R-rated “House” Creates Quandary for Christian Filmgoers

House, the new movie based on Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti’s best-selling novel, has re-invigorated the discussion about “Christian Art.” But for all the wrong reasons.

The film has been labeled “Christian horror” and received an R-rating, both of which have become points of controversy. The CBA Industry Blog, in a post entitled The First Christian Horror Film, summarizes:

…House, which is based on the novel of the same name by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, has been labeled the first ever Christian horror film.

Adding to the buzz surrounding this film is its inked MPAA rating of R. Despite the filmmakers’ multiple appeals to the MPAA, the association remained firm on its rating. So now we have a Christian horror film with an R-rating. One sentence with several contradictory terms.

Or so it seems. When I sat down to talk with Dekker the other week about the film, I didn’t find a man trying to sway the MPAA to change, but rather a man calling the body to action. “Here’s a perfect watershed moment,” Dekker said. “Just because the world gave this film an R-rating, are we going to not sell it in our stores? Are we going to refuse to see it in the theaters just because the world slapped the letter ‘R’ on it despite it being the entire gospel message including salvation?”

Interesting. Should Christians not see a film and not sell it in their stores “Just because the world gave [it] an R-rating”? To me, the answer is obvious. The issue is truth and excellence in craft, not rating. But, as you might expect, the debate devolves into the denunciation of Christian Horror.  For instance, the Christians in Cinema site framed the topic as inherently contradictory. In Christian Horror: House [the film] and Other Oxymorons, commentators lamented that what could have been “a slick Christian outreach video” became a worldly ripoff, an exercise in excess. More than once in the discussion thread the call to purity was cited. Like this comment from Barbara:

Php 4:8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Ro 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

I believe the Scripture is clear in telling us how to fill our mind. I do not see horror anywhere here.

Barbara’s antagonism, sadly, is not unique. The Pharisees of Christ’s day debated endlessly about the Law, erecting an empire of tradition that stifled the common man and blinded them to God. Rules and prohibitions regarding diet, hygiene, clothing, and the Sabbath, created a climate of legalism. “Touch not; taste not; handle not” (Col. 2:21) was the mantra of the Pharisee. Nowadays, we’ve exchanged the controversy about eating pork for watching R-rated movies; instead of debating about hand-washing, we fret over Christian Horror.

To his credit, Ted Dekker, in a post entitled Latent Christianity, veered the discussion away from peripherals like MPAA rating and genre labels, and into the nature of Christian Art:

Throughout my career I’ve often find myself in the cross-hairs in this regard. There is always significant pressure on me from the minority Christian machine to produce more “Christian Friendly” stories. This amounts to material that fits more nicely in exclusively “Christian” sectors of the market, and runs little or no risk of offending anyone for any reason. Even better, novels that are blatantly Christian.

This is a huge market, a fact of which I am well aware. Millions gobble up books of this ilk. The Christianity is direct, the message spoon fed, and the sales are high. I have no argument against writers who choose this route, but I have chosen another.

In his essay on “Christian Apologetics,” C.S. Lewis made a statement that guides my writing. He reasoned that an argument for Christian principles or truth might hold people’s attention as they are reading it or hearing it, but “the moment they have gone away from the lecture hall or laid down our article, they are plunged back into a world where the opposite position is taken for granted. Every newspaper, film, novel and textbook undermines our work….” He then went on to say, “what we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects—with their Christianity latent.”

I appreciate Dekker’s struggle. Really. And I believe he’s correct in steering his opponents away from specifics (genre and rating) and onto the larger picture. But this quandary is nothing new, and as much a byproduct of the “Christian industry” as anything.

But what’s more telling — and can easily go unnoticed in this discussion — is that there’s far more concern about the film’s rating, than its quality. Frankly, when I heard House was being released, I was not excited. Why? Because these types of “Christian films” are notorious for being second-rate. The movie’s received an accumulated 0% on the Rotten Tomatoes. Zero percent! Metacritic fares a bit better with a 5.7 (out of 10) rating, with IMDB at 5.3%.

Here we are worrying over an R-rated Christian Horror film, and all the while winking at its mediocrity. I don’t get it.

The real horror is that Christian filmmaking has become so inferior, so pedestrian, and that Christians are too busy straining at gnats and swallowing camels to care.