Atheist groups are attacking Suing the Devil, the highly acclaimed Christian movie. In fact, one of the atheist groups emailed the producers warning of a “mob attack” on IMDb—and it seems they followed through.
Within three days, the film’s rating dropped from a near seven to a four on IMDb (Internet Movie Database), which is the largest film site on the Internet.
Anti-Christian comments such as “Christian propaganda,” “Christian-brainwashing,” “Christian idiots,” and “Eliminate Christians” permeated through the film’s message boards.
“It was a direct attack on all believers. There were over 400 people who voted a ‘1’ overnight despite the film not coming out,” a spokesman for RiverRain Productions said. “We’ve let IMDb know about this attack, but they’ve done nothing. Other Christian films, like Courageous and Facing the Giants, have also suffered these attacks—it’s a way of smearing and discrediting these films.”
The director and producers of Suing the Devil are urging an attitude of forgiveness: “We have to show them love,” says Tim Chey, the film’s director. “Jesus said if they hate me, they’ll hate you.”
Suing the Devil was mentioned in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend because the film has had 100,000 illegal downloads on 50 illegal sites. “It’s one of the most heavily downloaded indie movies ever, which is a compliment actually,” Chey says. “And I’m glad it spread the Word to so many.”
Suing the Devil opened in select theaters nationwide on August 26. It had the second highest-grossing average of any independent film in the nation and was the number one Christian movie in America in August.
Suing the Devil stars Malcolm McDowell, Rebecca St. James, Corbin Bernsen, Shannen Fields (Facing the Giants), Tom Sizemore, Ros Gentle, and Bart Bronson. Hillsong also participated in the movie shot in Sydney, Australia.
In the film, Luke O’Brien, a washed-up janitor turned night law student, decides to sue Satan (Malcolm McDowell) for $8 trillion dollars. On the last day before Luke files a default judgment, Satan appears to defend himself. On Satan’s legal team are 10 of the country’s best trial lawyers. The entire world watches Legal TV to see who will win the Trial of the Century.
