Constantine... gotta love that movie

Jonathan Edwards preached about it, CS Lewis described it’s workings in the Screwtape letters, and in 2005 Keanu Reeves gives us a graphic illustration of its reality.
What is it? Hell of course. That place that is seldom mentioned in our churches is becoming the subject matter of Hollywood, most recently through Hell Boy (2004) and Constantine (2005). One reason we do not talk about it much in Church is for fear of offending people. Why would Hollywood choose to use it as a subject matter then? Possibly because, through the experience of the story we become better people. One of the characters Gabriel (an angel) nails it, when she comments that we reach out more to God and experience his Love when we are at our worst – when we experience hell on earth – through the experience we become better people. Hell shows us ultimately the depth of God’s love for us.
The reality of Hell is inseparable from the Christian truths of Sin, God’s Holiness and the cross. It is an essential detail in the story that gives the cross it’s meaning, whether it is an exothermic or endothermic reaction is not essential. The fate of the lost is essential and it would seem Hollywood is ‘teaching’ some of what the Church has forgotten. The problem is that Hollywood does this in a way that reveals truth but distorts it also and doing so reveals where a lot of those outside of the Christian faith stand. It is not belief in God, heaven and hell that is the issue, but rather a warped view that sees God as, “just a child with an anthill", (John Constantine). The reality for many people like John Constantine is that they want nothing to do with God, because they have misunderstood who He is. My fear is that this misunderstanding has often come through what people have seen in the lives of Christians.
I hope Hollywood goes on making movies like Constantine, they are a challenge to the belief systems of those who watch them, nut they are also a challenge to the Church to not only talk the truth but model it also. As for your young people chances are they will watch this movie, I hope that you have the sense to discus the messages it carries with them

Interesting - how the genre of Horror finds it very easy to promote spirtual themes'
Scott Derickson - writer and director of the Hellraiser V - inferno - put 's it down to this
"It may be impossible to make a really good movie about God that people can take seriously. But you can really speak to them by making a good movie about the Devil, and therefore inherently making a movie about God."
What is certain God can use all sorts of tools to reveal His truth to us.