Throughout most parts of a Halloween hell house, one finds pictures very similar to those seen in Halloween horror films. For example, such a house might have pictures of people engaged in satanic practices. It might depict the true story of a group of Pennsylvania boys.
Those boys listened to the request of a fortune teller—even when that request included a demand for a lock of hair from a local farmer. When the boys tried to get that hair, they stabbed that farmer with the cutting shears. A screen writer has used that story as the basis for a movie, typical of the sort shown in Halloween gatherings.
Society’s interest in such films has fueled the anger of some Christians. They want to take society away from events associated with Halloween. That is why many good Christians now put hell houses in Halloween lists of things to do. They have designed hell houses as a way to recreate the general outlook produced by Halloween events.
Christians are fed-up with people who feel that it is OK to end the life of an unborn child. They are disgusted with the efforts to legalize same sex marriages. In many of the Halloween hell houses, one will find pictures of homosexuals being tortured by Satan and the other creatures living in the underworld.
Still a haunted house designed by Christians does not seem to fit in Halloween fairs or other Halloween gatherings. That is because it does not try to maintain its spooky mood in every corner of the house. In the last room seen by someone who walks through such a house, there is a picture of heaven.
The sudden shift from scenes of horror to a scene of tranquility serves as an inducement. It is meant to induce people away from the evil aspects of present-day society. It is meant to convince the visitor to the hell house that following the teachings of Christ brings greater joy than earth’s temporary pleasures.
The hell house leaves one with the impression that a belief in Halloween spirits should not be introduced into the thinking of a true Christian. In fact, it suggests that horrific events will not happen to God-fearing people.
Yet the farmer murdered by those Pennsylvania boys was certainly a God-fearing man. Many drivers who have been the victims of drunk drivers have lived the life of a God-fearing man or woman. They had not sought out the evil that eventually ended their lives.
Hell houses only seem to demand an answer to that age-old question: “Why do bad things happen to good people? It is a question that the horror of Halloween books and Halloween movies points to as a question that demands an answer.
Until Christians have a good answer, they will find many non-Christians ready to celebrate Halloween. And Christians will encounter resistance to their efforts to add a new element to the Halloween mystery.