{{Other uses|Hell House (disambiguation){{!}}Hell House}} {{short description|Evangelical Protestant haunted attraction}} '''Hell houses''' are haunted house adaptions by evangelical Christian organizations that depict sinners and their horrible fate in Hell. Scenes portrayed may include date rape,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deseret.com/1997/10/18/19340537/hell-house-to-include-sin-scene-of-date-rape|title='Hell House' to include sin scene of date rape|website=www.deseret.com|date=18 October 1997|access-date=18 May 2020|archive-date=20 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020020602/https://www.deseret.com/1997/10/18/19340537/hell-house-to-include-sin-scene-of-date-rape|url-status=live}}</ref> same-sex marriage, gambling, abortion, extramarital sex, raving, drugs, and alcohol.<ref name=":0" /> They were most prominent during the late 1990s and 2000s.{{Clarify|reason=Are they less prominent now in 2025?|date=November 2025}} Other hell houses focus on the theme of the seven deadly sins.<ref>{{cite web|last=Herman |first=Marc |title=Evangelical 'Hell Houses' Still a Thing This Year, Now With Additional Creepiness |url=https://psmag.com/news/evangelical-hell-houses-still-thing-year-now-additional-creepiness-69117 |publisher=Pacific Standard |access-date=27 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105011659/http://www.psmag.com/politics/evangelical-hell-houses-still-thing-year-now-additional-creepiness-69117 |archive-date=5 November 2013 }}</ref> Hell houses typically emphasize the belief that those who do not repent of their sins and choose to follow Christ are condemned to Hell.
A Hell house, like a conventional haunted-house attraction, is a space set aside for actors to frighten patrons with gruesome exhibits and scenes, presented as a series of short vignettes with a narrated guide. Unlike haunted houses, Hell houses focus on real-life situations and the effects of sin or the fate of unrepentant sinners in the afterlife and often feature an altar call.<ref name=":0" /> They are most typically operated in the days preceding Halloween.
==History== The first known Hell house was set up by Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia, beginning production in 1972. The attraction, called ScareMare, was backed by Falwell's Liberty University and features culture war issues appealing to the Moral Majority of the 1980s and the new Christian right.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brulliard |first=Karin |date=30 October 2004 |title=Faith Through Fright; Depictions of Death and Hell Aim to Save |pages=A1 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/409744170 |id={{ProQuest|409744170}} |access-date=3 January 2023 |archive-date=19 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231019115713/https://www.proquest.com/docview/409744170 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gin Lum |first=Kathryn |date=2014-10-30 |title=These evangelical haunted houses are designed to show sinners that they’re going to hell |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/10/30/these-evangelical-haunted-houses-are-designed-to-show-sinners-that-theyre-going-to-hell/ |access-date=2025-11-02 |work=The Washington Post |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bivins |first=Jason C. |title=Religion of Fear |date=2008-10-01 |work= |pages= |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5935/chapter/149258558 |access-date=2025-11-02 |chapter='Shake 'Em to Wake 'Em': Hell Houses and the Conservative Evangelical Theater of Horror |place=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340815.003.0005 |isbn=978-0-19-534081-5}}</ref> ScareMare continues annually {{As of|2025|lc=y}}.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Arthur |first=Erin |date=2025-10-15 |title=Scaremare is unlocked for its 53rd year in Lynchburg, enter if you dare |url=https://www.wfxrtv.com/lynchburg/scaremare-is-unlocked-for-its-53rd-year-in-lynchburg-enter-if-you-dare/ |access-date=2025-11-02 |work=WFXR}}</ref>
Hell houses and similar attractions such as Judgment houses, Revelation Walk, Rapture Walk, Tribulation Trail, and stage productions like ''Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames'' became more common among conservative evangelical churches in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref name=":0" /> Trinity Assembly of God in Cedar Hill, Texas, is known to have presented a Hell house since 1990.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Yardley |first=Jim |date=1999-10-29 |title=Church's Haunted House Draws Fire |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/29/us/church-s-haunted-house-draws-fire.html |access-date=2023-01-03 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2023-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103084233/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/29/us/church-s-haunted-house-draws-fire.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Initially popular in the Southern and Western United States, events are now held throughout the United States and in other countries.<ref name=":0" />
From 1995, the concept was promoted and adapted by Keenan Roberts, originally of Roswell, New Mexico, who started a Hell house in Arvada, Colorado. Since that time, Hell houses have become a regular fixture of the Halloween season in parts of the United States. Roberts remained active in the Hell house ministry by providing kits and directions to enable churches to perform their own attractions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1996/october7/6tb87a.html|title='Hell House' Kits Selling Nationally|access-date=2007-11-17|date=1996-10-07|work=Christianity Today|archive-date=2007-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120065332/http://www.ctlibrary.com/ct/1996/october7/6tb87a.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> As of 16 January 2017, the "Hell House Kit" was still available.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} As of 2023, a package of hell house scripts and scenes was being sold for $479.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Judgement House {{!}} NEW OR RENEW PARTNERSHIP |url=http://judgementhouse.org/become-a-partner/new-or-renew-partnership |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=judgementhouse.org |archive-date=2023-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103090644/http://judgementhouse.org/become-a-partner/new-or-renew-partnership |url-status=live }}</ref>
In October 2000, documentary filmmaker George Ratliff filmed a production of a Hell house in Cedar Hill, Texas, from scripting to the final night of the production.<ref name="Imdb">{{cite web|url=http://imdb.com/title/tt0301235/|title=Hell House (2001)|access-date=2007-11-17|work=IMDb|archive-date=2007-10-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071020183118/http://imdb.com/title/tt0301235/|url-status=live}}</ref> The resulting documentary, ''Hell House'',<ref name="NPR">{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1148498|title=Documentary Focuses on Dallas 'Hell House'|date=17 August 2002|work=NPR|access-date=21 April 2010|archive-date=8 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308113825/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1148498|url-status=live}}</ref> has inspired numerous live plays and hell-house performances, including one based on Pastor Roberts' production, which played for a month during the 2006 Halloween season in an off-Broadway production in Brooklyn, New York, by Les Freres Corbusier.<ref name="les freres">{{cite web|url=http://www.lesfreres.org/archives/06_hell.html |title=Hell House |access-date=2007-11-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014095410/http://lesfreres.org/archives/06_hell.html |archive-date=2007-10-14 }}</ref><ref name="NYU">{{cite web|url=http://hemi.nyu.edu/hemi/en/e-misferica-41/smalec/|title=Celebrate Like True Believers': Performing Evangelical Christianity in Les Freres Corbusier's Hell House|access-date=2009-07-17|author=Theresa Smalec|date=May 2007|archive-date=2011-07-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728081236/http://hemi.nyu.edu/hemi/en/e-misferica-41/smalec/|url-status=live}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Nixon, Elisabeth Ann (2006) ''Playing Devil's Advocate on the Path to Heaven: Evangelical Hell Houses and the Play of Politics, Fear and Faith'' (PhD dissertation).
==External links== * [http://www.judgementhouse.org/ Judgement House]
{{Halloween|state=expanded}}
Category:Christian fundamentalism Category:Halloween in the United States Category:Articles containing video clips Category:1972 in Christianity Category:1972 establishments in the United States Category:Amusement park attractions introduced in 1972 Category:Protestant buildings and structures in North America Category:Anti-LGBTQ and Christianity Category:Hell in popular culture Category:Halloween practices