 THE BURNING HELL (1974) Southern Baptist preacher Estus W. Pirkle vividly depicts where non-believers and sinners go unless they become saved. Dir. Ron Ormond, 57 mins It’s that time again… Last week we looked at the first extended sermon from one Estus W. Pirkle, which wouldn’t usually have been our patch at all – that is apart from the fact it was directed by famed exploitation director turned born-again Christian Ron Ormond. However, Ormond seemed to take those old filmmaking sensibilities with him to his new career path, with men, women and children getting gunned down by communists left, right and centre and a pretty staggering scene where a child literally gets decapitated for hanging on to his faith rather than renouncing Jesus. Now we’re pretty hardened around here, but that shocked me nonetheless, so you can probably imagine the effect this might have had on conservative Christians in the early 1970s. All of which brings us to today’s movie, the second collaboration between Pirkle and Ormond, entitled The Burning Hell. It won’t be much of a revelation that this one concerns the lake of fire that awaits all ye sinners, and we kick off with a weird scene where Pirkle is visited by two biker/hippie guys (the cultural references here feel so off-kilter, by the way) who are sort of religious but believe in some new form of Christianity that doesn’t believe in Hell. Of course, Pirkle isn’t having any of that, and invites them to his sermon. And one of them does turn up to his sermon – only one, mind, because in the meantime his friend has died in a motorcycle accident. Pirkle doesn’t seem to worry at all about plugging this into his sermon, which feels more than a little insensitive, and over the course of the preaching our lead is eventually persuaded to join the faith. Oh yes, and before we forget, we see a whole lot of images of hell throughout. As per If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?, Pirkle’s sermon is intercut with all sorts of horrifying imagery designed to frighten and shock you into religion. The shots of hell are plenty fiery and unpleasant, and I must admit there is a scene or two here that is unsettling, despite acting performances ranging from dodgy to hammy. But people are crying and wailing, covered in blood and shit (or a combination of both?) and obviously suffering a terrible fate. This of course is a fate destined to last for eternity, which Pirkle demonstrates with a ridiculous board covered with zeros. ‘This is a million years! Here is a billion years! This represents a trillion years…’ and so on. We get it – eternity is a bloody long time, and no amount of fatuous maths will help drive that home further. As well as Pirkle, we get a few guest speakers, who appear to be sliced in pretty much at random and add very little. To be fair, even though I’m not the church type, Pirkle does deliver a mean sermon and his speech flows well. I could see to some extent why people were drawn to him around this time. Pirkle published five books in his time, as well as three movies, and given the cinematic output I’d say wasn’t one to question exactly how he converted people to the cause – the ends apparently justified the means in his mind for these sorts of films to come out. Some of this stuff would probably have fallen fall of the censors, or if they’d been about ten years later might even have got caught up in the video nasty panic, were it not for their wholesome religious message. As mentioned in passing last week, there is another part of the trilogy, 1977’s The Believer’s Heaven, but I won’t be including it within this extended special feature. While that’s also directed by Ormond, it’s very much the positive side of the coin, and I can’t quite justify giving in the Film Gutter treatment. What strikes me most about that one is the claim it was ‘photographed on five continents’ – I’m sure the budget for these films would absolutely stretch to that, right? Right? It’s mostly the same cast for the two we have looked at, so I don’t think these were exactly no expense spared… Anyway, we’ll be moving back to our regular programming from next week on, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into the weird and wonderful worlds of Pirkle and Ormond! TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE BOOK REVIEW: SLAVES TO GRAVITY BY SOMER CANON & WESLEY SOUTHARD THE HEART AND SOUL OF HORROR MOVIE REVIEWS |
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