Monday, October 20, 2008

Blogging Project Post #7

There seem to be many movies about evil or the Devil, but very few movies that actually focus on Hell. For example, we were only able to discover one title of Inferno in film form and it was a weird puppet-based film. Why do you think there are so few films about Hell itself but so many about evil?

49 comments:

Mike Sipes said...

Their hasen't been many movies because many directors don't want to upset the catholic church. People are interested in films that have to deal with evil and hell but people also might be affended because the film might mock their beliefs.

sep said...

alex sepkowski

its all about money, the producers dont really wanna make a movie with hell in it alot because people dont want to see the reality of hell they just want to see the good things in heaven.

09dparker said...

There are so many hell novels and movies because people really think about what is hell like. Plus producers knows that hell movies sell so they can make money off of them. You can make alot of different movies dealing with hell.

rob nicholl said...

I agree with Sipes, directors do not want to upset the Catholic Church because there are a lot of people who are influenced by the Catholic Church. If the Church says that people should not see a movie because of its ideas, then a good number of people will not go and see it. I also believe that a lot of people have no clear picture of what hell actually is, we see all these movies about the devil because we all have a stereotype of what the devil looks like.

Mike Childs said...

I agree with Nicholl and Sipes. The Catholic Church has a huge influence on what its believers watch so film makers dont want to upset the Church. For intstance, when the Harry Potter movies started coming out, the Church was all upset that it was the devils work and it would be a moral sin to watch it...what the hell? So apparently the Church thinks fantasy is the devils work...wow. So I think film makers have learned from that fiasco.

M.S said...

I believe that it might have friction with the Catholic Church. For example, The Golden Compass and that was not good because the church told Catholics not to see it. I also think that there are very few films about hell because directors are afraid of criticism and don’t know how to fully portray any image or their image of hell. This is also a low movie topic because everyone pictures hell differently. There are not many movies about heaven either so it’s hard to make up or describe something we have never seen before without upsetting people. Evil and violence are so easy to portray in movies. You can portray evil in so many different ways and that’s why there are more evil spirited movies then hell movies.

ttk said...

i think that there are few movies out portaying hell because there are few who are wiling to spend the money needed to make a motion picture. I think a "hell" movie would be hit or miss and would produce mixed reactions regardelss of financial outcome.

ttk said...

this is terry shuman

jakob marshall said...

have you ever watched a movie you used to think was cool but haven't seen in awhile? usually, since its been so long, that old movie has really bad graphics,acting,etc that you thought were good at the time. also, hell is different to everybody. my imagination of hell is differnt from dante's or the one we saw in that robin williams movie. plus, most directors probably don't want to mess around with hell(or heaven) in thier movies.

Zuri Thorpe said...

I believe that people are afraid to make movies about hell because they don't want to be wrong. There are so many different views of Hell and all the facts about it, but no one can tell if they are really right or wrong because it is not a physically visible place. There is no solid right or wrong. But as for evil it is so easy to paint a picture of what is seen as evil because we all have experienced it in some way. Or have heard of a physical evil that someone else has encountered. But as for Hell no one can experience it and come back to share what it really is.

James Raymond said...

One of the reasons for having more films about evil is that they are easier to relate to audiences and can maybe attract viewers faster because of the context. For example, there was a movie made called Bedazzled with actor Elizabeth Hurley, starring as the sexy and seductive Satan. This movie does not really go into detail about hell or show too much scenes, but instead bring on a gorgeous model to play evil. An in fact, this is why they do this because it draws the money in. We know what evil is, but we don’t know what hell is.

Stefan said...

First of all, no one knows what Hell really is. We just have images of demons who torture the damned. It’s described as a place of suffering. Some say it is a place of non-existence. There are so many directions that you about Hell. So, I think directors stay away from the films about Hell and stick to ones about evil. That’s why in my opinion, it is easier to write a book about it and be creative with it. With evil, it is just something that’s bad. In scary or regular films, there is always something evil. Viewers are drawn to stuff like that. The producers will stay where the money is at and those are the films that have evil and variety of things that attract viewers today.

Cameron said...

I think people do not want to describe what hell would be like because many people would get mixed views and probably would complain about it. People believe the bible is the main facts of hell and no body else can change that. It would also be a movie that people think of as facts. The movie would be funny rather than serious if it was a movie about hell and hell is a subject that is not popular.

floridaboycraig said...

There are so many movies about evil and not so many movies about Hell because evil can be in many forms, or be many things; hell is an anonymous place in which no one actually knows what it is like. Next, we know alot about hell, but not enough to know what it is actually like.

zach ackerman said...

