Thursday, February 17, 2011

Hell House

Matthew Murray

After watching the documentary "Hell House" directed by George Ratliff, the aspect of the film that I found most surprising was Ratliff's ability to create a documentary on such a controversial topic without injecting his own views, beliefs and opinions into it. As the viewer begins watching the film, they are led to believe that the creator of the film may be in strong agreement with the featured Trinity Church and their views. Those specific views include the church believing that by putting on a haunted house featuring scripted scenes, in which members of the church act out certain sins, could be used to convince non-christians to convert to Christianity and in turn "be saved" by Jesus and God. But as the film progresses, the light in which Ratliff shows the church begins to shift, in that the church is presented in a very extreme or radical way that may cause the viewers to be turned off by the actions that are being taken by the members of the church featured in the film. With this form of presentation, one that involves no injections of belief or opinion by the filmmaker, the viewer is able to maintain their own opinion on the subject rather than try to be persuaded one way or the other by the filmmaker, and I thought that was the most surprising tactic by Ratliff.

No comments:

Post a Comment