Faith films are a promising alternative for Catholic families to the Christophobic ideologies coming from many Hollywood films.

Some, though, are truly movies to avoid and diligence must always be practiced in screening films before watching. Modernist Catholics sometimes make great movies but sometimes their movies should be avoided. Protestants and even studios like Angel which is run by a Mormon family distribute movies that are inspiring and edifying. But sometimes this is not the case.

Our list is here to save you the disappointment of investing time into a terrible movie that seemed so promising. We don't list obvious movies to avoid but rather movies that most Catholic families think will be worth the watch but are decidedly not.

What Makes a Film "One to Avoid"?

In compiling this list, we evaluated films that seemed suitable for family viewing but fell short for moral content and fidelity to the Catholic faith.

Many of these movies come from sources that have produced good films in the past or present themselves as wholesome, faith-based entertainment.

Because of that, they can be especially disappointing when they contain objectionable content, misleading portrayals of the Faith, or messages that undermine Catholic teaching.

The Countdown Begins

Not every disappointing film is harmful, but the movies below contain enough moral, theological, or content-related concerns that we cannot recommend them. Here are our current picks for movies to avoid.

Quick Reference Guide

For readers who prefer a quick summary, here's a snapshot of the films on our list and the primary concerns associated with each one.

Why These Films Made the List

A brief summary can only tell part of the story. The following reviews examine the specific content, themes, and concerns that led us to include each of these films on our list.

06 Animal Farm: A Cautionary Tail

Animal Farm-A Cautionary Tail
Angel Studios

Angel's new film Animal Farm is about overworked and underfed animals.

A pig named Snowball decides to try to change the situation by leading a revolt against the farmer and taking over the farm. As part of this revolution, Snowball sets forth certain commandments.

Lucky is a smart pig on the farm, is friendly, and loves all the animals. He is also the most literate.

Napoleon is the breeding boar on the farm and enjoys thinking of himself as being a rule breaker. He also has hopes to take over the farm. 

Napoleon does take over the farm and influences Lucky to buy into his ideology that the pigs are better and everyone on the farm must obey them or they would live a life under the dictatorship of a farmer. All the pigs move into the farmhouse and begin to live like people while the rest of the animals on the farm work with little to no food. Napoleon goes into cahoots with the people and begins to sell off assets that the animals could have used.

Lucky’s girlfriend (I guess) sees the injustice the pigs are committing and leaves the farm house to live with the other animals. Lucky's favorite horse dies and is sent to the glue factory while yet still alive.

Lucky runs away from the house after he sees the pigs turn into humans and the humans turn into pigs.

He turns the animals against the pigs and lets them all live the way they wish. The message of the film is that there is no need for a leader as all leaders are tyrants and no one is happy unless they do what they want. 

This movie was made for children so you would guess that it would be "G" rated.

No! This movie is "PG" for rude jokes and vulgarity.

This movie is not for children or adults as it pushes a twisted idea of freedom and, on top of that, the humor was crude at best. 

The main parts that were meant to be humorous all had butts in them. Animals are gross. Pigs are grosser. IMDB ranked this movie as having mild sex and nudity! There were base references of attraction in the movie to Lucky’s butt when Napoleon convinces him to jiggle it to a girl pig he likes. Weird, right? Napoleon is grooming Lucky throughout the film. 

The goal of this movie, I think, was to show that communism is bad but so is all authority.

Men need leaders. Without it, life would be a Tower of Babel. Animal Farm: A Cautionary Tail is not like the book in a lot of ways. It has a futuristic feeling with things that don’t even exist being used. There is this rich masculine gal that is attempting to overtake the farm, too. 

Angel’s Animal Farm goes against all that is good and wholesome. Which is sad because Angel defines themselves as fighting for “light” since the beginning. Vulgarity, immodesty, crudity and queers do not fit and should not fit with a company called Angel. Angel should NOT have distributed this film and I’m very disappointed they did.  

What to watch instead? David is a far better Angel Studios' animated film. 

Becket Bowen stars as Billy the Kid in Industrious Family's original series End of the Santa Fe Trail. He hosts the Gofers Get a Grip weekly podcast, is an actor, and enjoys Catholic apologetics.

05 Becket

Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton in Becket
Keep Films

This is not a family-friendly movie! With frequent scenes opposed to the sixth and ninth commandment, it isn't even suitable for adult Christians to watch.

It seems as though this version of the St. Thomas Becket story was a bit confused between King Henry II and King Henry VIII. The king is shown several times committing sins against the sixth commandment.

These scenes are vivid and long. It is also all throughout the movie with the king's wife frequently complaining of his rashness. Whores are constantly spoken of by the king in lust. Every time Henry II enters the scene the viewer is uncomfortable, wondering what he might do or say next. 

The storyline itself is true.

St. Thomas and Henry II are good friends, the seat of Archbishop of Canterbury opens and Henry appoints St. Thomas as the new Archbishop. After he is appointed, St. Thomas takes his position seriously and resists the king's wishes to encroach on Church rights.

This leads the mad king to the point of despair when he vocally wishes for St. Thomas' death. Powerful statesmen fulfill his wish and murder St. Thomas on the altar steps of his cathedral. When the king finds out, he is heartbroken and has himself scourged for causing such a crime.

