Italy (via Moldova and Ukraine)

Black Sunday (1960)

Viy (1967)

On Twitter, someone recently posted, “I heard someone say once that you can't be a Christian and like horror movies.” 

We take anything said on social media quite seriously here at Movie Churches, so we find this concerning. After all, we have watched quite a number of horror films, and though some have been very bad indeed, we have to admit we’ve enjoyed watching many of them (including some of the bad ones.)

But even more concerning is not just that there are horror film viewers who are Christians, but there are even Christian horror filmmakers! Scott Derrickson, the director of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, argued that  Christians -- as believers in the supernatural -- were best equipped to make horror films. William Peter Blatty, who wrote the screenplay for The Exorcist and the novel on which it was based, considered his work an expression of his faith. And the director of one of today’s films, Mario Bava, was described in his life as a staunch Catholic. (A strange anecdote about the making of Bava’s one sex comedy, Four Times That Night, says that the director left the work to the assistant director when nudity was required on the set.)

So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that in Black Sunday, considered the first Italian horror film and a seminal work in the genre, a priest is one of the heroes in the film.

It should be noted that this film provides several stops for our European vacation. Though the film was made in Italy, it is set in Moldavia, a European principality that is no more. It's based on a short story, “The Viy” by the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol (who was born and raised in Ukraine).

Actually, the tale Bava tells is not even close to the story by Gogol.

The story of Black Sunday begins in the 1630s as a woman in Moldavia is about to be burned for witchcraft. But first, a bronze devil mask is attached to her face with spikes. A storm breaks out and keeps the woman, Princess Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) from being burned at the stake; instead, she’s just buried alive. Two hundred years later she’s found in a grave by Dr. Choma Kruvajan (Andrea Checchi) and his assistant, Dr. Andrej Gorobec (John Richardson). Kruvajan accidentally brings Asa back to life and things, needless to say, start to go bad. Asa brings back her brother and lover, Igor Javutich (Arturo Dominici), to help with the mayhem.

Meanwhile, Gorobec meets a young woman, Katia Vajda, who looks just like her ancestor, Asa. The two fall in love, but Asa plans to take Katia’s young body as her own to continue her plans for death and destruction. Gorobec goes to a priest (Antonio Pierfederici) for help. The priest knows that Asa killed Kruvajan and brought him back as one of the undead. The priest also knows the way to kill the undead: a nail through the eye. (I don’t remember any classes on killing the undead in my seminary, but apparently Orthodox priests have a very different curriculum.)

The priest also leads the angry crowd of townsfolk with torches that finally get around to burning Asa to death. Understandably, with the good Catholic Bava telling the story, the priests (even the Orthodox priests) are the heroes.

Priests don’t come off nearly so well in 1967’s Viy, a much more faithful telling of Gogol’s short story. Co-writers/co-directors Konstantin Ershov and Gerogiy Kropachyov needed to answer to Soviet authorities when they made this film, and the government at that time was not fond of religion.

Viy tells pretty much the same story as Gogol told. Gogol claimed it was a folk tale, but there is no record of it existing before he told it.

Three seminarians are lost while on vacation and come to what they believe is a farmhouse, but actually, it is the home of an old witch (Kinolay Kutuzov), who tries to seduce one of the men, Khoma (Leonid Kuravlyov). Instead, she ends up taking him on a wild flight in the air. The man’s prayers, perhaps, bring them down to the ground where Khoma beats the witch with a club.

When Khoma returns to his seminary, the Rector (Pyotr Vesklyarov) tells him he must go to the home of a rich landowner and pray for the man’s dying daughter. But when he arrives, he finds that the daughter is already dead. The father tells Khoma that his daughter asked for the seminarian by name before she died. She requested that Khoma would stay three nights with her corpse, praying for her soul. He calls Khoma a saint, but the young man insists he isn’t (in fact, last Lent, he claims to have snuck off to be with the butcher’s wife).

After promises of gold and threats of lashing, Khoma goes to the church, where he is locked in with the corpse for three nights. On the first night, the young woman (Natalya Varley) comes back to life and taunts Khoma, but he protects himself by drawing a chalk circle on the floor around himself and prays. The second night, Khoma fortifies himself by getting drunk. The corpse comes after him in a flying coffin, but he again survives the night. On the third night, the woman transforms into the witch and summons all sorts of demons, including Viy, a demon who can see all things. Khoma doesn’t survive the night. His friends mourn him but wonder if he might have survived if only he had a little more courage.