I think doing a movie about hell or heaven is hard. Know one knows what those places are like until you die. Once you die you cannot come back and tell us. So I think it is tough for directors to create hell or heaven so I think they just try to stay away from it.

Leroy B.III NFL32 said...

There are not so many hell movies because nobody really knows what hell looks like just going by facts. And it might make some people that are catholic upset but people really get a kick out of movies that deal with hell. For example, Little Nicky was hilarious. But there is so many about evil because evil is a everyday thing and everyone has experienced it.

RJ Schmitz said...

I think that there have been so few movies about Hell itself because nowhere do we have a concrete image or desciption of Hell. Plus most of the films that the directors would make, would be declared as offensive to the beliefs of the church.

Kwells09 said...

I think no one has a made a movie because they don't really want to depict hell. They beilive that so many people have done wrong that they don't even want to put an image to a place that can't be given one. The Catholic church wouldn't approve much of the idea either.

tymetrius said...

I think their are less movies about hell because everyone might not have the same bview of hell and some might not like the way the producer will present the movie. I agree with the people who said that movies about hell will upset the catholic church because they are inspired to go to heaven.

ryankwasnik said...

I believe that evil is a easier topic to write about than Hell. It means so much more. Also, if you think about it, writing about hell would get people thinking, and compare it to what they believe it really is. You cant do that with evil. Making a movie about evil would be easy. This is because instead of writing about a particular place, the focus is on a wrong doing, and action. Evil.

Owen Doane said...

I believe there are not many films that focus on Hell for a couple of reasons. The most obvious being, that Hell is in itself a religious idea. This in itself would make film producers think twice about making a movie focusing completely on Hell because the U.S. has a majority of religions and beliefs therefore a movie based on religion might not be accepted by those of other faiths. With the diversity of religion the movie would most likely not draw the same amount of audience as a non-religious movie.

st.joe#9Artis holt said...

Its very few films about hell and evil because people really dont want to hear about things that can possibly scare them in thinking and the way they live thheir lives.

Mike said...

I think the problem is that directors fear whether or not the movie would make any income. I am sure some directors could make a quality film elaborating on Dante's thoughts on Hell. I personally would like to see it happen, but I doubt any top name directors have interest in doing it.

Davies Molloy said...

I believe that it all simply stems from the passivity of the modern man. no one wants to see something that makes them think ,they don't want to re-evaluate their lives because they saw a simple move. people are mindless sheep that cannot for the life of them try and understand a concept like hell, they have dumbed it down into something eternal ,because we cannot perceive something that lasts forever it scares and frightens us. it is sickening what we have become and what we society brings forth to comfort us as we hide beneath the covers.

Anonymous said...

I believe people dont really make there movies based on Hell because they dont really worry about going to hell because everybody believe's that there is a higher being in whatever reigion they believe in. I also believe people has scared other so much that they may fear the devil more then they do God.

iThRoWdAhEaDoVv said...

Because evil is more common in the world. People see evil everyday of our lives we see therefore we can beleive. The same cant be said for hell no one can give us an eye wutness account of what hell is or is like. We cant depict what we cant see we can only believe.

Anonymous said...

The reason their hasn't been movies about hell is directors don't want to be criticize for what they think hell is like. Look at the DA Vinci Code and the way people attacked the author of it. I mean that was what two months of abuse. Think how long the abuse will be if a movie of hell comes out.

Vincent Peck said...

The reason i believe that there are not many movies about hell is because no one really understands what hell is really like and no one has been to hell and back before. And the reason there are so many movies about evil is because many people have seen evil and have an understanding about what evil is.

Julian Jimenez said...

I think that there are few movies that really focus on Hell because it is a sensitive matter. It is like making a movie about religion or something else contraversal. It would have the idea of influencing people about what to believe or making fun of what people see Hell as. It also is a difficult task because there is no real proof of what Hell is or what it looks like.

Joey Barrick said...

I think the reason why there aren't very many films about Hell is because no one really knows what hell is like. In the Bible and places similar, it describe the devil as being a sinister, fallen-angel who wants to enslave human souls, but all we know about Hell is that its where people go after death to be punished for their sins, which won’t make money.
I have to disagree with Rob Nicholl and Mike Sipes because look at movies such as The DaVinci Code or The Golden Compass. I don't think the producers of those movies were worried about upsetting the Church; they just wanted to make money.

Cody Steward said...

I think that there are more films about evil than hell because we are more focused on what happens to us in this life, and not so much in the afterlife. Since there are more examples of evil in the world, especially evil people, we tend to latch on to that more because we can relate to it, especially if we have seen it occur in history.

Kevin Curley said...

