Not-so-subtle Anti-Christian Undertones

Rating: 1/10 (20 March 2008)

Just a quick observation from a Christian perspective (anyone else can just ignore, it won't be relevant to you) -
The main antagonist in this is a devout Christian woman (she is slightly more villainous than the monsters from the mist that eat people). While there's nothing wrong with having a Christian villain (Shawshank Redemption did it well), there's a big difference between saying a particular Christian person is evil, and saying all Christians are evil, and this movie seems to lean towards the latter.
Some of the things that were particularly bothersome for me:

Initially the sole Christian, she quickly creates a cult following of somewhere around 95% of the people trapped in the store.

The Inference: Christians only turn to God in times of trouble, when it is convenient. Christians are fickle. Christians are easily swayed and irrational.

She convinces the mob to throw a man "to the beasts"

The Inference: Christians are more interested in damning than saving.

A man says she has convinced the crowd she is psychic, because she talks to God.

The Inference: A direct conversation with God is not possible. Faith is a sign of a mental disorder.

Early in the movie, before she has actually done or said anything evil, she is shown praying. The directing is such that the viewer is urged to think "how weird" or "she must be crazy"

There's actually quite a bit more but I think you get the idea.

I tried throughout the movie to tell myself "this is just one bad person, they are not trying to say anything about the Christian faith", but the movie simply does not allow itself to be interpreted as such. By the end the Christians represent 95% of the store, and every one of them is bad (they are definitively supposed to be seen as Christians because they are quoting scripture and are called "a congregation"). The non-Christians represent 5% of the store, and every one of them is good (and they are definitively supposed to be seen as non-Christians because of the things they say - "We start dreaming up ways to kill one another. Why do you think we invented politics and religion?"). Every Christian bad, every non-Christian good? How else can we interpret that? The evilness of this woman is clearly meant to be seen as the evilness inside any religious person. She is not supposed to be evil in spite of being Christian, she is supposed to be evil -because of- being Christian.
Such a blatant attack on faith was unnecessary to the plot and could have been easily avoided. It ruined the movie for me. I'm not saying don't watch it, I'm not saying they did something morally wrong in making this movie, I'm just saying I don't think a very Christian person will be able to enjoy this movie much.