Oddball Films welcomes filmmaker Selina Lewis Davidson for a screening of the remarkable documentary Hell House (2002). Hell House documents a high-tech fire-and-brimstone sermon that a Dallas Pentecostal church puts on every Halloween to scare kids into coming to services. Trinity Assembly of God church invented Hell Houses in 1990 and every Halloween since, they've pulled out truckloads of lights, enlisted hundreds of actors and built an enormous haunted compound from scratch. Trinity's Hell House looks to be just a souped-up haunted house until one enters. Inside, a tour guide dressed as a demon takes groups of kids from room to room to view depictions of school massacres, AIDS deaths, fatal drunk-driving crashes and botched abortions. All the while, demons goad gullible teen actors to commit sins and then drag their recently departed souls off to hell. In the end, the audience is escorted to Hell to watch all of the sinners from Hell House burning and suffering and begging anyone who will listen not to make the same mistakes they made. With full access to the behind-the-scenes action, Hell House the documentary follows the process of putting up the show from the first script meeting until the last of the 13,000 visitors pass through the Hell House doors. The movie gives a verite window into the whole outrageous process of creating this over-the-top sermon while showing an intimate portrait of the people who haunt this peculiar culture. Before the film, we will be screening a haunting excerpt of the (unreleased on VHS or DVD) 1935 Spencer Tracy film Dante's Inferno, featuring hundreds of scantily clad sinners writhing in eternal damnation. It's sure to be one Hell of a night!
Admission: $10.00 Limited Seating RSVP to RSVP@oddballfilm.com or (415) 558-8117
George Ratliff, a Texas native, began his career in journalism. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin film program, Ratliff moved to Costa Rica to write for a Central American newsmagazine and become a correspondent for Texas newspapers. After returning to the states, Ratliff redirected his efforts to film and has written and directed features, shorts and television programs.
Zachary Mortensen moved to New York from Colorado and received his BFA in film from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has production managed several feature films including Wrestling With Alligators, Scrapple, Ties to Rachel, The Broken Giant, Vertical City and Todd Phillips Bittersweet Motel, a documentary about the band Phish. He line produced Noah Baumbach’s feature film Highball and has produced a number of music videos and short films including the 360-degree immersive short movie The New Arrival and the award-winning Sundance entry, Second Skin, both by director Amy Talkington.
