My buddy Kurt Morris is always coming up with fun stuff to think about and talk about. Having worked as a research librarian at Notre Dame, Kurt is now a graduate student in American Studies at UMass Boston.
Both of us grew up in fundamental evangelical environments (I actually attended a Bible college before transferring to Northwestern University) and I was thrilled when he announced his graduate thesis would be on “Christian Scare Films of the 1970′s”. If any of you out there in reader land grew up attending youth group lock-ins or attending church services in lieu of Halloween, you might recall A Thief in the Night. (Pictured above.)
The film finds Patty who is “unsaved” waking up to find her husband missing along with millions of people in what she realizes is the rapture discussed in the Bible. (In the “end times” God will take Christians to Heaven to wait out the tribulation– a period of judgment reserved for those who are unsaved– however there’s tons of theological differences on rapture and tribulation and I won’t list them here.)
Anytime this film title is mentioned to anyone familiar with it, there’s a common response “That movie scared the hell out of me!” To which, that comment is followed by another comment, “Literally.” The film is known as a “soul winner”. Screenings were (and continue to be) paired with alter calls to accept Christ immediately after viewing.
(I have always proposed using The Exorcist in the same manner. That doesn’t go over so well.)
Kurt’s paper dissects way more than what I have mentioned above, and I am going to keep pieces of it under wraps as we go into production on our documentary covering this topic. It’s promising to be a good time. According to Russ Doughton’s website who produced and wrote the “Rapture Series”, his production company (formerly Mark IV) is gearing up for a fifth installment which places us almost 35 years out from A Thief in the Night.
Here are some interesting essays and articles from the popular media, feel free to post more links:
Salon: At age 5 I was traumatized by an End Times movie
This American Life: Devil on My Shoulder
Wired: Website Lets You Send a Post-Rapture E-Mail to Friends ‘Left Behind’
[...] leave a comment » What she said. [...]
[...] as this project ends and another one begins (Soul Winners – a documentary on Christian scare films and the filmmakers behind that [would you guess one [...]
[...] to put on my indie director hat as I depart for Colorado to link up with my co-director Kurt for Soul Winners and check out a conference at UC Boulder where Kurt is lecturing on Christian Scare Films. Sunday [...]