The clergy in this film are not heroes. The Rector sends Khoma because he is given a bribe. When the seminarians are on vacation, they get drunk, steal food, and assault women. These characters aren’t too wonderful in the original short story but are worse in the film.

It's an interesting piece of trivia that Black Sunday is considered the first Italian horror film and Viy is considered the first horror film. I believe Christians can learn from both films: to be like the priest in Black Sunday who earns our Four Steeple rating, and to not be like the seminarians of Viy who earn a One Steeple Rating.

The Devil Goes to The Church

The Church (1989)

The Church (2018)

I’ve been writing this blog about churches in movies for nearly seven years, and part of the process is, of course, finding films to write about. Often, I go to IMDb or Amazon movies and search for “church.” One of the top choices since the beginning has been 1989’s The Church. It’s a horror film from the Italian horror master Dario Argento. (Although, Dario didn’t direct this time; he just has a producer and “Story by” credit.)

The film was an obvious pick for movie churches with that title, so I bought a DVD of the film over a year ago. Then last Father’s Day, one of my daughters bought me a DVD of The Church. I thought I’d need to return one of the films -- until I realized my daughter had found a completely different horror film called The Church which was made in 2018.

And now (finally!) I have a suitable time to take a look at both films with this month's theme of "Devil Churches," and will be able to ignore them in my future Google searches.

The 1989 film The Church, directed by Michele Soavi, opens in medieval Germany. A band of knights led by a monk (I believe, but it could be a priest) finds a couple of women and a child hiding in a cave. The monk questions the women about whether they are witches. A knight kills one of the women, and the priest finds a cross cut into the skin on the sole of her foot, which he claims was a sign that she was a witch in league with Satan.

The monk (or priest or guy in a brown robe with a cross) tells the knights to kill every man, woman, child, and animal in the village. They do, bury the whole lot, and build a cathedral over the bodies. That cathedral is the church of the film’s title.

In modern day, we meet a church librarian, Evan (Thomas Arana) arriving late on his first day of work at the cathedral. He's there to catalog the books and papers, and he meets the cranky old Bishop (Feodor Chaliapin); a kindly young priest, Gus (Hugh Quarshie); and a pretty artist, Lisa (Barbara Cupisti), who is there to refurbish the frescos in the sanctuary.

We do hear the bishop preaching, not surprisingly (considering the genre), on the demon-possessed man that Jesus heals in Luke 8. The bishop likes to talk about demons and Satan a lot. 

As the priests dine together, the bishop tells one of the priests, “I have a quote for your sermon, ‘The world is the devil’s.’” 

That priest then asks Father Gus, “Could you suggest a quote for the sermon?” (This is odd because to give a quote for a sermon, it would be helpful to know what the sermon is about. I think Gus should have said, “Did you use the one about the footprints in the sand?”)

Meanwhile, Evan discovers an old parchment that appears to be an architect’s schematics for the building. With the help of Lisa, he finds a reference to a “stone with seven eyes.” Evan finds the stone embedded in a seal on a cross in a hidden crypt. He pries out the stone, which unleashes a blue light and all kinds of supernatural nastiness.

Soon people are trapped in the church, including a group of school children on a tour and a bridal party there for a photo shoot. Everyone begins to have nasty visions, many featuring demons. Evan goes a little nuts (Jack in The Shining style) and begins typing all sixes on a typewriter. One woman sees herself as old in a mirror and begins scratching at her face. Another woman imagines (?) herself being raped by a demon.

Gus goes to see the bishop about the unpleasantness, and the Cardinal seems to have some idea of what is going on. He says what is happening is not the devil’s work, but God’s. He says there is a great evil under the building, and God is keeping that evil from escaping (I would disagree with the bishop on some points here). Then the bishop says, “I am the church!” and dives from a great height in the church to his death.

Gus searches for the architect's records and finds a self-destruct mechanism to destroy the church. Fearing the evil in the church will spread, Gus trips off the mechanism to keep the evil from escaping outside the church. So the evil is ended. Or is it? (As is pondered at the end of most films like this.)

The other film called The Church (2018) has a subtitle: No Refuge for the Wicked. The filmmakers seem to have tried to make a PG-13 horror film, but the acting and production values feel very much like a low-budget Christian film. It's odd.

The film opens with Scripture, I Corinthians 3: 17 “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy…” (I found it quite interesting they left off the rest of that verse, “and you, together, are that temple.”)

The film opens in a bar where some locals are complaining about the local church and its pastor. It seems developers are looking to buy up all the local properties but the plans are at a standstill because the pastor won’t sell.

