"He that doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love." 1 John 4:8

Sunday, the girls were away from home, so Dad and the others decided that we should watch some movies or do something fun that we normally can't while the women are home. I would not have participated, because I needed to make the splicky mission. But Dad insisted, since it was a rare chance... This was basically the reason that the splicky mission was delayed. (<-- Look at the time stamp for the announcement there...)

We ended up watching two movies: Ocean's Eleven, and The Ring. First, Ocean's Eleven is an interesting moral oxymoron. It's a movie about how a bunch of robbers are robbing some worse robbers. It has it's funny parts, and it is fascinating to watch, but... Are you supposed to be identifying with these criminals?

Secondly, The Ring is a horror movie. It is quite terrifying, in fact. But before I go on about it, I feel I should warn those who haven't seen the movie, in the typical way around here with bold, ALL-CAP LETTERS, THAT SOME OF WHAT I SAY HERE COULD BE CONSIDERED TO SPOIL THE MOVIE FOR YOU, OR GIVE DETAILS AWAY TO THE EFFECT OF LESSENING YOUR POTENTIAL ENJOYMENT OF THE MOVIE. IN OTHER WORDS, SPOILER ALERT! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

:-D There, I'm glad you (whoever all is reading this part beyond the warning) decided to go on. Now, I have consistently observed that when you are scaring someone, you are making them feel as though a malicious force of some kind has power over them. I think this might be fundamentally what fear is. You cannot scare someone unless they feel psychologically, emotionally, or even biologically that a malicious force could have power over them. This force could be chance, like if you are afraid something bad might happen, or it could be the unknown, as with a child's fear of the darkness (because if you don't know that there isn't a malicious force present, there could be). I think you can categorize how afraid a person is to depend on three factors: 1) How real to the person this empowered maliciousness is. If you can make them feel it more, they will be more afraid. 2) How much power they feel the malicious force has over them. 3) How malicious they feel the force is.

In The Ring, they used specific frequencies of sound and patterns of visuals to make you biologically feel it more (and in turn psychologically and emotionally), increasing factor #1. For this they also used concepts that might tend to hit home with a lot of people to increase factor #1 psychologically, like watching television. They also made it so that the people in the movie had virtually no power to stop the malicious force, thus increasing factor #2. They also portrayed this malicious force as being almost demonically malicious - they portrayed it as having no goal whatsoever except to harm people and spread chaos, which sets factor #3 pretty intensely.

Physically, with all the hard facts about the movie, it was simply an unchristian horror movie. For instance, the malicious force was the end all and be all, as it were - there was no good side to the spiritual realm. It was also rather narrow and specific, too - there was only one of this thing, and you actually find out where it lived and what its name was in the physical world. Also, its methods for harming people were very formulaic, and tied in well with its past in the physical world. Lastly, its point in harming people was rather uneducated - it would scare them for a few minutes as it got ready to kill them in the physical world, and then it was over (note that "it was over" includes the harm it brought on them). None of this is really very accurate or plausible.

However, what interests me most about this movie is that there did not appear to be any side-agenda whatever. It was dauntingly realistic emotionally. For instance, in some gross movies in the past, as I hear from those who have watched them, the bad guy who did all these horrible things was killed in the end. This was done merely to intellectually justify allowing him to do these things, though, and throughout the movie, you can plainly see that he's suppoed to be cool. The Ring has no such garbage. Although the antagonist does not die in the end (well, not in some senses), there is no evidence at all of unnecessary undertones. Throughout this movie, the malicious force is portrayed horrifically evil, and it evokes no emotions other than terror and horror.

This uniquely clean depiction of an entity devoid of everything but malice and chaos is emotionally a quite surprisingly accurate portrayal of demons. Real demons. Emotionally, part of this movie tells a true story, whether the makers know it or not.

You see, God is love. God isn't just loving. God is love. He loves us infinitely. When His Spirit is present, people are loving. When His Spirit is withdrawn, people aren't loving.

In the Bible, we are told of some of of God's messengers being cast into outer darkness, because they sinned. God withdrew his loving Spirit from them. ...Guess what was left? Malice and chaos. (Revelation 20:10)

So The Ring portrays disturbingly well an entity of this kind. The trouble is, that's all the movie is, I suppose because some people enjoy that fearful high. What's missing in the story, is:

1) The malicious force isn't powerful enough, and it is not really spiritual. Although it certainly displays supernatural powers, the movie seems to be focused in the material realm. In fact, the truth, all fictional movies aside, is that the legion of darkness in the spiritual realm is so incredibly powerful that if it were left unchecked, it would have the power to bring unimaginable terror and torment upon everyone individually forever. (Not that they are that powerful in principal, but they are so deceitful and clever that they effectively have that kind of power.) You don't have to give it the power by ignorantly watching its little video tape. And it wouldn't end at death.

2) The whole other side of the spiritual realm is missing from the story. God's loving Spirit is missing from the story. There is no mention made of this possibility whatsoever, in fact. The movie ends with the people doing the evil force's bidding in a way, because that's the only way to survive it. But in real life, although darkness is incredibly powerful, God is infinitely powerful. (See 1 John 4:4, or my picture Lamp.) (Besides, doing the evil force's bidding won't save you from it in real life, because all it wants is to hurt you personally, no matter what it may seem like.) They no longer have almost any power over us Christians, because God is protecting us. On the cross, Jesus defeated death forever. In fact, I came away from this movie encouraged, because perhaps I had a hightened sense of what all I'm so perfectly, impenetrably protected from. All fear is gone. And in heaven, all fear will be forgotten, because darkness will have absolutely, absolutely no power over us.

"O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55 - "Even though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod, and Your staff, they comfort me." Psalms 23:4