God vs. “Dead Dudes in the House”

My brother-in-law and I sat down late one evening and began watching a 90’s horror movie entitled “Dead Dudes in the House”. The basic story is about these kids who come to fix up a house and are killed off one by one. However, they always come back as zombies and have to be killed again. It was so bad that we laughed all the way through it. I noticed it on line and saw where people were giving it an average of 4 ½ stars out of five on some sights! Four and a half!!! I would have had a hard time giving it one, but it was so bad it was funny.

Then I noticed something else. Moves like “Fireproof”, “Courageous” and “Seven Days in Utopia” were struggling to get 3 stars. God was definitely losing out to zombies. Faith and perseverance were fading in the light of blood and creepy killers. “Too much God and religion” was the theme that I was reading over and over. God was definitely fighting a losing battle, especially with the critics. This only confirmed why I pay no attention to the critics when I watch a movie.

It brought back memories of when “Silence of the Lambs” won best picture over “Beauty and the Beast”. I’ve seen “Silence” once. That was enough. “Beauty and the Beast” is in our film library. I never like movies where evil wins out.

I don’t always agree with movies with “religious” themes especially the endings; however it gets to me when I hear people so ready to criticize a movie which promotes good morals and offer complete acceptance to a movie that haunts the mind with terror and misery. Life may not be all that a “God” movie portrays, but neither is it a world full of cannibalistic serial killers. The choice that we can make is with what do we want to fill our hearts and minds?

I guess that’s why I like the old black and white movies. Sure they are sappy at times and make you shed a tear here and there. The endings usually end up on a bright note even if the real life event didn’t. But the majority of times the good guys won. More often than not the guy in the white hat saved the girl often without killing anyone. Lassie always came home, the Babe always hit the home run and the right guy always got the girl. I can watch them over and over and over because when it’s said and done, I always feel good afterwards.

Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” I believe he said this because he knew that what is on our minds is also on our hearts. If we fill our hearts and minds with God there is no room for Satan. He later told the church in Philippi, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -think about such things.”

I’m not sure why I wasted my time with “Dead Dudes in the House”. I guess it was more the fun of my brother-in-law and I having too good a time laughing and joking about it. I know one thing for sure and that is that there was nothing lovely, right, praiseworthy or pure about it.