We then see the offices of the Lawson Corporation where father and son Lawson are discussing Big Business. Father Lawson is worrying about not yet being able to buy the church which is slowing down their Big Business plans. But the son, Ron (Matthew Nadu), promises his dad that he’ll take care of everything.“I’m putting a squeeze on the pastor, I’m doing everything I can short of extortion.”

Meanwhile, Pastor James (Bill Moseley) and his wife, Loretta (Michelle Romano), are discussing selling the building. The wife is all for it, but the pastor says, “It’s not just a church, it’s our family legacy.” (This is a strange thing I've found in films and TV but I haven’t found in life, churches passed down generation to generation. In this movie, the building also seems to be part of the family heritage). Joan complains that people are “migrating from churches like ours to megachurches. All our money is going to repairs.” 

“That’s why we have a building fund,” the Pastor responds.

Maria (Belinda M. Wilson) approaches the couple to say, “Everything is clean and ready for the service. Do we need anything else?” The worship service begins immediately after that (I would be concerned about the way Maria seems to do her janitorial duties at the last possible moment.)

The service is poorly attended, but Ron Lawson is there (though a little late). After the service, he shakes the pastor’s hand and says, “Amazing sermon. I’m Ron Lawson and this is my beautiful assistant.” He then goes into a sales pitch promising to build a new church at a different location with “heating and other amenities” such as megascreens. And Ron gives the pastor the plans for this new church along with envelopes full of cash.

The pastor at first seems concerned about the bribe, but his wife assures him he deserves it for all of his hard work. Then he’s okay with it.

The pastor is not the only one receiving bribe money. Various committee members also receive promises of a cut of the profits. We see one committee enjoying their wads of cash. The name of this committee is one I have never heard before, the Stewardesses. (Maybe it’s a variation of Stewards, but it’s still odd.) The Stewardesses worry “we’ll never get the Deacons, they’re led by a real Old Testament type.”

The church committees meet together to vote on whether to sell the church. All the various boards are sent off to vote, and the pastor encourages them to “Follow your conscience and pray before you vote.” Many are obviously following their pocketbooks.

Loretta counts the votes and writes down each committee's tally -- then changes the figures. The major investors from Lawson Corp come for the event, and the vote is very close. The final committee vote is read, and the committees have voted to sell the church by one vote.

Then very strange things take place. The doors close and lock everyone inside. Stained glass shatters. Strange sounds and sights frighten all.

Someone comes across an old newspaper clipping with the headline, “Church Burns Wicked Immigrant Family.” (They don’t write headlines like that anymore. Well, maybe New York Post, but besides that…)

One of the men from Lawson Corp is from Romania, and he says everything going on reminds him of a family legend. He says, “If the leaders of the church are not pure, then the church engulfs their spirits until they become pure.” Pastor James assures everyone that his being the pastor shows he is pure. (As a pastor, I must say I have rarely been in any grouping of a congregation when I was the purest in the room.)

Things go from bad to worse, as the pastor's wife and others are transported to another dimension. Fog and smoke and fire engulf the sanctuary. There was an icon of an unknown saint in the front of the sanctuary. That icon comes to life in the form of a ghostly Clint Howard dressed in ecclesiastic vestments.

But then we find (Spoilers) that it was all a dream (or vision)! Pastor James is again standing before the committees about to announce the vote. But he fudges the count so that the church won’t be sold. God apparently honors the pastor’s dishonesty, since we then see a well attended service and the church appears to be prospering.

But Ron Lawson is off to buy up another church property with unfortunate results anticipated.

One of the first Sunday School lessons I remember from my childhood was “The church isn’t a building, the church is people.” Both of these films seem to teach that the church is the building and a deadly, killer structure at that. That’s why the churches in both films (along with the majority of the clergy) receive our lowest Movie Churches rating of One Steeple.

It's Dead in Church!

Back when I was a youth pastor, I once organized a zombie night for the high school youth group. A woman, not part of the church or (as far as I know)  connected to the youth in any way, sent me an email. She had heard about the event and wanted to let me know I was exposing the youths to great evil and imperiling souls. 

Here I thought I was teaching the kids some important spiritual truths.

This incident came to mind as Mindy and I were sightseeing in Pennsylvania recently. Early in the morning, we went to Evans City to see their cemetery, the one used in the opening scenes of the 1968 horror classic, Night of the Living Dead. The film opens with a brother and sister, Barb and Johnny, visiting their father’s grave. Their dialog is all that brings the film into the realm of Movie Churches.

Barbara is praying when her brother says, “Hey, come on, Barb. Church was this morning… I mean, prayin’s for church."

