Entertainment: Movies: Cry of the Dead, a real thriller chiller diller flick made by ...

If the Reuters report on ABCNews.com had said, A whammo scare-your-hair-on-end thriller has just been made by Jews, I'd have wondered ... so what? ... what's the unmentioned angle rendering the item newsworthy? ... Jews have been making great horror movies for ages, since the beginning ... what about Golemvery early in film history? If R/ABC had reported, An amazing new shit-your-pants-with-fear flick has just been made by Conservative Jews, I'd have thawt perhaps, really ... is the reference here to political conservatism or observance-conservatism? and how does either/or or both impact on the celluloidal flicker of images on the screen? If the report had said, A soul-shivering film has just been made by Orthodox Jews, I'd have thawt for sure, now that sounds quite unusual, there must be some important dynamic going on between strict observance of Torah and the plot of the story, which probably comes from a Bible story so freaky it's been lost to view by most, but not to these guys with a taste for Daniel's friends in the firey furnace of the ancient Persian Shah.

But what the news says is that here's a credible movie made by Ultra-Orthodox Jews, one that follows the rules (no women, no deaths, certainly no murders within the imagery) and a movie among many that together constitute a cultural development astounding in New York, and in Israel a movie of great portent for the community out of which this and other such creations are arising (about "50 to 100" God-fearers-made movies a year now). The inter-cultural resonances back and forth between Ultra-Orthodox observants and secularist Jews who want to see their flicks has been phenomenal (but I guess they're all made digitally now, and there's really no flicking of image panels on a reel projected onto an actual screen).

For Christians of the strict observance varieties and for tranditional Holiness Christian communities, one could conjure up parallels. But this Ultra-Orthodox cultrual advance in the case of Cry of the Dead, made for only $10,000 and distributed mainly from religious bookstores where even the secularists go to purchase these entertainment-wares by means of an alternative distribution system, all this is so unlike what we have seen in North America with Robert DuVall's indie production of The Apostle, Hal Lindsey's Left Behind, and Mel Gibson'sThe Passion of the Christ. I wonder what's next from faith-driven movie-makers? Will there by Islamic movies in English without subtitles, coming from a similar provenance? Hindu? I can think of two Buddhist movies, but made by Westerners on the monumental scale of the independent Christian films I menitoned. Does whatchamacallit's Star Wars oeuvre qualify as a Mormon making of movies? John Travolta has had his go on behalf of Scientology. What's next on our own continent of religious diversity and film production oligarchy? - Owlb


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