Is Hollywood helping or exploiting fear of hell?

Religion in TV, Movies, Books, etc.

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DeBunkem
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Is Hollywood helping or exploiting fear of hell?

Post #1

Post by DeBunkem »

Seems every other horror flick out of Hollywood is either about Hell directly (Hellboy, Hell raiser, Hell spawn, etc.) or indirectly (Event Horizon, Silent Town, etc.)

It is very convenient to keep people superstitious and fearful, as religionists have discovered centuries ago. Could Hollywood be trying to help revive such disappearing fear through this medium? They certainly seem to be trying their best to get people used to cruel and mindless violence as well as Arab stereotypes.

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Miles
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Post by Miles »

Hollywood has one goal and one goal only: to make money. Everything else is incidental. And I doubt that many, if any, take the notion of any Hollywood Hell seriously.

cnorman18

Is Hollywood helping or exploiting fear of Hell?

Post #3

Post by cnorman18 »

I think the most over-the-top was Constantine, but I doubt if anyone took it seriously in religious terms. The guy who played Satan was even farther over the top than the rest of the movie.

I remember in 1973 or so, The Exorcist was called the greatest recruiting poster for the Roman Catholic Church in decades - but it had no lasting effect if any at all - except in Hollywood, where successful movies immediately spawn a phalanx of clones. Since Michael Landon died, it's become so rare to see a genuinely religious person portrayed in the movies or on TV as anything other than a judgmental, controlling bigot, a raving maniac, or a religion-crazed killer. I doubt very much if anyone to speak of on the Left Coast is interested in promoting religion.

DeBunkem
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Post by DeBunkem »

Agreed. I might mention in conclusion that there are still churches in the Bible Belt that feature Hell Horror Houses around Halloween. For that matter, there arealso Jesus Boot Camps,a pretty hellacious idea in itself.

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Tuddrussell
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Post by Tuddrussell »

Hellboy? That's not a horror film. It has hell in it, and it's something that's supposed to get you in the "Oh noes, demons, and apocalypse!, but hellboy is by no means a horror film.

It's a action/comedy fantasy movie based on the darkhorse comic book series of the same name.

that's like calling 'A Modest Proposal' a cook book.

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Re: Is Hollywood helping or exploiting fear of hell?

Post #6

Post by Talishi »

DeBunkem wrote: Seems every other horror flick out of Hollywood is either about Hell directly (Hellboy, Hell raiser, Hell spawn, etc.) or indirectly (Event Horizon, Silent Town, etc.)
There's a remarkable film on Netflix titled "Let Us Prey". Great music, a sort of darker John Carpenter soundtrack by way of Terminator. Without spoiling it too much, I'll just say the protagonist is the devil, it seems to be set in a purgatory that resembles Scotland, and one snip of dialogue sums it up:

Rachel Heggie: Go to hell!

Six: Why bother? All the devils are here.
Thank you for playing Debating Christianity & Religion!

fstopper
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Re: Is Hollywood helping or exploiting fear of hell?

Post #7

Post by fstopper »

[Replying to DeBunkem]

Hollywood has an agenda, along with making money, they appear to be trying to desensitize people to the fact of hell, just as poking fun at conspiracy theorists lead people to believe that there are no conspiracies, movies about hell inundate us with depictions of demons which are not only innacurate, but laughable as well, with the result that many people don't believe hell exists.

Youkilledkenny
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Re: Is Hollywood helping or exploiting fear of hell?

Post #8

Post by Youkilledkenny »

DeBunkem wrote: Seems every other horror flick out of Hollywood is either about Hell directly (Hellboy, Hell raiser, Hell spawn, etc.) or indirectly (Event Horizon, Silent Town, etc.)

It is very convenient to keep people superstitious and fearful, as religionists have discovered centuries ago. Could Hollywood be trying to help revive such disappearing fear through this medium? They certainly seem to be trying their best to get people used to cruel and mindless violence as well as Arab stereotypes.
I don't think most of Hollywood is that deep. Sure there are clever things in movies - things that reference other movies and parts of history - but Hollywood runs on $ more than 'morality' and helping the fellow man from what I've seen.

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