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I watched it.

Best film regarding the evil of secular humanism and atheism that leads to possession I’ve ever seen , in its accuracy of the subject.

It’s a warning film I wish every unbeliever in God would watch.

It’s content reminds me of many things wrote by C.S. Lewis.

I wish every Christian church would show it to their congregations, including the kids.

.maybe then some will never open doors to ideas actions and consequences that can not be closed without severe effort if ever. Impossible to close without the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the name of Jesus Christ.

The most valuable movie I’ve ever seen other than The Gospel of John .

I’m guessing you’ve seen The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis (2021). If not, put it on your list.

It was an adaptation of a one man stage play, turned into a movie conceived as an event movie for church groups and the Christian movie circuit. It got a one night wider release in theaters around the country. I don’t know what the marketing considerations were there, but this was still a one-off event movie kind of thing.

To the surprise of all concerned, it sold out around the country. The phone lines must have been pretty busy, but the theaters scrambled to add more viewings. The producers immediately realized that they had underestimated their audience, and they scrambled to produce more copies and arrange a much wider distribution.

It was still a specialty film, but the niche market turned out to be much larger than anticipated.

Most of the movie is a brisk biopic, but there are several scenes that are straightforward Christian apologetics that are clearly Mere Christianity translated to film.

But if you have seen it ... there is a sudden tonal shift at the end, in the scene in the church at Oxford as it is filling up with typical parishoners as they would have appeared in the 1950’s.

Suddenly the monologue — one man play, etc. — shifts entirely. What comes next is a highly polished rhetorical piece, the kind of thing that reminds you that movies are descended from theater, and sometimes a Shakespeare gets loose. I’ve always suspected that this monologue is a direct lift from one of C.S. Lewis’ other works, but I’ve never been able to pin it down. (Not that I’ve tried very hard.) If you’ve seen it, do you know the reference?

Those kinds of tonal shifts make me want to stand up and applaud. They are nakedly “theatrical” and they stand out in the current dreck that so much of the industry pumps out in the streaming era that tends to seek the least common demoninator. But they still happen when a writer or director actually has something to say and isn’t afraid to say it.

What is that saying...that Satan's most valuable tool is fostering the belief that he does not exist?

I think that is true.

If you don't believe Evil exists in this world, and you believe the reason it is so screwed up in many ways is because humans shirk from taking on the role of God and fixing the problems that stem from Evil, then you have no reason to fear Evil, because it then becomes just another engineering issue to be solved, like building a pipeline or spanning a body of water with a bridge.

And Evil will be just fine with lurking under the dark water, looking at the kicking legs of the human swimmers above who don't believe there is anything in those black depths that will eat them whole.

Because humans who don't believe there is a threat are far, Far, FAR more vulnerable to being eaten than those humans who believe Evil, hungry sea creatures lurk below, and taking precautions not to be bitten in half are not a fruitless or wasted effort.

Like I said before-perhaps I didn't find the movie frightening or even scary because I know that if I accept Christ as my Lord and Savior, that even I am bitten in half by this evil, I won't spend time in Hell.

That was one of the most sad and pitiful scenes that I described above at post #35 where Nefarious discusses the mechanics of execution by electrocution, and the poor, pathetic, lost human whom he possesses can only have that imagery flood into his mind.

Then, when Nefarious withdraws and allows the human being to show his feelings, his poor terrified blubbering was heartrending to me.

If he were able at that point to somehow beg Christ to accept him, that he believed in Christ as his savior, and he repented his sin, he could have escaped the Hell that he was destined for.

But he couldn't.

You can visualize the Demon inside him, standing just off to the side, telling the poor pitiful human how he will cause unimaginable pain and terror if he does such a thing, that the human, as weak as he is on his own, and as weak as ALL of us are on our own in the hands of that Evil, that all his human side knows is that he is trapped in the jaws of the evil beast who wholly owns him, and he sees no way out.

That is sad and actually scary to me to imagine that now, where I am. Whereas before, I might have dismissed it as simply a scary movie scene, and one that wasn't so scary because, after all, "I don't believe in Satan, Demons, or Evil".

Or, as Dr. Martin put it: "...Oh, I don’t believe in angels or demons, heaven or hell. So you can’t hurt me...."

People in this world who have that attitude never hear the demonic reply: "...Hell is full of pathetic trash who thought exactly like you do. Boldly proclaiming their ideas on how they feel the universe operates. Never once contemplating the possibility that they could be wrong. And you should see them now, James..."

Those people in our world who have proclaimed Man as God, with all the powers to manipulate and fix this world, never once contemplate, in their ignorant arrogance, that they could be wrong.

Now THAT is frightening.