This should be required viewing this Halloween for anyone that hasn't seen it. Basically a church puts on a haunted house every Halloween, but the idea isn't to have a good time, it's to save people's souls. Hell House features a bunch of church folks staging skits with subjects ranging from school shootings to rape & incest. The filmmakers do nothing but document the going ons, and the result is rather amazing.

I will protect the girl in the Slipknot shirt with my life

I went to one of these as a young teen (but here in CO right around the time this was filmed). Its a painfully manipulative, not to mention intensely bigoted, practice; and this documentary presents that so perfectly without need of any commentary.

The culture depicted in the film and the mindset that pervades that culture is absolutely terrifying.

Learn about the torments of hell from people who show they don't know the difference between a pentagram and a Star of David.

"I worked hard this year, so I hope I get to be the r**** girl."

Fucking Christ, who needs horror movies when every day middle-Americans are terrifying enough as it is.

Equally disturbing and hilarious. Arguments about what color paint Occultists use, what the actual title of Magic: The Gathering is, a man causally talking on a phone while people around him speak in tongues, an amateur wrestling match in a High School gym, etc... Christopher Guest couldn't have staged these better.

Although, the rave guy unquestionably has the best line of the movie, when spray painting the rave's wall -

"And this says 'Acid Burn' which is a hacker's name from... the movie Hackers."

There's a dude in this who screams and it sounds *EXACTLY* like a tie fighter.

Makes a good case for the argument that Evangelicals are genuinely the worst people in this country.

“When you find a child and he’s vulnerable ... he’s looking for something ... the forces of darkness can influence him.”

Like Jack Chick tracts come to life.

Documentary about one of those Pentecostal churches throwing a haunted house that depicts its version of hell and how you get there: by having an abortion, being gay and contracting AIDS and, my favorite, going to a rave, unknowingly taking drugs and then being raped and guilted into killing yourself.

This film would make a terrific double bill alongside Jesus Camp, that other documentary about Bush era religious fundamentalists. It’s about a Christian themed haunted house that features the worst Evangelical fears in community theatre form like abortion, pill popping at a rave, homosexuality and drunk driving. 

This documentary is almost indistinguishable from a Christopher Guest style ensemble comedy like Waiting For Guffman. My favourite scene is a group of teenagers huddled around a bulletin board seeing who scored what part in the hell house and one enthusiastic girl cheers; “I’m having an abortion!” The reactions on the faces of the unsuspecting guests to the hell house is what truly makes this memorable. About 90% are bewildered, 5% offended and the rest are just bored.

An incredibly well made documentary. A piece of observational cinema, bordering on cinema verite, that allows for complete interaction by the audience. No handholding, nothing. The cast is at once repulsive and still human. The scene inside the single dad’s house is brilliant.

It’s kinda like Jesus Camp, but more spooky

WHOA. There were so many fucked up things in this that I couldn't believe, I kept asking my professor is this real... It was real. The audition scenes were hilarious tho. High school theatre at it's best. The rest of it, YIKES.

Just a profile of an endless menagerie of depressing church people who put on an annual “Hell House” to show the evils of modern society and the damnation it leads to.
High points are a hilarious casting call section and a highly intelligent young woman hanging with the burnout kids protesting the intellectual bankruptcy of the proceedings. I hope she is a judge or professor somewhere and got out of this “hell” hole town.

Hell House is an engaging documentary about a Texas Christian fundamentalist church that is putting on their version of a haunted house. The documentary takes what I feel is a non-bias approach to capturing the lives of these churchgoers at the beginning of the millennium, and sadly some of the viewpoints haven't changed. It's not a fun watch, but it is a well-made doc on a subject that isn't mainstream outside of specific areas of the country.

Side note, the audition scenes of who was going to play demons, drug addicts, adulterer, etc. was giving me big Waiting for Guffman vibes.

Watched on Prime.

I will protect the girl in the Slipknot shirt with my life