My adult son and I just went to see a fairy-tale movie, but this was no movie for children. I have a network of people I listen to and magazines I watch for recommendations about movies that are worth my time. Pan’s Labyrinth (rated R for violence, cruelty, and graphic imagery) is the latest in a string of movies in which I’ve noticed a pattern over the last six or seven years. I caution you to be very careful about viewing the movies I’m going to mention here. Still, I want you to be aware of them because your friends may have seen them, your older children and their friends may have seen them, and because the pattern I’ve been seeing in them is a pattern of redemption—of salvation through darkest times.

A Dark Trend

One of the trends I’ve observed recently is a return to the kinds of Hell-focused horror films of the 70s with their excessive gore. Many of these movies should be avoided at all costs, but there is a positive trend here as well. Over the last seven years moviemakers have been looking for God in the darkness. I’m not talking about terrible movies that tag on a hopeful last moment at the end, but movies in which a search for God or some “divine good” is central to the story.

In The Matrix we see a kind of Christian parable about faith and fear. Donnie Darko is about an emotionally disturbed boy who vandalizes his high school but chooses to follow the will of God and die for the sake of his entire community, even those who hate him most. The Passion of the Christ and To End All Wars are explicitly Christian films filled with explicit scenes of violence. Hell Boy features a wise old Christian (though the theology in the film is weak) who teaches his warriors that God has given us the choice of walking a path of either good or evil. Last year The Exorcism of Emily Rose frightened many into taking the existence of demons seriously and Lady in the Water argued that a supernatural world exists and we have a role to play in the battle against good and evil. Even offensive films like American Beauty and Magnolia hinge on moments of redemption through divine encounters. Pan’s Labyrinth, a foreign language film, opened in only a few theaters around the nation but then expanded its distribution when critics and movie-goers created a buzz about the movie’s story of self-sacrifice and heavenly hope.

Moving Toward the Light

Let me emphasize again the extreme caution you should take in choosing to see any of these movies. The difficult balance of being “in the world but not of it” that all Christians must manage means choosing what we can be a part of and what we must avoid. At the same time we should remember that Jesus hung around in the first century equivalent of bars (eating with sinners and tax collectors). Even though I watch movies and television programs for fun and as resources for teaching and outreach, I still try to be selective. Some movies I will not see. Some I will never see twice even if I find them valuable. Be proactive in deciding what movies you should and shouldn’t see by looking at reviews and asking friends and co-workers what they think.

My point here has not been to recommend the movies I’ve listed but to explain a pattern to you I think might give you insight into the way your non-believing friends and family think. We live in a culture that has become very dark. It is a culture that has rejected traditional religion but is still spiritually hungry. That’s what I’m seeing in these movies. Many people doubt the existence of Heaven but keep looking for God in the hellish world we’ve made here on earth. It’s hard for them to believe in an all powerful, loving God when all they see is a world filled with evil. But when they look closely enough at the evil it occurs to them that the alienation they feel from it may point the way to true light. And it occurs to them, even as they doubt the existence of God, that there might be a devil, and if there’s a devil, then maybe, just maybe there is a God.

Your friends and your kids’ friends (and maybe your older kids) are watching movies that have no redeeming value. But some of the movies they’re watching—even the dark and twisted ones—have redemption as their one and only value. Knowing about those movies may open a door for conversation about truth and how they can find God even in the darkness. |L

Dr. Charlie Starr teaches English, Humanities, and Film at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky.

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells