Hell House Comes Home

What a difference the passage of time can make. Something that might have seemed lurid and preposterous 25 years ago may now come across as prescient and insightful in the present day.

That’s some of the story of what’s behind the new restoration of the documentary film Hell House. This Texas-made film had its U.S. premiere at the 2002 SXSW Film Festival, following an unfortunately scrubbed debut at the Toronto International Film Festival scheduled on September 11, 2001 when all screenings that day were canceled due to the shock of the 9/11 attacks.

Directed by former Austin resident George Ratliff (Joshua, Plutonium Circus), the film examines the Halloween hell house created by the Cedar Hill Trinity Church in suburban Dallas. This Assemblies of God church presented a fire-and-brimstone showcase in which horrific outcomes were shown through a number of vignettes to be the culminations of typical teen transgressions such as drinking, dancing, suicide, and premarital sex. The project was a months-long project in which teens and adults vied for roles and positions in the show, which proceeded with all the planning, enthusiasm, and feverishness of a professional production. Although hell houses soon became popular endeavors among Pentecostal congregations, Cedar Hill Trinity Church claims to have created the first one, and later designed hell-house kits to distribute to other groups wishing to put on a show.

It’s been about five years since Trinity Church mounted these Halloween extravaganzas but that very absence may be what has prompted the Austin-based American Genre Film Archives based to release the film on Blu-ray this month. Hell House screened at Fantastic Fest 2026 and we spoke with Ratliff while he was in Austin last month. The film, he says, is “really is so relevant to our current time.”

The Texas-raised Ratliff was living in New York when he first became aware of the Cedar Hill hell house. An article in a New York newspaper in 1999 first alerted Ratliff to the phenomenon, which gained national notoriety due to the inclusion of a school-massacre vignette, inspired by the Columbine shooting that had occurred only a few months prior. Ratliff and his director of photography Jawad Metni rushed down to Texas immediately to seek approval from the church to start filming. From there, they shot a 10-minute short to get financing for a feature, which went forward with the enthusiastic support of the church in 2000.

Instead of the usual spooks and monsters, the church’s hell house featured bloody and devilish replicas of sinful acts and their horrific repercussions. “I was in New York, destroying dinner parties, telling people about this thing that was happening,” recalls Ratliff. “Part of the reason I wanted to make the movie was to give a display so that everyone all over the world knew that this thing was real. That’s why I think AGFA wanted to do the re-release. They felt like the timing was right.”

The church participants were eager to commit their production to film and offered Ratliff incredible access. “Pentecostals have historically been good at putting on a show,” continues Ratliff. “That’s kind of what they do. They do traveling shows and were the first ones that put electric guitars in the church. They are really trying to draw crowds with the show. They believe they’re going to be judged if they don’t do everything they possibly can to get you into heaven.” Scaring attendees straight was their goal.

Other features of AGFA’s Blu-ray restoration from the original 16mm negative are commentary from Ratliff and co-producer Zachary Mortensen, director of photography Jawad Metni, and editor Mike LaHaie. Also included are outtakes, the film trailer, a This American Life audio episode, and other shorts. The Blu-ray can be pre-ordered at https://www.americangenrefilm.com/home-videos/hell-house.

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