She responds, “I haven’t seen you in church lately.” 

He answers back, “Well, there’s not much sense in my going to church.” Though zombies have yet to make an appearance in the film, Johnny is foreshadowing the possibility that judgment is inevitable and it is too late for any redemption the church might have to offer him.

These themes are made more explicit in the 30th-anniversary commemorative edition of the film that had additional scenes, including some with the Reverend John Hicks, a clergyman who warns, “This is like the flood that happened during Noah’s time or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah! We are being punished for our sins! The dead are rising, and Judgment Day is upon us!” It appears in the film that the Rev. Hicks and other ministers didn’t do enough for the Church to bring people to repentance, possibly, along with other possibilities like chemical warfare and a virus in space, causing the rise of deadly cannibalistic zombies.

The themes of spiritual emptiness and spiritual needs return in the first sequel to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead.  In that film, a small group of survivors from zombie attacks take refuge in a shopping mall (specifically, the Monroeville Mall, which Mindy and I were also able to visit, though the museum was closed). Zombies flock to the mall (though they are initially locked out) and one of the survivors, Francine, says, “What are they doing? Why do they come here?” 

Stephen, another survivor of the zombie attacks, responds, “Some kind of instinct. Memory of what they used to do. This was an important place in their lives.”

This reference to the mall as an important place in the former lives of zombies not so subtly satirizes the materialism that dominated many lives, leaving little room for the spiritual. (There is no church in the Monroeville Mall; churches in storefront spaces wasn’t a thing back in 1978 when the film was made except in some very large cities downtown areas. It's more common in suburbs now.)

Though there isn’t much church or clergy in either film, the films’ director and co-writer, George Romero had some interesting church connections in his life. Romero wrote and directed the 1973 film, The Amusement Park, for the Lutheran Society, condemning our society's abuse of the elderly. But apparently, the organization found the film too bizarre and grim and wouldn’t release it. In 2018, a print of the film was discovered, the film was restored, and this year it was released on Shudder, the horror streaming service.

Romero also played a role in saving a church. In 2011, Romero made a contribution of $50,000 to repairs for the chapel of the Evans City Cemetery, spearheading the funding raising drive. Along with the donation, he wrote a letter to the city thanking them for their contribution to making the film that made his career. The chapel doors were locked the day we visited, but through the front windows, we could see enough to know that the drive was successful.

Still, I think the greatest contribution of the Dead films is the way they bring a spiritual truth to life. The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I can't read, “You were dead,” “gratifying the cravings of our flesh,” and “we were dead” without thinking of Romero’s shambling zombies. So that was the scripture passage I sent to the concerned emailer, I never heard from her again.

Horror goes to church

The Last Drive-In (a show on Shudder, a subscription video-on-demand service) gives out The Silver Bolo Award for excellence in horror media. On occasion, movie blogs have received this highly prestigious award, but sadly, Movie Churches never will -- only, we're sure, because horror isn't the exclusive topic here. Nonetheless, it's amazing how many horror films have been featured in this blog about clergy and churches.

But maybe it isn’t amazing at all. 

Many horror films presuppose something beyond the material world: the supernatural is a reality. That's right in line with the beliefs of the orthodox church and clergy. 

The Horror subgenre of Exorcism films is probably the easiest example, beginning (of course) with The Exorcist. It's one of the most acclaimed horror films of all time. , and everyone who remembers the film remembers the heroic priests in the film. 

Roman Catholic priests are usually featured in exorcism films, though surely some Protestants have taken on the job. We've discussed the churches and clergy in several exorcism films, and there are others we haven't talked about (yet). Check out The Exorcist III  (but not yet The Exorcist 2: The Heretic, though we'll get to it), The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Rite, and The Nun (which has some discussion about exorcism).

Of course, there are a number of horror films with priests where the confrontation is with Satan or evil forces where possession is not the issue. We've dealt with plenty of those: Prince of Darkness, Pastorela, and The Unholy. The End Times are often the setting, as in The End of Days,  The Rapture, The Omen, The Calling and The Way of the Wicked.

Sometimes the clergy provide the horror, which happens in The Night of the Hunter, Day of Wrath, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, The Purge: The Election Year, or any of the very many films about nuns. Sometimes it’s just murder in an ecclesiastical setting as in Primal Fear or Alice, Sweet Alice or Heathers (well, in this one a few scenes take place in a funeral home, but still).