All of this is very powerful in the film, and what could be a beautiful movie is spoiled by unnecessary scenes and references to sins of lust that go unpunished. Instead of a really accurate and great movie, it lands itself on our list of movies to avoid.

Sins against chastity are those most despised by Our Lord. He allowed a thief, a liar, and a traitor in among His closest friends, but not one of the Apostles committed sins against the sixth and ninth commandments. 

Hollywood's obsession with these scenes in movies serves as a red flag.

The idea that moviemakers loop Christians in with Catholic stories of saints and turn on them with such terrible sins is harrowing and disgusting. 

What to watch instead?

Cathedral - Murder at Canterbury is a BBC television series from 2006 available to watch in 5 parts on YouTube.

04 Despicable Me

"Minions" from Despicable Me
Universal Pictures

Today I was asking the children in catechism classes about  "Minions". Most of them have seen the movie Despicable Me, Minion Mayhem.

A promotion poster says: When the World Needed a Hero, They Called a Villain.

I have always heard about the saying from the Bible; the devil and his minions. So when, at another earlier event, some children asked me if "minions" were bad, I assumed they were talking about the devil's helpers. But no, they were talking about the little yellow minions from the movies and cartoons.

So I looked up on Wikipedia about minions. What I found is that minions are villains helpers. And besides the movies, there is a "Despicable Me Minion" ride attraction at Universal Studios in Florida.

It is described on Wikipedia in this way: The riders will be tested if they qualify to be minions and asked "if they are fully prepared to be so". They are given minion 3D goggles. They are welcomed by #1 SuperVillain. His children are said to be "trying to be evil" and use "the voice of an evil clown". Dr. Nefario is SuperVillain's sidekick. The word "nefarious" means sinful or evil.

There is a "zap gun" that turns humans into minions and are the riders the ride will have a body scan to see if there are any human genes left in them to be removed. They also tell the participants that "there will be no backing out". They use the word "henchman" too. The words, "are so doomed" are part of the ride.

What I am trying to say is that these movies are desensitizing our children to the idea of a villain as being bad or that the devil and his helpers are evil. Just as Hollywood introduced homosexuality in comedies, so now the devil and villains are being introduced by funny movies to our children.

On Wednesday evening catechism a girl came up to me to show me her drawing. It had a cross and a minion standing next to it. She likes crosses and minions. A few of the little boys strongly said they like the minions no matter what I said about them being bad. 

May God help us to be alert to what is happening to our little children.  You can not love God and the devil at the same time.  Of course we traditional Catholics choose God and His angels over the devil and his minions.  And we want to be saints not villains.

This review is from traditionalcatholicpriest.com (no longer a live website) written by Father Carota (RIP). It is reprinted here. It was not originally written for IndustriousFamily.com but does fit in our list of movies to avoid.

03 The Pilgrim's Progress

Christian from The Pilgrim's Progress (2019)
Revelation Media

I have never read The Pilgrim's Progress, but I did watch this 2019 cartoon of this work. After having read The Divine Comedy and Beowulf, this film seems to be a mockery of both of these Catholic works. Definitely worthy of the movies to avoid group.

It follows the same storyline of a journey through the different worlds like in The Divine Comedy. The main character, Christian Pilgrim, fights a variety of beasts like in Beowulf.

It seems to be the author's goal to take the wonderful shape of these classic stories and make them take on a Calvinistic intent, which is exactly what the story does.

Christian finds a book and begins to read it. This book convinces him to leave the City of Destruction (the world) and pursue the Celestial City (Heaven). His wife and sons are not so easily convinced. 

In response, Christian leaves his wife and sons behind to find the city on his own.

This is a very foreign thought to Catholics. We believe in converting and helping others along the way. That is part of the call of marriage: to assist each other in the means to salvation.

On another note, one of the trials Christian faces is Legality, a mountain with a judge's hammer with which he pounds out laws. 

These laws contradict one another and Christian gets more and more confused until Evangelist (his puritan-style dressed guide) carries him back to the road as Legality crashes down to the floor.

Evangelist then explains that as Legality falls they always land in the right road.

Legality is a picture of the Church. Instead of a gentle mother who corrects her children for their own good, she is portrayed as an obedience demanding mountain who grows more and more demanding until her utter collapse. 

As the dust of her collapse settles, man's eyes are unobstructed and he sees for himself the true way to salvation. The Bible (Evangelist) is the only true guide to God.

In order for Christian to reach the Celestial City he must will his own death and plunge himself in the "River of Death". While the pilgrim is in the river, he is again tempted by the devil and then is surrounded by blood.

When Christian reaches the other side, he meets Jesus Christ. He explains to Christian that it was not his blood that surrounded him, but Christ's own. 

I know that this is trying to follow washed in the blood of the Lamb thinking, but it is just a little too literal. Seeing someone swimming in blood does not make me feel fuzzy and Christian. It is just gross to me.

