During the Halloween season, most people visit one of the many haunted houses that seem to pop up overnight in their area, but some people choose to experience a different kind of scare. Since 1999, local non-denominational Christian church House of Prayer has put together a Hell House which presents visitors with a demon-guided tour of Hell.
Inside Hell House, 15 to 20 visitors at a time are taken through a funeral, an abortion scene, a Ku Klux Klan attack, an AIDS revelation for a gay couple. They walk through a teen suicide and a scene from a drug overdose.
On the surface, what separates Hell House from other haunted houses is that the events depicted are grounded in reality – there are no vampires or werewolves here, only gritty scenes of the possible consequences resulting from past actions. The goals for Hell House are a little bit different, however. This haunted house is designed to bring people to God.
This year, 1,740 people walked through the tour. It was the church’s fourth best year in terms of attendance, but that was not what was important to Pastor Larry Mitchell.
“In 13 years, we had a record for first-time salvations,” he said. A total of 269 people welcomed Christ into their hearts for the first time after walking into what the church refers to as the response room. Another 449 rededicated their lives to Christ. Altogether, 41% of those that visited came to or came back to the faith.
The response room is the first room visitors walk into after leaving Hell House. Inside, they are welcomed by volunteers who ask them to fill out a feedback card. They assist those who were moved by the experience. They pray for those in need and help welcome Christ into the hearts of those who ask.
Herb Ault has been bringing youth groups from Jackson County to Hell House for several years. This year, he brought 16 people in four cars.
“We got a little bit of a drive to come here,” he said as he sat next to Missy Castle, a middle-aged woman who was accompanying him. It was her first time.
“I’m not sure what to expect. He hasn’t told me much,” she said.
Ault said the program was set up well and opened people’s eyes to things that can actually happen. That is why he continues to bring different kids from his church each year.
“Each scene is like word pictures. You have to put it in picture form so people can actually see what we’re trying to say. A few people get confused that we’re the ones speaking, but it’s actually the demonic guides,” Mitchell said.
Like the House of Prayer itself, Ellettsville’s Hell House is no stranger to controversy. It has been picketed by reproductive and gay rights activists in the past.
“We used to get picketed and all kinds of stuff, but the last time we saw the gay community show up on our doorstep, we fed them hot chocolate and cookies all night,” Mitchell said, noting that the protestors began picketing on Hartstrait Road, but the church quickly invited them to picket from their parking lot as it was safer. That night, three of the picketers walked through Hell House and converted. The others left angry.
Protest does not only come from those ideologically opposed to the church’s message. Like the gay protestors, a minority of Christians that walk through Hell House leave offended.
“Some people come through and they do make comments that it’s quite offensive. We know that it is. Because these portrayals are offensive. They are offensive every single day in real life, but people choose to take the ostrich approach,” Mitchell said.
The pastor said society has changed, that the same people who complain about Hell House do not complain about violence in movies and video games.
“We were radical before we got saved, but now that we know the truth, we can really get radical. We know that Jesus was radical,” Mitchell said of the tactics used by the church to spread the word.
Next year, Ellettsville’s Hell House will reach 20,000 visitors. When that happens, Mitchell said they will do something fun. Bells and whistles will go off. “We laugh a lot, but that’s because we’re a serious ministry.”
When Ault and Castle emerged from Hell House, Castle was too emotional to talk. Ault said his daughter, who was eight months pregnant, was pointed out during the abortion scene. Other pregnant girls were in the group. Someone else in his group thought the demon should not have done so, but Ault told her it was okay, because it was obvious his daughter was not having an abortion.
“My daughter did right,” he said.
Outside, a grandmother reunited with her grandson after he left early. He said the strobe lights bothered him.
“It was a great true-to-life thing. It keeps you in check with the Lord,” first-time visitor and Brownstown resident Lee Liebert said.
Chad Todd, the new youth minister at House of Prayer, said “I wish I had this as a teen. I grew up going to keggers at 15 at (Indiana University).” He was helping out wherever needed, but his focus was on teens in the response room.
While church groups came from as far away as Oregon and Florida, Todd said he was most excited about how far teens were traveling to come. They are coming “all the way from the Ohio-Kentucky border, from an hour away or more.”
House of Prayer’s Hell House began with a $400 investment in scripts and other necessities that it got from the Colorado church that started it all. Since then, the church has put $4,000 to $5,000 into improving its version of it every year.
“The rest finances our prison ministry, street ministry, block parties in the summertime,” Mitchell said. “We’re covering all the county jails and local prisons. We do that on a weekly basis. All that money goes to finance our outreach programs.”
After 13 years, running Hell House has gotten a little easier. The 256 volunteers who helped run the event this year included many event veterans who were more comfortable in their role than ever before and a lot of first timers.
“We experienced a victory. I mean, the numbers, we’re just so pleased and happy about the numbers, that we are impacting lives in this crazy way,” Mitchell said.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2012. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.