Passion of The Christ

[Li H'Sen Chang]

I know that this is controversy of whether or not it is horror but I see it as horror due to the abuse and torture that Jesus suffered. There are violence throughout the movie and it inspires you to root for Jesus to win even though the outcome is known. This was a really good movie even with subtext.

[NeverMore]

Totally. I remember my step-mother, who is a very devout Catholic was very upset about the violence but you can't always hide behind your beliefs, in that I don't remember the Sunday school teachers going so in depth on how much Jesus actually suffered. The actual crucifiction was probably even more violent that what was shown in the film.

[Li H'Sen Chang]

Yes with the way he was treated there was probably torture of the genitals and eyes I would think as those are areas of extreme protection and to abuse him totally they would have attacked everything. I am convert to Christiantiy so it was hard to watch the movie because of what it means to beliefs, but at the same time I can sort of category it as horror.

The funny part is when that movie came out my friend and me were trying to see TCM remake in the theater but there was an error in the film so we decided to see Passion of the Christ instead.

[Murfreesboro]

Passion of the Christ is a very well-made movie, but it is indeed very difficult to watch. I still haven't shown it to my daughter, who is very artistic and quite visually sensitive. My husband saw it once in the theater, and once was enough for him. I watch it every Good Friday.

I think the opening sequence, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the portrayal of the Devil, both there and throughout the movie, is very eerie. Also the way the children are used, little demonic tormentors of Judas. Very, very creepy.

I guess I wouldn't have considered classifying it as a "horror" movie, since it does have a religious purpose. But certainly there are very horrifying elements. I don't intend to screen it on or around Halloween, though. Somehow, for me, that would diminish its religious significance and reduce it to an entertainment, which doesn't seem to me to be the right way to regard it. YMMV

[Pumpkin_Man]

Mel Gibson, both the star and the director of "The Passion of the Christ" is a very devout Catholic, and that's what Hollywood doesn't get. That film should have won at least 2 Oscars: Best Picture and Best Actor. As a practicing devout Catholic myself, I think "The Passion of the Christ" is truely an all time classic depiction of what Roman Crucifixion is truely like, and what Christ went through. I saw that film at the Cinemark in Joliet with a Cristian group from my work place. We were supposed to go out to Shake & Stake afterwords, and everyone was so saddened and affected by the movie that nobody even bothered.

By the way, there were also a few scenes that litteraly made my flesh creep. There was the seen at the Agony in the Gardon where Satan is tempting Jesus and you see a worm crawling up his nose. There's the scene where Satan is disguised as a woman holding a baby. The baby turns around and you see this really demonic face, but what Really made "The Passion of the Christ" a horror movie in the scary sense of the word was how the demons tormented Judas. Initialy they were disguised as children, but they tormented him, bit him and chased him to the infamous garbage dump located outside Jerusalem, more commonly known as Gehena. He takes a rope from a dead donkey, and he hangs himself.

I screen "The Passion of the Christ" every Good Friday, and will continue to do so as it's a part of my Lenten tradition. As for it being off topic, NOTHING could be further from the truth. "The Passion of the Christ," even though it is a Christian story, is a story of torture, murder, suffering, mob violence, and it's a story of devils and evil. All makes for a GREAT horror story.

Mike