DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Hell House
Director:
George Ratliff
Producers:
Zachary Mortensen
Selina Lewis Davidson
George Ratliff
TEAM
Hell House was shot over the course of 12 weeks in the summer and fall of 2000 just outside Dallas, Texas. Upon completion, the film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2001 and then played SXSW. It went on to win awards at the San Francisco Film Festival and play at festivals around the world. Hell House had a theatrical release through Seventh Arts and had its cable television premiere on the Sundance Channel.
The film will be restored from the original 16mm negative and will be re-released in 2026.
trailer
With its cast of eager high school students drawn from the church’s Christian educational system, ”Hell House” essentially presents a series of gruesome skits — a teenager tries suicide, a doctor botches an abortion — as visitors are led from room to room by black-robed guides. It’s sort of a low-tech, high-energy ”Pirates of the Caribbean.”
New York Times
Step into the dark world of George Ratliff’s award-winning documentary that pulls back the curtain on America’s most controversial evangelical scare tactic. In a small Texas town, the Trinity Assembly of God Church transforms into a religious haunted house where demon-costumed tour guides lead visitors through graphic tableaus of teenage catastrophes—from school shootings to AIDS deaths to botched abortions. Ratliff’s intimate 16mm film captures the fervent believers who meticulously craft this fire-and-brimstone spectacle that draws 10,000 visitors annually. Equal parts shocking, thought-provoking, and darkly fascinating, “Hell House” offers unprecedented access to a distinctly American phenomenon where religious zeal meets theatrical horror.