Of course, not all of the supernatural elements in horror films are the same kinds of things you find in the Bible -- like, say, the ghosts in Carnival of Souls or Poltergeist II: The Other Side. There have been a surprising number of vampires in Movie Churches -- Stake Land, Thirst, From Dusk Till Dawn, Priest, Vampyr, Van Helsing and John Carpenter’s Vampires. There have been a few werewolves, in The Wolfman, Silver Bullet, The Curse of the Werewolf, and The Howling VI: The Freaks. And there’s been one weredinosaur in The VelociPastor.

There’s even been churches and clergy with alien invaders in Signs and War of the Worlds.

So though we’ll continue to look at sappy Christian films, depressing foreign films, musicals, thrillers, and comedies… Horror films will always have a place here at Movie Churches.

Some Film Recommendations

It goes without saying that people have been doing a lot of screen watching in days. A friend on Facebook recently asked for suggestions of things to watch, so I did some digging around for some options.

Since we don't review the movies here at Movie Churches (instead, we review clergy and churches in movies -- as you know), many, many of the films here aren't good. Some are almost painful to watch, but I do it for the good of you, dear readers. These, on the other hand, are films I enjoyed. Some of them I love dearly. They're divided into categories, and if you'd like to know more, click the title to go to the original post. Most are available on Amazon Prime.

Robert Duvall Trilogy
Duvall has made (IMHO) made three of the best films about the Christian faith. (And a couple of pretty awful ones as well, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.)
Get Low
Tender Mercies
The Apostle (language and violence)

Classics
Two of these films won the Oscar for Best Picture, and the other should have. (And all of the clergy did pretty well in their steeple ratings too.)
On the Waterfront (Adult themes)
A Man for All Seasons
The Quiet Man

Comedy
Frankly, there have been funnier films reviewed here, but the original request stressed that the films should be family-friendly. Still, these films did make me laugh.
Heaven’s Above
Millions (language)
O Brother Where Art Thou (language and sensuality)

Foreign
I know, I know, reading is hard. Subtitles. But worth it.
Au Revoir, Les Enfants
Joyeux Noel (violence)
We Are Brothers (strong language)

Musicals
The theology is rarely great in musicals, and these films aren’t exceptions. But they’re fun.
Cabin in the Sky
Guys and Dolls
The Sound of Music

Science Fiction/Horror
For some reason, people often think these genres are not Christian. But horror acknowledges the supernatural and science fiction often stresses that some things are beyond human understanding.
The Hunchback of Norte Dame
Signs (language, violence)
War of the Worlds (1953)

Worthy Christian Films
Christian films are, as a group, pretty bad. Too often they're nothing more than sappy propaganda. I’ve watched some really bad Christian films for this blog, but I enjoyed these.
The Case for Christ
Soul Surfer
Grace Unplugged

What about you? Looking for any movie recommendations? Let me know.

I Want to Believe There's A Good Horror Sequel Out There

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)
This film was made ten years ago, and it probably wouldn’t be made today, at least not in the same way. The X-Files: I Want to Believe offers a sympathetic portrayal of a pedophile Roman Catholic priest; post Spotlight and #MeToo, that just wouldn’t happen.

It’s horror sequels month at Movie Churches, and this 2008 film is not only a sequel to the 1998 film, The X-Files: Fight the Power, but also a sequel to the TV series (The X-Files began its run in 1993, ended in 2002, and was revived again in 2016.) The television show included horror, science fiction, crime drama, fantasy, and even comedy. It followed two F.B.I. agents who investigated “X-files,” cases that had elements of the supernatural or uncanny. The TV series was among the first prime time series to have a “mythology,” an ongoing storyline and theme, but it also had stand-alone episodes. I always preferred the stand-alone episodes and I Want to Believe is more like the stand-alone episodes (it does not, for example, have anything about space aliens).

The central plot is the F.B.I.’s search for an abducted F.B.I. agent. As the film opens, neither Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) or Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Scully is a physician for a Catholic hospital, and Scully is living off the grid -- he’s technically wanted for breaches of security by the F.B.I. (but the agency isn’t really looking for him very hard).

When the F.B.I. receives credible information from a psychic, the leading agent in the case, Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet), decides she needs F.B.I. experts in the paranormal, so she first contacts Scully, and asks Scully to contact Mulder with the offer of having all former charges dropped against him if he helps with the case.

There is a subplot, relevant to Movie Churches, about Scully’s work in a Catholic hospital. We first see her in amiable conversations with priests at the hospital. One of her patients is an adorable young boy with the name, notably, of “Christian” (making John Bunyan proud). The child has a rare, fatal disease. Scully believes a new, experimental treatment might save the child’s life, but liability issues lead the ecclesiastical leadership to recommend that the child be put into hospice. This conflict continues throughout, and even provides the conclusion of the film.

