And what fresh hell is this? Filmmaker necessarily vague

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CINEPLEX ENTERTAINMENT Director Kevin Miller (right) talks to a believer in Hellbound?

For a film that aspires to reasonably discuss the function of hell in contemporary Christianity, it was a rhetorical error for Canadian director Kevin Miller to start things off interviewing those malevolent, moronic hillbillies of the Westboro Baptist Church.

But Miller (co-writer of the ridiculous anti-Darwin doc Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed) goes there, at the 2011 9/11 memorial no less. In the midst of sombre remembrance, Miller seeks them out with their "God Hates Fags" signs, enclosed behind metal fences, screaming like pigs magically gifted with the power of speech.

Note the malicious glee of the woman who bellows "God bless 9/11!" in the midst of such profound sorrow. What monsters! Surely, it is a mistake to believe these people capable of producing any rational thought whatsoever, save for clinical insights into pathological homophobia.

No surprise: the Westboro bunch's Margie Phelps believes that a coming post-death paradise is theirs, and all others will burn in hell for eternity (a belief, Miller fails to note, shared by Osama bin Laden and the fundamentalist lunatics who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks in the first place).

In any case, one is promptly soured on the topic Miller intends to discuss, which is roughly summarized: Is there such a thing as hell? And if there is, does that not contradict the notion of a loving, forgiving God?

You wouldn't expect it from the Darwinism-equals-fascism doc Expelled, but Miller comes off as a fairly even-handed investigator on the subject, examining three different schools of thought on the subject: Essentialists (fundamentalists who believe God really hates sinners and plans to roast them in hell); Annihilationists (who believe sinners' souls will simply be eradicated); and Universalists (who believe God may forgive the worst sinner, because that is what God does).

In this latter camp is Rob Bell, the disarmingly gentle author of a book titled Love Wins that drew controversy in many religious quarters because of Bell's refusal to buy into the punitive Old Testament God, raining fire and brimstone onto sinners and heretics.

In the atheist camp is screenwriting guru Robert McKee, who, hilariously, does not believe in hell, but acknowledges it as essential as a story element.

There is no shortage of interviewees in the Essentialist camp, who are profoundly disturbed by the very notion that sinners won't be punished big-time.

At its most useful, Hellbound? is a snapshot of the wide-ranging diversity of beliefs that exist under the umbrella of Christianity, each camp armed with its own favourite passages of scripture to back up its subjective arguments.

But for those of us who believe hell is a cruel fiction designed primarily to scare and traumatize impressionable children, Miller's film comes off as facile theology -- a contemporary manifestation of the useless metaphysical inquiry: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Director Kevin Miller will be in attendance for a Q&A with the audience at the 7:30 p.m. screening of Hellbound? Wed. Oct. 24 at Silver City St. Vital.

Hellbound?

Directed by Kevin Miller

St. Vital

PG

2 stars out of five

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 19, 2012 D5