I think it would be hard to create something that you have absolutely no idea about. In all fiction books some of it has to be based on nonfiction because if it wasn't it would be made up of nothing. It is to hard to create things that we have no clue about, and that is why it is easy to create movies about evil people, places, and things because they are real and we can comprehend evil. Heaven and Hell are too hard to comprehend and we cannot wrap our brains around what they truly are.

IMPERATOR said...

I think that the reason why there are so few films about Hell itself is because its so controversial. THe directors don't really want to offend anyone because Lawsuits come into play. They want to make mony so naturally they don't want to be offensive. Hell is one of thos controversies. Heaven, they could do anything on that because there's no bad side to doing and its not a challenge, because Heaven is all good and stuff.

Anonymous said...

I believe that their are a lot of different ways to show evil and it is more exciting then Hell itself because their is a lot of different types of evil but nobody really can tell you what Hell is like.

Kirby Riehl said...

It is probably impossible to create a film about hell. I think it is impossible because no one knows what hell is really like. I mean, people think that they have an idea but its not true because they could never say they have been there and back. So i think its to hard to be accurate about a movie in hell.

Kirby Riehl said...

Also i had a friend that had an accident a while back. He had died for about eight minutes. He told me during those eight minutes, that he was in a burning building and could not get out. Maybe that is hell as you can see hell can be different for anyone.

zach schwartzman said...

I beleive that there are so many movies about evil and not Hell for one main reason. That reason being that people can actually see evil acts and evil people on a daily basis, people cant see Hell and all people have different interpretations of Hell then others.

Andrew Cosgrove said...

Actually, there are a plenty of movies about hell because people like to see when there is a conflict between good and evil and God always being the victor. The only reason that The Inferno hasn’t been made into a movie is because there is no protagonist or anti-protagonist so there is no conflict so the story is too boring for movies.

Todd Ferguson said...

I think that there are fewer movies that show Hell because the people don't really have a definite view of what hell is like therefore it would be hard to make a movie out of it.

Jake Hulsey said...

There have been many movies about the devil and evil because good versus evil is a major conflict in the world and it is just a common ground. I agree with mike sipes' post about the directors not wanting to offend the Catholic church, but I think its more than that. Alot of people don't think about what hell is really like, nor can anybody really know the answer. Dante whether it did or did not happen was basing his idea of hell of a dream, or vision. I think alot of people don't want to know or think about what hell is like because it is associated with evil and hardship.

Babdo said...

To me, I think that there are so many movies based on evil rather than hell is because evil exist all over. Evil exists in all different shapes and sizes. It is an easier thing to make base any story on. Almost all movies and stories have some kind or form of evil. When it comes to hell, I think that it is a risky thing to base a movie off of. Hell to some people isn’t too fascinating and they would much rather see a good guy fight evil.

Brian Petroski said...

I think there hasnt been movies about hell becuase no one has an idea of what is in it or what it looks like. We have some references, like the bible and church teachings, that tell us what heaven looks like. Producers can not just make stories about hell, then there would be so many movies out there with different looks of hell and nobody wants to see that.

tabbannister8 said...

I think that there are not so many movies about hell in today's world because it is an imaginery object. It has never been proven existant so there is no way to really show hell. But people have dreamed and wrote about it that give images about it. It is something that one must see and experience to show others. Proof is one of the biggest things that people in today's world want to see. Also, hell is cool, but not a place that anyone wants to go to.

Corey Landon-09 said...

i think the only reason why there is some many about evil and not as many as hell because there is some many different views of hell no one really know what hell looks like and whats down there , but we know what evil is , many people are easily taken over by evil, so therefore people can make movies/films on these people.

kicker said...

I think this os because not many people like to talk about hell. I think people know what it is but they do not feel right talking about it.I think Hell scares many people. Evil is a different story. People know that Evil is just a part of life, and not many people are that scared of it.

RyanSmith said...

there have not been alot of movies about hell because its not a generally positive topic. Anybody can face reality once they see where than possibly go after death if they live wrong.

Joe Dingle-EL said...

I think there are more movies about evil than hell becuase with no negative side in the movie it would not be interesting. No matter what people always want something bad to happen in movie. Just for the simple fact poeple belive good can forgive you for anything and automatically going too heaven.

Chris Bodan said...

I think that there are so few movies showing Hell, since it would be very difficult to display such gore and horrid punishments.

Dirty Pete said...

There are so many movies about evil because evil is entertaining. People are interested in evil things. But most of those movies are viewed as either a fantasy or an it-can-never-happen-to-me situation. But a lot of people beleive in Hell and won't like a movie that depicts something so evil and yet so real. Besides a movie on Hell is unoriginal, Hell already has its traditional set up so something on that would not get a lot of veiwers.