Back in the main plotline, Scully and Mulder go off to interview Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), the priest who claims to have had visions about the kidnapped F.B.I. agent. Scully wonders whether it will be worth interviewing him, but Mulder says, “He’s a religious man, an educated man.”

Father Joe resides in a dormitory filled with priests, and he says that all the residents despise each other. Father Joe molested 37 altar boys. We see him smoking, we also see him at prayer.

Mulder and Scully interview Father Joe as good cop, bad cop. Not as tactic, but because Mulder is genuinely interested in the priest’s visions, “Can you show us how you do it?”

Scully, on the other hand, is offended by the presence of the molester, “In twenty-four hours we could have a dead agent and find out this priest is a big, fat fraud.”

Scully asks the priest, “What was it you were praying for in there, sir?” 

Father Joe responds, “For the salvation of my immortal soul.”

“And do you think God hears your prayers?”

Joe: “Do you think he hears yours?”

Scully: “I didn’t bugger 37 altar boys. You can ask God for forgiveness, but you can’t have mine.”

The priest has more visions, and not only that, he bleeds from his eyes. A miracle? He leads the agents to the crime scene, but too late. The criminals have left with the hostages. In time, the priest’s visions do lead to the rescue of the agent. Father Joe dies of cancer.

And Scully finds the faith to treat young Christian, though opposed by the administrator/priest of the hospital.

So what steeple rating should we give the church and clergy of this film? The pedophile priest does seem to be used by God in the end. And the Roman Catholic church does provide a hospital for those in need, though they don’t trust the wisdom of Dr. Agent Scully as they should. So they avoid our lowest Movie Church rating, and we give Father Joe and the Catholic hospital a rating of 2 Steeples.

Horror Movie Churches Month: The Sequel (PII)

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
I saw this week’s film when it came out under circumstances I’m not proud of. I was in seminary and, working with a friend, was cleaning out the dorms at the end of the school year. We found a box (in a dumpster, don't ask), a little treasure chest, full of change -- nearly $30.00 worth. We asked around to see if anyone knew where it came from, but we didn’t ask very many people. You’d think, as good students of theology and ethics, we would have gone to great efforts to find the rightful owners of the cash, but no. We only went to moderate effort. We could have used that money for a good cause: foreign missions, projects to feed the hungry, providing fresh water to the thirsty. That money could have gone to a scholarship to send kids to camp.

But no.

We spent the money on pizza and going to a drive-in movie. Weeks later we heard from someone who thought the money was his.

Perhaps divine retribution for our less than righteous behavior is why we chose the drive-in where 1986’s Poltergeist II: The Other Side was playing. It’s a very bad sequel to very entertaining film (Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg). This month I had to watch it again, because I remembered that the film has a strange clergyman and an interesting theological take. I hope, with this viewing, my penance for my unjust action of the past will be paid. (Yes, I do believe in God’s grace covering our sin...But work with the premise here.)

There were some odd circumstances in the making of this sequel. In the original film, Steve and Diane Freeling (Craig T. Nelson and Jobeth Williams), have three children. The eldest, Dana (Dominique Dunne), the son, Robbie (Oliver Robins), and the youngest, Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). The script called for Dana to be away in college; she wasn’t intended to be in the film at all.Then, in real life, the actress was murdered. All reference to the character was dropped, so this poorly made film also feels rather morbid. (Heather O’Rourke, who played Carol Ann, died at 13 from health issues, leading to stories of the Poltergeist Curse. Oliver Robins, who’s still alive, vehemently denies any such thing.)

The father, Steve, is out of work (“I’m into downward mobility”) and in financial straits after their home’s destruction in the first film. (Since this post is already plagued with tangents, I’ll add another. Steve was played by Craig T. Nelson, who I met at church in Hawaii while Mindy and I were traveling the country in 2016.) The family is living in the home of Diane’s mother, Gramma-Jess (Geraldine Fitzgerald).

But wouldn’t you know it, just as ghosts besieged the Freeling family in the first film, it’s happening again in this one. In the first film, the problem was building the their home over a Native American burial ground (as we discussed last week, location is so important in real estate.) This film has ghosts that, in life, were followers of a strange 18th century preacher.

While Diane is out shopping with her children, Carol Anne strays away and becomes lost. An old preacher (Julian Beck) approaches the little blonde girl and says, “Are you lost, sweetheart? Are you afraid? You come with me.”

Nope, nothing creepy about that at all.

