Review of Hell House (2001) by Kyria A — 13 Mar 2008

There are two ways to watch Hell House. It's easy to see the film as a horrible joke perpetrated on naive Christians -- as an easy laugh. To view it solely in this way, however, is to miss not only the film's compassion for its subject, but its attempt to bring a greater understanding to the concept of fundamentalism as a whole.

Hell House moves the viewer to want to take away the intolerance inherent in religious nuts and replace it with true love. But it simultaneously offers such a direct portal into the daily realities of these fundamentalists (such as the single dad who is left caring for his disabled child), that you're forced to realize that you have nothing to give them to replace their hatred, you have no answers.

Ultimately, these kinds of churches exist because we can't offer them anything better.