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What Craven, and many evangelical Christian critics of Hollywood, miss is that the narrative context of cinematic violence and evil, more than its actual content, defines its moral nature and its effect on the human person. Violence or its threat in the necessary protection of human dignity or innocence—as when the protagonist of Manchurian Candidate shoots his ruthless mother and stepfather—may be legitimate and ethically instructive, reminding us of the preeminent value of human dignity.

But Freddy Krueger is a sadist who tortures and terrorizes his pretty young victims. Such portrayals of human suffering, void of any redemptive message or purpose, are only desensitizing voyeuristic thrills unworthy of true film craft. They certainly do not rise to the level of social service that Craven wants to claim for them.

Other discussions during the remaining three nights of the festival were a mixed bag of theologically astute observations and, in the wake of September 11, politically obtuse musings. Screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi perceptively saw in M (1931)—the tale of a child murderer and his apprehension—a chilling exposition of the Christian themes of self-justification and evil as disordered desire. (The will, through thousands of bad choices, incrementally creates for one's self an abominable character.)

But in the brilliant Manchurian Candidate, politically correct panelists saw not an example of a September 11-style "sleeper agent" but rather proof of what they called America's persistent habit of dehumanizing its enemies. One speaker even cautioned the audience not to now "demonize" Osama bin Laden—as though this aspirant to genocide had been getting a bad rap in the press.

But such boneheadedness was the exception. Perhaps the most penetrating discussion came from philosopher Dallas Willard, who presented an analysis of cinematic portrayals of Judas Iscariot. He critiqued both Hollywood's inability to see Jesus as intelligently controlling his own fate and American intellectual culture's commitment to locating human wrongdoing everywhere but where it first resides: in free human choice.

Indeed, the great value of this festival's films is that they place evil first in the individual will, not in social structures and institutions, as does the contemporary secular catechism. By doing this, they remind us that not only can evil be overcome by personal renewal, but that positive social change also is possible, albeit one by one, from the inside out.

Brad Stetson is associate professor of American Politics at Azusa Pacific University, and author of Living Victims, Stolen Lives: Parents of Murdered Children Speak to America, forthcoming from Baywood Publishing.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The official site for the City of the Angels Film Festival has information on the eighth annual festival and its history.

The Internet Movie Database provides cast, crew, and plot information for films shown at the festival including: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dracula 2000, Rosemary's Baby, The Manchurian Candidate and The Night of the Hunter.

For a complete list of films from Wes Craven, see The Internet Movie Database. His official site has a list of interviews and current projects.

For more Christianity Today coverage of movies, see our Film section and our weekly Film Forum.

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February 4 2002, Vol. 46, No. 2