God doesn’t give warning. When it’s time for the mighty, unshakeable man upstairs to point his finger at the ants below, he doesn’t give pause to signify his hammer; he just unleashes his fury and calls it justice.
Take 2015 film The Remaining, in which Skylar and Dan were like any other couple caught up in the rapture, blind to what was coming, and doomed to participate in God’s plan. They had been married just a few hours when the rapture came, and watched with worried eyes as dozens of loved ones dropped dead to the floor at their wedding. Panic runs amiss as the remaining survivors struggle to comprehend what has happened, and gather together as an ugly gray storm approaches swiftly on the horizon.
Most are in disrray, but Skylar understands. She’s read all about this in her bible, during her Sunday school classes, and at home under her parents’ instruction. The rapture has started, soon the demons will come, and there will be no place to hide. Skylar begs and pleads, but no one will listen to her talk of scripture and prophecies. But in The Remaining, Skylar’s right. Tt’s the end of the world, and the fortunate few were the first to go.
Some believe that The Remaining, Donnie Darko executive producer Casey La Scala’s directorial debut, an explicitly pro-faith horror film, is the first of its kind. Instead, the roots of faith-based horror can be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s, when Baptist Minister Billy Graham founded Mark IV Pictures Incorporated. This Evangelistic production company created the Mark IV Series, which are apocalyptic faith-based films made to frighten non-believers into converting, and keeping Christians fearful and loyal by showing them what happens to sinners at the end of times. The pictures are based on the pre-tribulation, dispensationalist belief that the Second coming of Jesus Christ will occur after the rapture and a period of seven years of hell on earth. Here are a few of Mark IVs titles: Brother Enemy, All the King’s Horses, Heaven’s Heroes, Blood on the Mountain, A Stranger in My Forest, and of course, the Mark IV Series: A Thief in the Night, A Distant Thunder, Image of the Beast, and The Prodigal Planet.
Eventually, the Mark IV Series ties computers in to Satan, and serves as commentary on the advancement of science and technology. According to the third and most popular entry in the series, Image of the Beast, God will take the true Christians to heaven, leaving the rest of humanity behind to experience the “tribulation period, a seven-year-long hell on earth when the Christian churches fall and its followers are persecuted. Israel’s new leader will appear to die, Satan will enter the dead politician, awaken from his deep slumber, and declare himself dictator of the world. This antichrist will actually be a computer, and like a new golden calf, people will worship it as a false idol (hence why the “marks of the beast” are bar codes wink wink).
As far as storytelling goes, this is an impressive, meticulous look into the future that would make Aldous Huxley proud. As valid belief, it’s just a plain old conspiracy theory; a little frightening, but far-fetched. These fundamentalist movies scared tons of ’70s and ’80s children into praying every night for God’s forgiveness; terrified that he would rapture their parents and leave them behind. Cruel and unnecessary? Helpful and righteous? Either way, these films were extremely effective.
In 1995, authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins published the first book in what would become their sixteen novels-strong series, the New York Times bestselling Left Behind. These stories also hold a dispensationalist faith that when the end of the world happens, the true believers will be raptured, while the non-believers and part-time Christians will be left behind during the tribulation period, before He returns and gathers more true followers of his word. Left Behind is told from the perspective of those left on earth, and chronicles their endeavors and fight against the antichrist. The antichrist is hidden beneath the skin of the new world leader, Nicolae Jetty Carpathia, who has become secretary general of the United Nations. Pilot Rayford Steele, his daughter Chloe, pastor Bruce Barnes, and journalist Kevin Buck Williams may not seem like the typical band of misfits that would come together in a crisis, but with their current situation, they need all of the help they can get. Together, they struggle to accept the truth, find their faith, help others like them, and stop Carpathia from his prophetic rise to power, as hell stirs up like wildfire all around them. With the brisk pacing and action-fueled, embellished events of the Book of Revelations, these novels have become extremely popular, inspiring comparison to the likes of Tom Clany novels. This is great for a newer generation of would-be Christians, an attempt to offer the same old context with exciting, updated action sequences.
The books were eventually adapted into a series of films, including Left Behind: The Movie (2000), Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002), both starring Growing Pains Kirk Cameron, and Left Behind: World At War (2005), the most loosely adapted film in the series. In 2014, it was rebooted with a film simply called Left Behind, starring Nicolas Cage, Chad Michael Murray, and Back to the Future veteran Lea Thompson. Cage plays a pilot whos mid-air when the rapture occurs. Sveral patrons vanish in mid, leaving a hurricane of confusion and mass hysteria in their wake. Cloud Ten Pictures, another faith-based production company, announced a Left Behind TV series in 2010 that has yet to arrive, but another show with a similar premise (but not intent) has recently started on HBO, The Leftovers.
What’s funny about the book series is that other than the bible, the obvious influence on Jenkins and LaHaye were the Billy Graham-funded Mark IV films. The authors have been quoted as saying that writer-producer Russell S. Doughten had a huge influence on their novels, their perception of the rapture and the second coming of Jesus Christ. In fact, the title of their first book was derived from “You’ve Been Left Behind”, a song prominently featured in the first of the four films, A Thief in the Night.
History truly does repeat itself, as this contemporary scary movie starring Spy Kid Alexa Vega can be traced all the way back to a film company started by a North Carolina evangelist during the days of disco. The Remaining director Casey La Scala may not be the first to ever make a faith-based horror film, but hes certainly helping push it into the mainstream with content more shocking than its predecessors. In the end however, all of these films play on the fear that mankind is not worthy of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. No matter how often you read your bible, or how many Sundays you spend in church, you could still be forgotten. You could be left behind. The lord is too massive and fair to make tiny exceptions in the grand scheme of the end of the world. This theme remains adamant and invasive. In pro-faith horror, its the fear of not having enough.