Carol Anne won’t go with him, so he tells her he’ll sing her a song, which goes, “God is in His holy temple, earthly thoughts be silent now.” Diane finds them both and thanks the preacher for caring for her daughter. After the family leaves, we see someone walk right through the old man.

Then more tragedy strikes the Freeling family. Gramma-Jess dies in her sleep, but Carol Ann gets a post-mortem phone call from her grandmother on her toy telephone. Then a Native American man, Taylor (Will Sampson), comes to the Freeling family and says he is there to protect them. They let him camp out in the backyard.

The old preacher comes to Gramma-Jess’s house. Rain follows him as he walks and sings, “He is with us now, as we call upon his name… guiding us to His every aim.” Diane sees the old man and says, “Can we help you? Haven’t I seen you before?”

“That is possible,” he responds. “I get around.”

The Freeling dog is not fond of the stranger; he seems afraid.

“Let me introduce myself,” the old man says. “Herman Kane.”

“We’ve had enough of door to door salesmen,” Steve says.

The old man tells Steve, “I should have said Reverend Kane, and what I have to sell is free. You have an Indian living with you. I’m with an organization that helps families like yours that deal with fakes and charlatans. Let me into your home. I can see he has a strong hold on this family. They turn to him, they don’t trust you anymore. You feel as if you’re not man enough to hold this family together.”

“How do you know?” Steve asks.

“I’m smart and I’m your friend and I know what you’re thinking. I’m your friend. Let me in! Now! Before it’s too late. You’re going to die in hell! All of you! You’re going to die!”

Steve doesn’t appreciate this outburst and says to the man, “Get the hell out of here!”

The Reverend leaves and the rain stops.

Steve asks Taylor about the man, and Taylor tells him, “He comes in many forms, but that was the Beast.”

They need help, so they call on the psychic from the first film, Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein in her Razzie-winning role). She explains the history of the Reverend Kane to the Freeling family, “There was a religious sect that mysteriously disappeared. Their leader was a medium, he led his people in the early 1800’s to start a utopian society. They disappeared and were believed to be massacred by Indians.” Now this sect is trapped in the underworld, but they believe Carol Anne has a link to the beyond, and they want to possess her in order to escape.

The remainder of the film is a battle between the Freeling family and the Beast, Rev. Kane, and the demon ghosts that worship him. The Freeling family trusts in Native American spirituality for their ultimate victory in opposition to Kane who takes the role of a Christian pastor, though he is nothing of the sort. He obviously has nothing to do with Jesus or God’s grace. Because of that, we are giving Kane and his church our lowest Movie Church rating of one steeple.

At Movie Churches, we believe in grace, which is why we tell you, “Skip Poltergeist II: The Other Side,” just as we plan to continue avoiding Poltergeist III. What you do with found money is between you and God.

Horror Movie Month: the Sequel

As a rule, sequels are terrible. With a few exceptions (The Godfather II, The Empire Strikes Back, and the New Testament come to mind), the sequel rarely lives up to the originality and richness of a beloved film or novel. I’d be content in living in a world without Casablanca II: The Adventures of Rick and Louie or The Princess Bride II: The Challenges of Living Happily Ever After. For some reason, horror films -- many of them not very good to begin with -- have more sequels than any other genre.

For instance, the original 1978 Halloween (a very well made film, albeit without church and clergy) has a sequel debuting this month titled, oh so originally, Halloween. There have already been nine sequels, all pretty bad retellings of the boogeyman Michael Myers. (Well, except Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is about a mad doctor who uses Celtic magic to make deadly Halloween masks. So that was different.)

Fortunately, here at Movie Churches, we don’t care much about the quality of a film, just about whether the film features churches and/or clergy. We’d rather watch good films, but sadly, in preparation for this series, I researched and viewed films that were not only bad, but also didn’t have any interesting content about churches or clergy (looking at you, Damien: Omen II). I’d rather be able to say, “This film has an interesting take on baptism, AND it’s great fun to watch,” but don’t expect much in the way of MUST SEE films this month as we look at Horror Movie Sequels at movie churches. (Okay, one of the films isn’t bad, but most of them...)

Don’t worry, though. They all have interesting perspectives on matters ecclesiastical while they’re trying to scare us.

Robert Mitchum Movie Churches Month

It could be argued that no single actor lowered of image of clergy in the cinema more substantially than Robert Mitchum. During the first decades of cinema in the sound era priests were represented as being kindly and wise, played by the likes of Bing Crosby, Pat O’Brien, and Barry Fitzgerald. These men raised funds for the poor (or at least the building fund), offered sage advice, and made a difference in the lives of troubled youths.

