Dekker movie rated R

Ted Dekker’s latest print-to-screen adaptation House (www.housethemovie.net), scheduled for release by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions November 7, has picked up an R rating much to the author’s mystification, according to his blog at TedDekker.com.

So here we are, a month out from the November 7th release of House (note the
change) and all is set in stone. It’s been a wild ride this last year,
watching, waiting as the powers that be have tried to make up their minds about
what to do with House, the movie version. The movie has been in the can for
over a year, but there’s been one problem.

The R rating.

I’ve been watching from a distance, powerless to influence the course of
this movie. And I won’t lie, it’s been interesting watching everyone pull
their hair out. Fact is, the movie just isn’t that terrifying. It has very
little blood, less than a typical TV show. It has no foul language, maybe
one “hell”, but then the movie is about hell. It has no sex.

We showed the movie to a few hundred at the Gathering and received strong
feedback. Ninety percent had no problem with the violence. The story is
intense and at times disturbing, but it’s certainly no Saw.

So, what’s the deal with the MPAA? After repeated appeals everyone is left
scratching their heads. They say it’s the story itself. Yes, indeed, the
story of one’s rescue from the pit is the most dangerous story ever told.

The problem with an R rating isn’t the content. It’s the marketing. Let a
few people with tall white hats in Hollywood put an R rating on a movie and
the Christian media and establishments of commerce run for cover.

What do you think?

In all honesty, I’ve halfway expected this. The book was among the most intense I’ve ever read, and by far one of Dekker’s creepiest. I guess that’s what happens when one of America’s greatest thriller writers teams up with one of America’s greatest imaginations of the dark side of spirituality (Frank Peretti).

Christians will also likely take issue with the Lionsgate-designed poster, that of a pentagram encircling the phrase “the wages of sin is death.”

Just from people I know, Dekker has lost a few fans with his Peretti-esque foray into the dark side of Christianity. Perhaps inspired by their collaboration in 2004?

But I believe I see his heart behind the madness. Dekker has a vivid imagination, the substance of which was likely spawned out of his childhood amongst demon-possessed tribes in Indonesia with his missionary parents. If you haven’t read that story, go check it out on his site. It’s incredible.

He wishes to paint the darkest picture imaginable – his book Adam was one of the darkest books I’ve ever read in Christian fiction – as he carries his readers on a journey against evil. Without the darkness, what good is light?

On the flip side, the darker things are, the more powerful light becomes.

Is darkness the dissipation of light, or is light the detraction of darkness?

Anyway, back on topic …

Ted Dekker. House. R-rated movie. Should Christians see it or not? I know pastors who have preached against R-rated films. Is the end of the story worth the hell its characters go through to get there?

Everything in the book is metaphorical and allegorical if taken as such. And, according to Dekker, the screenplay differs in minor fashion from the original novel.

This is a bit of a watershed moment and you’re the audience. Not
me, not media, not bookstores.

You.