Htom_Sirveaux This film is a lie. It's one big outright lie from start to finish. I'd like to start off as saying that I am NOT anti-Christian; I have nothing against Christ and believe in Him myself. What I am against is any religion, Christianity or otherwise, using fear and lies to try to frighten people into believing what they believe, and "Escape From Hell" is a prime example of just that.First of all, it's absolutely appalling how misinformed the makers of this film are regarding the concept of near-death experiences. Anyone who has any understanding of near-death experiences knows that experiencers Christian and non-Christian alike have had wonderful, heavenly experiences involving a Being of Light and tangible Love unlike anything they've ever felt. While there are also hellish near-death experiences, they typically occur to people who are filled with either hatred or fear; the majority of hellish near-death experiences in the United States alone come from people with a fire-and-brimstone Christian background. Why? Because our thoughts become manifest in the spiritual realm. Those who are dominated by love created heavenly experiences; those who are dominated by hatred or fear create hellish experiences.The second appalling thing about this movie is that the filmmakers apparently don't know all that much about what Jesus taught about spirits, considering that He said that a tree is known by its fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 12:33). The fruit He refers to is that of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This test was applied to spirits to test whether they were godly or demonic (Matthew 12:35). The problem with the mentality of people like these filmmakers that is that anything that doesn't fit their extremely narrow-minded views is automatically labeled "Satanic." They really ought to be more careful about that, considering another warning given by the One they profess to worship with regards to crediting works of God to Satan (Matthew 12:31-32). I'm sure said filmmakers would undoubtedly come back with with the argument that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), but all that reminds us is that demonic forces can be deceptive, and this passage does nothing to nullify the aforementioned test Jesus has given to us. If a spirit or other paranormal being bears love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, then you have nothing to fear. If it doesn't, run like hell.If you really want to learn about near-death experiences, then start reading up on them. Don't limit yourself to the near-death experiences of people from any one religion; God is far too big of a Concept to be confined to any one religion, and so is the afterlife. As for tripe such as "Escape From Hell," the filmmakers have forgotten how one of the Ten Commandments instructs them to not lie, something they would do well to remember if they truly believe themselves to be so pious.

peterlubit This Christian movie does an excellent job of using out of body experience as a tool to communicate the Gospel message. I am surprised by good acting, storyline, and camera work on this low budget production. It is not a cinema movie, but captivating and it does what it was made to do. Make people think about life after death.Some reviewers bash the movie for lack of theological integrity, but I disagree. No movie can perfectly portray heaven or hell. Books, painting, or movies can only give a glimpse of what heaven or hell might be. The movie shows hell does exist and only faith in Christ can save you, while stressing the fact that your good morality cannot save you.I have to say, the movie's biggest theological weakness is the 70's and 80's presentation of the Gospel. There is a heavy emphasis on faith in Christ. There is a lack of communicating that living a godly life must also be integrated to your faith. James clearly says faith without works is dead.

D.P. Sergeani This is the kind of movie that is bound to get trolled by bored hipsters looking for an online fight to rile the blood. And, OK, maybe it deserves it a little bit. But in trashing this movie so, one skips over some very valid, very pertinent reasons why this movie is an abomination to cinema.One could, for example, take extensive issue with the film's theology. That's fair. No matter how closely it follows the scriptural account of how souls are sorted in the Christian afterlife, the enduring motif of the film, for the uninitiated humanist (the audience to whom the film is obviously trying to pander) is that "Hey, Jesus is kind of a dick." That's not, of course, to say that Jesus WAS a dick. Just that you wouldn't be able to make a fair assessment from this film's interpretation of the facts.All that, I might add, and Jesus/God the Father never ONCE even makes an appearance. What a ripoff.And though I could go on and on about the troubling theological implications of the film, and though I would not be totally unjustified in doing so (the back of the DVD, after all, suggests that it is the perfect conversation starter for unsaved neighbors and family), I feel the need to put aside such petty judgements and address the film's higher crimes and misdemeanors - that is to say, its crimes against narrative.Allow me to be succinct. This film sucks. Sucks, suck sucks. There no two ways about it. (The late Jerry Falwell thought enough of it to give it 4 stars, but I do not believe he has reviewed many other movies, therefore making hi standard for comparison weak at best). The dialogue is, at best, less than intellectually engaging; at worst, it is the kind of ham- handed buffoonery that would make Jack Chick cringe in disgust. The characters are little more than paper-bag puppets, existing from scene to scene, with little in the way of personal development or emotional maturity. They are worse than static caricatures; they change their personas as fits the convenience of the director, going - at least in the male lead's case - from Byronic anti-hero to love-hungry son, from hardcore rationalist to aesthetic humanist, all within a jaunty 76 minutes. Whew!Most perplexingly, though the film is called "Escape from Hell," we, the audience, see Hell for maybe 10-15 minutes, tops - at the very end. At least Dante had the good sense to drop us into the eponymous Inferno by the third chapter. And rest assured, it is filled with the kind of basic 3D CGI effects that for some reason may have passed muster in the 80s but have, in the years since Tron, become woefully outdated. (Satan, as it turns out, has a major thing for the Photoshop solarization filter. Oh, and the path t Hell is just like those tunnels in Sliders).Again, I must cut short a potentially-lengthy criticism and jump right to the point. Why do Christians feel the need to blindly praise every film that dares to call itself a "Christian film"? When critical judgement gives way to blind factional fist-pumping, we open dangerous doors - doors that, as history teaches us, lead us down paths lined with aggression, hate, and violence. I will not go so far as to far as to imply that Escape from Hell incites inter-religious hatred; I will, however, stand in abject defiance to all those who proclaim, without a whiff of objectivism, that this film is anything but a masturbatory endeavor for evangelical Christians under the hopeless guise of 'reaching out' to the unsaved. Anyone who has been 'saved' by this kind of pathetic storytelling is probably worth more lost.

cbcpastor Well acted with some great special effects but it's too bad scriptural integrity was the first casualty. There were so many blatant errors for the sake of making a "more scary movie" that we could not recommend nor show this to our church. Satan was painted as the monarch of Hell when scripture teaches that Hell is a place of torment created for the Devil and his angels. The list goes on as Hell is portrayed as a physical house of horrors and all but denies the spiritual essence that those souls in Hell will live in the anguish of being forever isolated from God's love and provision. Menacing demons search the earth seeking to drag living souls to the abyss? My Bible teaches that men choose Hell by denying salvation. You can't blame the Devil for man's choice of eternal separation from God.When we seek to add error to increase the scare effect, we deny the power of God's Spirit to work through truth. I wish there were an accurate portrayal of Hell to offer to our church, I think it would be helpful. Movies that stretch the truth to this level only hurt evangelism through those that will laugh themselves right out of our churches and ignore the truth of genuine warning.