Strong and Moving!

good film but with many flaws

Excellent but underrated film

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

My mother watched some of this with me and she made me turn it off about 15 minutes in, because it just was too disturbing and sad to her. That was about all she could take. I could not agree more, although she could handle "Jesus Camp". What has become of humanity?

Yes, it was very accurate. I grew up in the church and this film is exactly how I remember my church years. I'm sure many are shocked and horrified at the actions and train of thought of the church, but I've been around it so long that I wasn't shocked at all by it. I think the reason why I didn't enjoy the movie is because it brought back a bunch of bad memories for me,but if I had never set a foot in a church before it likely would have fascinated me. With that said I was most intrigued by the fact that it seemed like these people were acting out their own fantasies. The guy whose wife left him was obviously writing out a fantasy in the scene he wrote where a woman is caught cheating and is then murdered was very disturbing because you could see some sort of sick wheels turning inside of his head while he watched the scene. overall, if you've never been to a church you'll enjoy it but if you've spent time in a church you'll likely just see it as the same old same old.

Wanna get the crap scared out of you? And I don't mean that in any respectfully horror-ish way when referring to HELL HOUSE. I mean it in a way that'll cause you to doubt human sanity.Technique-wise, I have to give the creators of this idea a definite thumbs up. Utilizing graphic imagery to frighten people toward God, the Assembly of God Church has accomplished something quite unique every October 31st. Threatening sinners with eternal damnation if they have premarital sex, are gay, or attend a rave party, this church puts on a haunted house filled with gore and violence each Halloween. The actors and actresses are pulled from their congregation annually. Some are young women who dip their crotches in fake blood and scream in mock pain while perched on a makeshift hospital gurney (their dialogue during this horrific scene is centered around "the morning after pill" and how dangerous it is ...which is completely untrue of course, but we're talking self-induced abortion so this little fib is obviously okay.) Other scenes include a homosexual man dying of AIDS. A ghoulishly evil creature hovers around him and comments on his "evil lifestyle choice" as he groans his last breath and is ushered into everlasting pain and devilish servitude (never mind that the man may have been a pediatrician who cured a type of cancer that saved thousands of lives. Homo? You're going' to Hell!) At the end of peoples' tour through these strange Halloween acts, prayer groups are offered up for those who wish to be saved. Never mind that the pressure put on the guests by the aforementioned scenes and the "limited time" they have to act on this compulsion are stressed to the maximum ("You have six seconds to walk through that door and be saved by Jesus. One...") Probably the biggest downer here is that this is a growing phenomenon. Forget that God is merciful or full of love or wants you to be happy. That's not what this is about. This is all about fear and the tactics used to instill it by a group of individuals who claim to be "religious." Excuse me but isn't religion supposed to be about acceptance, caring, and the loving nature of Jesus/God? Maybe I'm missing something.The other issue is that these Assembly of God members obviously have no idea what Halloween is about nor its history (Note: All Hallows Day – also known as "All Saints' Day". The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although we now consider All Saints' – or Hallows' – day to be on the day after Halloween, they were, at that time, considered to be the same day.) The church also shows how suicide is a sin. But God (nor the bible) ever said this (Note: "In the early Christian era suicide was not only tolerated, but condoned by the church, as a result certain sects such as the Donatists and the Circumcellions jumped off cliffs in great numbers to hasten an afterlife that promised greater rewards than those found on jolly old Earth. Faced with the loss of so many of its members, and rapidly shrinking collection plates, in the sixth century the church decided that anyone else who committed suicide was going to hell." Bet you won't be hearing that "biblical history" during a sermon any time soon.) There's a brief shining moment when a group of young men and women confront the designers of Hell House and tell them how wrong all of this is (thus my two star rating). But it falls on deaf ears and is quickly swept under the rug in the documentary.

I find it tragic and shocking that such religious cults still exist and find such a following.Somewhere it is mentioned that White people didn't feel comfortable being led by a Black minister so became the birth of certain churches etc...(and this is apparently OK?) I'm sorry, I'm having trouble finding "God" in this line of thought. There is a "skit" where the wife is found out to be cheating on her husband with someone whom she met online...which is without question--wrong, however her husband appears to be rather drunken and very abusive himself....how is one right, and the other wrong or are women still considered possessions? If you want to see just what kind of ignorance religion can still breed today, I would highly recommend watching this documentary..it is certainly a real eye opener. If you ever wondered why people down South are considered so backwards, take a look at this "church".