SALT LAKE CITY — The latest trend in faith-based films — profanity.
An upcoming faith-based film called “Generational Sins” will have 32 profanities, which is an unusual concept for faith-based cinema, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The film's writer-director Spencer Folmar calls his movie a “hard faith” film, hoping to trademark the phrase before he releases more films based on faith but are also littered with “f-bombs,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Generational Sins” received a recommendation from the Dove Foundation, a faith-based organization which champions family-friendly movies. This movie is recommended for those 18 and older.
Dove President Suzy Sammons said the movie "has not only cautionary elements in it, but positive ones. There's an overt godly message with Christian values."
Sammons said films like “Passion of the Christ” and “Hacksaw Ridge” are other examples of darker Christian films.
However, Folmar did state that “Generational Sins” isn’t primarily for Christians.
"We're not only targeting faith-based moviegoers, we're also going after ‘Chreasters' — people who only go to church on Christmas and Easter," he said. "If we tell stories of adults struggling with faith, adults will run toward them, so we're working hard on creating this new genre."
Folmar previously wrote in an opinion piece for The Christian Post that the movie industry needs movies like “Generational Sins” because they “are gritty and true-to-life films that will actually have a chance at being seen by non-Christians who most need to hear and see the Gospel lived out in the real world.”
Other than outliers like “Passion of the Christ” and “Hacksaw Ridge,” several of the top-grossing faith movies have had softer ratings. “Heaven is for Real,” the 2014 film with Greg Kinnear, earned $101 million despite its PG rating. Similarly, “God’s Not Dead” earned $64 million with its PG rating.
MovieGuide, a website that reviews family-friendly films, said that this new film might have commercial success, which “will help all the Christian faith-based movies.”
But, the company said, faith-based films “don’t need to be filled with foul language, explicit sex, drug use and the like to reach out to people that aren’t walking with God.”