For some Halloween is about fantasy. Witches and wizards, ghosts and zombies. But for one Rotorua church it is an opportunity to hammer home the horrors of hell by depicting real-life scenes they believe could land people there. Katee Shanks reports.
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Graphic scenes intended to shock will once again feature at a Rotorua Church this Halloween.
The non-denominational, full gospel Victory Church first enacted its Welcome to Hell nights in 2005 with the most recent showing in 2013. The idea behind Welcome to Hell, according to Victory Pastor David Abrahams, was to scare people using real-life scenes so they would fear and avoid the eternal consequence of these bad things.
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"However, we are not just presenting the dark side. We also show people there is a way to heaven and that is what we want to share," Abrahams said.
This year scenes will depict suicide, euthanasia, domestic violence and a motorcycle crash with viewers finishing in hell and alongside the devil. The final scene encourages people to embrace God.
The first Welcome to Hell event in 2005, drew complaints from the community due to the graphic nature of scenes but Abrahams made no apologies then just as he makes no apologies now.
He has, however, raised the entry age to 15.
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Advertise with NZME."The scenes we will be showing are real-life scenes, they happen almost every day," Abrahams said. "And I'd expect the age-group Welcome to Hell would attract, maybe 15 to mid-20s, wouldn't be shocked with what they were seeing."
Unlike previous years there will not be an abortion scene.
Church members will carry out the scenes with help from props they largely made themselves. The scenes will each fill a room and include music and lighting.
"As people walk through the scenes they will alternate between light and dark and also flashing lights as well as be assailed by noise in each," Abrahams said. "It's about the whole concept."
Following the 2005 production, the church came under fire for depicting suicide, abortion, murder and mutilation.
The final scene showed people being redeemed by accepting God. It was criticised by locals who said that the scenes were too horrific and shouldn't have been open to young children.
One woman told the Rotorua Daily Post the experience had been "a pretty horrible 12 minutes" and "a disgusting way of recruiting for the church".
She described scenes including a baby on a screen pleading not to be aborted, a domestic violence scene in which a man cuts off his wife's arm with a chainsaw and another woman adorned with piercings chained to a wall pleading to be released.
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Advertise with NZME.At the time Abrahams said people going to the play would have been warned of the graphic nature of the production.
"There are scenes that are shocking and that is the whole idea of it," he said.
Welcome to Hell will be held from October 31 to November 2 at the Victory Church, 39 Old Taupo Rd.
