The Burning Hell (1974)

Director:

Ron Ormond

Writers:

Ron Ormond (screenplay), Estus W. Pirkle (story)

Stars:

Jimmy Robbins, Tim Ormond, Robert G. Lee

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jimmy Robbins	...	The Rich Man
Tim Ormond	...	The Wayward Christian
Robert G. Lee	...	Himself (as Dr R.G. Lee)
Jack Hyles	...	Himself (Guest Preacher) (as Dr Jack Hyles)
Bob Gray	...	Himself (Guest Preacher) (as Dr Bob Gray)
Terence Hendricks	...	Lazarus (as Clarence Hendricks)
Don Green	...	Moses
Carl Lackey	...	Abraham
Vaughn Denton	...	Korah
Mike Fine	...	Nathanael
Earl Farley	...	Phillip
Billy Kent	...	Narack
Buddy Mullinax	...	King of Babylon
Maurice Banks	...	The Killer
Viola Walden

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

religion | hell | reenactment | christian

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Taglines:

20,000 degrees fahrenheit and not a drop of water

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

El infierno ardiente

Filming Locations:

Jerusalem, Israel

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Ormond Organization

Technical Specs

Runtime:

58 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was mainly shown in churches and religious schools using 16mm prints. During the initial distribution period, the areas where the film was booked would be saturated with advertising. Word-of-mouth usually limited the engagements to no more than one or two showings.

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Connections

Followed by The Believer's Heaven (1977)

User Reviews

Another mind-bogglingly misguided Jesus flick from Ron Ormond

If you're familiar with the Jesus flicks of the notorious Ron Ormond, you'll probably know what to expect with "The Burning Hell". Its offensively misguided and moronic and becomes very entertaining to watch because of this. Estus W. Pirkle may have appeared as a holier-than-thou messiah to Ormond, but to most he'll come across as being very self-righteous and stuck up. His preaching style simply consists of "I'm right, you're wrong". If the film is any accurate, I'll be going to hell, because I find myself agreeing with many of the contrary arguments in it.

The film is very poorly made as well. Ormond never learned anything about film-making it seems, and it shows. However, he loads on plenty of hilarious exploitation elements leftover from his drive-in days such as plenty of pointless violence. Also, the acting is full of little camp goodies, especially the portrayals of Nathaniel and (in the films most positively bizarre moment) Satan. The lead actor Tim Ormond is possibly the dullest individual ever caught on camera. The reenactments of biblical times are uproarious, because all the Isrealites seem oddly Anglo-Saxon with southern accents to boot. The high point of the film are the sequences set in Hell, which are great pieces of bargain basement surrealism along the lines of "Glen or Glenda". While it doesn't reach the insane heights of "If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do", "The Burning Hell" is still quite mind-boggling in its own right. (6/10)