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Hollywood's Christian Killers

Thursday December 4, 2008

Categories: movies
I'm looking for movies that depict Christian killers of some kind, from slasher films like The Night of the Hunter and Martin Scorcese's remake of Cape Fear (where the killer is a Pentecostal) to less incendiary accounts like Robert Duvall's The Apostle. Really, any sort of violence will do--think of Mandy Moore's car slamming into the Jesus statue in Saved!--but I'm most interested in movies where Christians go for the kill. 

Can you help? Any ideas?

To jog your thinking, the last scene from Cape Fear, complete with speaking in tongues (and--warning--brutal violence. And embarrassing filmmaking): 

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Comments
Patton Dodd
December 4, 2008 8:02 PM

forestwalker--because it's there? No, really for a long-term project I'm working on. And a Beliefnet feature I'm fiddling with.

Mick
December 5, 2008 12:38 AM

There Will Be Blood--no kill, but definite lust for violence by the minister.

Arsenic and Old Lace. The old ladies say prayers and poison people. Not sure how "Hollywood" this one is.

Actually, some Hitchcock films may be good to look at. Shyamalan? I have no idea of current horror films.

Paul
December 6, 2008 9:55 AM

That bald-headed guy from "The DaVinci Code."

Other movies? Check out "The Others," with Nicole Kidman. Creepy. And then there's "Murder on the Orient Express, where a missionary Ingrid Bergman takes part in a murder. And, speaking of missionaries, keep in mind Robert DeNiro's turn as a Jesuit in one of my all time favorites, "The Mission." Mel Gibson's William Wallace in "Braveheart" seems to be reasonably religious, even though he hacks through dozens of Englishmen.

Jack
December 23, 2008 11:37 PM

What!? No one mentioned _Schindler's List_?

Nathan
January 5, 2009 12:57 PM
http://filmatical.wordpress.com/

"The Legend of Zorro" (2005) has a notably fundamentalist Christian hitman.

Ben Wade in "3:10 To Yuma" (2007) makes an impression as a cold blooded murderer who's memorized the Bible.

Guy de Lusignan in "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005) is one of the more passionately depicted Christians in that film, and the one with the most blood lust.

"The Boondock Saints" (1999) features two devout Catholics whose "mission" is to murder criminals, or anyone they think might deserve it.

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Patton Dodd is a senior editor for Beliefnet and the author of My Faith So Far: A Story of Conversion and Confusion (Jossey-Bass).

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