{"id":21,"date":"2007-03-18T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2007-03-18T16:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2007\/03\/18\/proverbs-17\/"},"modified":"2008-07-03T23:33:28","modified_gmt":"2008-07-04T03:33:28","slug":"proverbs-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/2007\/03\/18\/proverbs-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Proverbs 1:7"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the subject of documentaries, they are best when they educate, & it’s as simple as that. They are good nearly always, but perhaps I’m a bit biased since I love the genre so much (maybe I’m bending the term genre a bit, but excuse me). Documentaries like Spellbound<\/em> or Word Wars<\/em> are great for their cute human-interest insights, & I love them for that, but you get a good concept going & the buried message can give you chills.<\/p>\n

\"Spellbound\"<\/p>\n

I think Michael Moore does this well, but a lot of people are going to disagree with me, & I disagree with myself whenever I see him on screen [on Moore: his documentaries suffer from a lack of detachment between film & director; he shoves his own ideas down yr throat instead of letting atrocities speak for themselves, & for that he’s made himself into a celebrity. If Bowling for Columbine<\/em> was more subtle & more humble, it might be the best film ever made]. But enough of that, cos the best documentary I can recommend to you all is what is perhaps the most terrifyingly unbiased film I’ve ever seen, & just watching it instilled a hatred in me that I haven’t felt from anything else. The power of this film is undeniable, almost inexcusable, & for that reason I have yet seen a documentary that can top Hell House<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The film is a sad, shocking, & chilling portrayal of Evangelical Christian “haunted houses” that involve children & teen volunteers from the congregation acting out scenes of sinful acts, all resulting in gruesome deaths & their subsequent delivery into Hell by cloaked, masked demons. Visitors to Hell Houses are led by a guide through rooms showing such things as botched abortions, suicide, “cults” (one of the only funny scenes in the movie involves the discussion of Harry Potter leading to the “dark side”), & a gay man’s death by AIDS. Hell House tours run for the week or two around Halloween each year & cost seven dollars, ending in a room where someone dressed in plain clothes gives two options: leave now thinking<\/em> you will go to Heaven, or enter the door on yr left for prayer & conversion. He gives you six seconds, counts down, & the pressure is on to join the church or go to Hell.<\/p>\n

\"AIDS\"<\/p>\n

The reason this documentary works so well is pretty clear to me: there is no obvious bias, & thus when it’s over you don’t know what the intention of the director has been. Was it meant to convert you, or piss you off? Does the director (George Ratliff) believe these Hell Houses (now growing in popularity nationwide each year; this film cites over 500 by 2003) are beneficial or harmful to society? There is very little background, no narration, & the actions of the church speak for themselves, whether it’s speaking in tongues or celebrating over being selected as this year’s “Abortion Girl” (the most popular role for the girls). With such muddled purpose, Hell House<\/em> excels far beyond most other documentaries, relying on basic human instinct as its own scare tactic as opposed to the violent guilt trip of the church itself. I swear it is the scariest movie I have ever seen, if only for the way it makes me despise humanity, & for a non-fiction film to do that is about the most you could ask for in real-life cinema, I believe. This may be the most important sociological film made in the past 10 years, truly essential viewing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. On the subject of documentaries, they are best when they educate, & it’s as simple as that. They are good nearly always, but perhaps … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[306,310],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-film","tag-filmtext-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/nsftmfx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}