02 Fatima

Jorge Lamelas, Alejandra Howard and Stephanie Gil in Fatima
Origin Entertainment

I was so excited about the 2020 Fátima because I was glad to hear that there were other moviemakers who were interested in making movies with Catholic stories. But my hopes were soon to be shattered. Sadly, it ended up on our list of movies to avoid.

As we watched the movie, it became more and more clear that it was pushing a modern agenda with progressivism standards of "peace and love". It followed the right chronological order with the right apparition with the right date...but that was about it.

The Angel of Peace and the Blessed Virgin brought the same tone of peace. It was not the true message of Fatima: "Pray for the conversion of poor sinners," but rather a "peace at all costs" message.  The consecration of Russia to Mary's Immaculate Heart, which was the true purpose of Mary's apparitions to the children at Fatima, was not once mentioned in the entire film. 

From a moviemaking standpoint, it is clear that parts of the story were fabricated in order to enhance the drama of the story. This was a story, however, that does not need the added drama of personal made-up troubles to add weight to the true story.

Lucia is portrayed as a young, slightly neglected shepherd girl from a "holier-than-thou" family. Her mother's main concern is Lucia's older brother, her only son who is fighting in the war.

This obsession over the son causes her to overlook Lucia. When Lucia starts telling people that she has had visions of the Blessed Virgin, her mother takes it as a personal attack and tells Lucia to, "Stop making fun of me!" It is as though the message is more for Lucia's mother than for the world. stop

The neglect of the mother also plays into a discrediting of Lucia. When the mayor of the city is questioning the children, he says that perhaps Lucia, missing the affection of her mother, "One day you were feeling lonely and hurt, and you imagined another mother." This statement coincides with the many times Lucia is portrayed as being a bit of a dreamer and imagines things that haven't happened. 

For instance, when she is told that perhaps the lady she has seen is the devil's daughter, she dreams that the statue of Our Lady in the church beckons her to the statue and then the serpent tries to bite her. Not only does such a dream undermine the fact that the devil has no power in a consecrated church, but it also shows Lucia in a spacey light which makes it very likely that she has invented the story of the lady.

This is very heartbreaking, because throughout her adult life Sister Lucia was treated like she had a very active imagination which caused her to confuse what was revealed by Divine Providence and what she herself imagined.

The movie portraying this Lucia is unfair and seems to agree with those opposed to Our Lady of Fatima's message.

From a very purely stylistic viewpoint, and therefore of much less importance, the shots are awkward.Shots uncomfortably close to eyes and lips appear often in this film. It makes it very dramatic and yet hard to watch because a viewer feels like he is constantly shoved up into characters' faces to get a good look at the noses, lips and eyes of the actor.

The uncomfortably close shot of Mary's eye in Fátima as compared to a much more comfortable medium shot from The Sound of Music.

Far from making the viewer feel like they are there and another one of the characters, he feels like a tiny floating spec who is able to be in places altogether too small for a person to be.

This does not add to the believability of the film, but instead, adds to its feeling of unrealistic shots.

This movie plays into the recreating of the Catholic Church which is a "Church of Accompaniment" by avoiding the true story of Fatima. The story does not follow the real lives of the shepherd children of Fatima, but fictional characters with the same names and similar events. It is a true danger to those who do not know the true story of Fatima. That is why it had to go on my movies to avoid list.

01 I Am Patrick

John Rhys-Davies in I Am Patrick
CBN Films

I was really looking forward to watching this DocuDrama starring John Rhys-Davies as the older St. Patrick and Seán T. Ó. Meallaigh as the younger St. Patrick. It was with great disappointment that I viewed it and found it lacking.

The "professionals" interviewed seem to come from an angle of admiration using the screen that "that was a time when everyone was superstitious, that's why he believed all that." This is insulting because the Catholic Church is the same then, now, and forever. We believe the same way Patrick believed. 

There also was a very loud portrayal of the saint only receiving the Precious Blood as a lay person and the priest facing the people for Mass. Although the Precious Blood was probably quite intentional, the priest facing the people may have been just bad research. 

There were also very Anti-Catholic terms describing Patrick's mission, like

• "apprenticeship" (seminary training)
• "clerics" (priests and bishops)
• "ministry" (missionary work)

He is also shown as preforming social work as part of his "ministry" before he leaves Britain.

This implies a more modern view of "clerics" having that as part of their duties. Although it is very desirable for priests to be generous and care for the poor, it is not a strict part of their role as priests. They are primarily confessors and the celebrants of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The interviews said that he may have prayed the Mass in Gaelic (unlikely, but maybe). This is a point of contention because Mass was only prayed in Latin at this period of history. Having St. Patrick use the Gaelic language to celebrate Mass is only asking him to agree with a modern portrayal of the ancient Church. 

In addition, the traditions of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland and his preaching with a shamrock as an analogy describing the Trinity were both dismissed as myths in the beginning of the film.

With all these points being shown in the film, it really serves to demean the Traditional Catholic Faith.

We love St. Patrick.

We love celebrating his feast day with Irish karaoke, St. Patrick coloring pages, "green eggs and ham". My Great-grandma Patricia was Irish and instilled Irish pride in all of her children and grandchildren. My entire family was very disappointed with the portrayal of one of our favorite saints in I Am Patrick.

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