commit to God.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 20, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    This is the only haunted house in America youd get bored in
  • jfvirey
    August 7, 2009
    jfvirey
    "Hell House" is a documentary in the vein of Mike Papantonio's 2006 "Jesus Camp", with a very similar subject, style and message. The subject is the preparation of Trinity school's tenth "Hell House" show, from casting and rehearsals to opening night. The style is one of affected...( read more) sympathetic neutrality, letting the people involved explain themselves. And the message is: "My God these people are dangerous nutters, what are we enlightened liberals going to do about them?"

    The "Hell House" concept is a kind of school play version of an Ignatian retreat. I remember browsing through a copy of St Ignatius's exercises when I was a teen and reading the one about picturing the torments of Hell. To me that was really quaint and grotesque stuff. I was a twentieth century kid, and I was glad we'd grown past such "medieval" superstitions and moved on to watching porn and listening to the Sex Pistols. But now that I'm a Catholic convert, of course, I swallow the Church doctrine about Hell hook, line and sinker. If Jesus says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, then it's enough for me. That's how uncritical I've become.

    I even went through a rather stern, five-day Ignatian retreat in 2004, and the meditation about Hell was perhaps the closest thing I have ever had to a mystical experience, though I would rather call it a profound insight into something I had never really thought about. It involved realising what the eternity of Hell meant: it meant still being there eons after the heat-death of the universe, eons after all the protons had decayed, eons after Judgment Day and the folding of the current order of things. And that was not a plesant prospect.

    Of course, as a Catholic, I do not recognise myself in the Pentecostals portrayed in the film. I don't like their theatrical approach to religion, the gesticulating, the grimacing, the deliberate arousal of intense emotions, the constant psychodrama, the touching during prayers, and of course, the rock'n roll services and the speaking in tongues. I also disagree with them on many doctrinal points, such as their belief in a newfangled "rapture", their idea that they constitute "the church", and their probable support of Creationism (not mentioned in the film.)

    But I could empathise with these people and their desire to exorcise their own encounters with the depravity of the modern world through small dramatised scenes about domestic violence, suicide, abortion, date rape, alcohol, drugs and high school massacres. Sometimes they didn't seem really to know what they were talking about (they got the pentacle confused with the star of David, and they didn't seem to have problems with "Magic: The Gathering".) But sometimes, they knew firsthand: one girl had been raped, one man was abandoned by his wife for an Internet encounter, and another came directly from the rave scene.

    It was nice also to learn that they were aware of the limitations of what they were doing, and that "make-up, corny lines and soundtrack can only go so far." And however weird, wrong and overexcited I find Pentecostals (and charismatics in general, including Catholic ones) to be, I felt I was much more on their side than on those of the cursing punks who recited the relativistic dogmas they'd been taught in school and used arguments like "I have gay friends... what's wrong with being gay?" (I'm sure rapists are friends too; this is completely irrelevant.)

    If you don't believe in Hell, this film will not convince you of its existence; it's not even meant to: it's meant to comfort you in that disbelief (sometimes I think that's what Pentecostals are for: to make it easier to disparage Christianity.) Anyway, if you don't believe in Hell, you probably don't believe in anything much, and Hell is not the place to start (I started with a rather simple argument for the existence of God, which is pure logic and metaphysics, and then built up chaotically from there for about four years of reading before I was fully converted.) But since the documentary was made by an unbeliever, you should find much in it to your liking, and much to bolster your belief that you are so intellectually superior to the ignorant fools like the Pentecostals and me who still believe in eternal damnation.
  • HarleenQuinzel
    August 5, 2009
    HarleenQuinzel
    Ignorance is rampant everywhere and this documentary shows a wellspring of it in action. This doc shows, without bias, fear-mongering at its very finest, as paradoxical as that is to say. A frustrating viewing but an interesting one nonetheless.
  • bowtiepunk
    July 6, 2009
    bowtiepunk
    Another documentary featuring Pentecostals. However, this did humanize Christians. Good insight into the history of the Hell House concept that is so popular today.

View All Hell House Reviews

Critic Reviews

No recent reviews.

View more Hell House reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "Hell House" !

Post A Comment | View All Comments

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

All Rotten Tomatoes content is used under license from Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes, Certified Fresh, and the Tomatometer are the trademarks of Incfusion Corporation, d/b/a Rotten Tomatoes, a subsidiary of IGN Entertainment, Inc.

Official Trailer

View Larger Hell House Trailer

Cast

No information available.

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Save the Last Dance for Me
    Save the Last Dance for Me (100%)
  • Jesus Camp
    Jesus Camp (50%)
  • Lake of Fire
    Lake of Fire (100%)
  • Godspell
    Godspell (33%)

More Movies like Hell House

Facts

No facts approved yet. Be the first

Hell House : Watch Free on TV

Hell House Trivia

  • What movie is this quote from? " I will live with you in this hell hole. But I must express myself. If you do not let my gut out this house and make it my own. I will go insane and I WILL TAKE YOU WITH ME!"  Answer »
  • Which actor was a point break detective, was persued by the devil, went on a bogus journey to hell and back, and spent time at his lake house?  Answer »
  • This horror movie is about faternity pledges spending the night in a house occupied by a maniac, followed by their inevitable gory deaths?  Answer »
  • In the 1981 movie "Hell Night", four people of sorority and franternity pledges were required to spend the night in a spooky mansion. What was the name of the mansion?  Answer »
More Hell House Trivia

Movie Quizzes

No quizzes for Hell House. Want to create one?

Video Clips

No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

Meet Other Fans

Add Hell House to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?