He graduated from Biola University with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Theological Studies. So he essentially has the same education as I do at Cedarville University. Derrickson is a Christian Writer and Director that does not make films with strictly Christian plotlines. He is actually mainly a horror film creator, and is quite respected in the Hollywood community. In fact, he is directing the new multi-million-dollar budget Marvel movie, Doctor Strange starring film star Benedict Cumberbatch. When it comes to movies of this generation, Marvel movies are about as big as it gets. With their films constantly dominating the box office. In an interview with Michael Horton on the White Horse Inn podcast, Derrickson talks about how the expectation to have a religious stance is almost forced upon Christian filmmakers, but not forced on Christians in other professions such as plumbers and doctors. In the interview, Derrickson says this:
What many conservative Christians don’t recognize is that when you approach a creative endeavor with that kind of prescribed agenda, you inevitably end up making propaganda. You make something that is going to be very resistible to the audience. Even if the people who view it agree with the point of view, if they feel that prescribed agenda, if they feel someone using the creative story as a soapbox, they don’t want to hear it. Nobody likes stories like that, and those …show more content…
The modern Christian films that are being released today do not have the quality of story that other films have. They only reach out to the Christians and end up preaching to the choir. The stories that Christians already know and have been familiar with their entire Christian walk will not be interesting to them in the movie theater. They need to see some sort of realistic portrayal of sin or something else to be understood by the unbelievers of today. Bernsen goes on to talk about what he tries to do when he makes films, in regards to Christian stories. He says that he is constantly see how far he can go, whether it be into a character’s drug addiction, or a family dealing with a member with alcoholism. He tries to make sure that the stories and character are real. He doesn’t want his films to be perceived as “cheesy or hallmark-ish,” and this has led to most of his films to not be very successful. However, he says that he is fine with that because he does not want to preach to the audience. The bible does not just deal with sappy, happy-ending stories. The bible talks about everything from war to rape. It is not just a book about everything being perfect and living happily ever after. Bernsen want to be able to reach the people who do not currently have their heart open to hearing the word of God. And to reach some of those people, the struggles in the films have to get real, gritty, and