With one performance, as the homicidal preacher Harry Powell, Mitchum changed the perception that a clergyman in a film was someone the audience could trust to do the right thing. He might instead be the person who will do the very worst thing.

You might remember reading a post about that film, Night of the Hunter, during a month of Halloween horror films. Mitchum again played a murderous pastor in Five Card Stud, a Movie Churches post from before there was a Movie Churches blog.

From these two films, one might get the impression that ministry and killing always go hand in hand. Fortunately, this isn’t the case in all of Robert Mitchum’s filmography, so we’ll be looking at clergy and churches in Robert Mitchum films to see if there are more pleasant ecclesiastical outcomes. (Spoiler, Deborah Kerr, as a nun in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, doesn’t go on a deadly killing spree. She’s rather nice, in fact.) Look for a new Mitchum Movie Church every Friday this month.

Vampire Movie Month: Stake Land (Halloween Bonus)

Stake Land (2010)

In 1967, Joseph Bayly wrote a story called “The Gospel Blimp” about folks from a church who decide to evangelize the neighborhood by dropping Gospel tracts from the sky. The tracts litter yards and clog storm dreams. It’s a very unproductive plan for reaching the community for Christ.

Perhaps you’ve seen the episode of WKRP in Cincinnati in which the radio station drops turkeys from the sky for a publicity stunt. That plan doesn’t go well either, but at least both plans were kindly intentioned. That’s not the case with the church that drops vampires from the sky in the film Stake Land.

Stake Land was produced in 2010 and released to five theaters in 2011. It didn’t have much of a life in the cinema, but it better with home video and, later, streaming on Netflix. The Syfy channel even made a sequel, Stake Land II: The Stakelander in 2016.

The first movie was made the same year that the TV series The Walking Dead came out, and both have a similar feel. In both a plague (in Stake Land of vampires and in The Walking Dead of zombies) has brought down American civilization. Both follow the nomadic journey of survivors looking searching for a place of peace and safety. In both, viewers should beware of investing emotionally in any one character, because even cute children are not safe. Stake Land, though, has less than two hours of carnage as opposed to The Walking Dead’s hundred plus. But neither offers much hope.

Stake Land opens with a Gospel song, “No More, Oh Lord.” A man only called “Mister” rescues a boy named Martin whose family was killed by vampires. With his dying words, Martin’s father tells Mister to save his son. The two try to head for a rumored place of safety in the north, New Eden (Canada). In a voiceover, Martin says, “We avoided the cities, but pockets of civilization survived. We waited for a Messiah, but He never came.”

The two ride in a car and come across a nun who runs into the road, pursued by two men who assault her. Mister kills the two men, and the nun (played by Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame) joins them in their journey. The nun, Sister, says of the men who attacked her, “Those men, they said they were Christians.” Mister expects gratitude for killing the men, but she says, “It’s not ours to judge.”

That night, they meet one of her former friends, Sister Agatha. Sister Agatha has turned to a vampire, so Mister and Martin kill her.

Along the way, the travelers see signs announcing they are entering “God’s Country.” On the car radio, they hear a preacher inviting them to a revival tent in the woods. When Mister, Martin, and Sister enter the tent, it appears that the pews are littered with corpses. But they hear a baby crying and see a crib. As they approach the crib, they find a doll inside with a tape recorder playing a baby’s cries. The “corpses” rise -- they are members of a group that calls themselves a Christian Church, the Brotherhood.

One of the men who assaulted Sister, killed by Mister, was the son of the leader of the Brotherhood, Jebedia Loven. Loven explains that the Brotherhood believe in Aryan supremacy and believe that God has sent the vampires to purify the nation.  Loven protects vampires and feeds them.

Loven sends Mister, bound, into the night to be killed by vampires and enslaves Martin and Sister. But Mister, Martin, and Sister all escape in their own ways and find their way to a government-run settlement.

They think, at that settlement, they’ve found peace, but at a community social, a dance, the  Brotherhood airlift vampires to the party. Ten people are killed. Martin attributes the attack as coming from “Christians.” MIster gets revenge on the Brotherhood, but the Brotherhood strikes back. Jebedia ultimately comes back as a vampire seeking revenge and calling himself “God.”

To say the least, Jebedia as clergy and the church represented by the Aryan Brotherhood does not come across well in the film. It receives the lowest possible rating of One Steeple.

(Sister, on the other hand, quoting the 23rd Psalm and praying with her last breath, would receive Three.)