Terrifying Movie Imagining Anti-Christian Horror Seeks to 'Wake Up' America

The actors behind a powerful new movie that imagines a dystopian America where Bibles are banned, Christianity is vanquished, and believers are forced into underground churches are sharing the miracles that helped make the movie possible and the powerful messages they hope audiences take away. "Disciples in the Moonlight" stars Drew Varvel, Brett Varvel, and Josh Strychalski joined CBN News to explain the ins and outs of the movie. "I would describe it primarily as an action suspense thriller," Brett said. "This [is a] movie that was based off of a question that Josh came to me with over 10 years ago, which was, 'What if the Bible was illegal?'" With that in mind, "Disciples in the Moonlight" focuses on seven characters who are trying to smuggle the Bible to underground churches across the U.S. at a time when the Scriptures are illegal and a new, "less-offensive" and watered-down version of the Bible is available. Brett's real-life brother, Drew, who co-stars in "Disciples in the Moonlight," said the most exciting part of the project is that "there's nothing else like this." While the movie imagines a terrifying America — one in which the government cracks down on faith — Brett said this situation exists in other countries today. "We have freedom here in America, and what I've seen happen over my lifetime is a continual growth of apathy in the church of America," Brett said. "And, so, all of a sudden, this desire started building in my heart." And that desire is to wake up the church and prepare people to stand if and when more intensive persecution does strike. "It really centers around the question of: 'How much do we treasure the Word of God?'" Brett said. "Is it absolute truth? Is it absolute authority in our lives? Josh has had a great quote in some of our interviews where he says, 'Am I a practicing atheist in my faith?'" He continued, "I really desire to see the church wake up here in America." Strychalski said there were "challenges and setbacks" along the way to getting the movie made. But those issues led the team to lean into God. "All of the challenges and setbacks that we encountered in every phase of the project was really an opportunity for us to press into ... prayer," he said. "The release of this movie [can] only be explainable because God did it. And it wasn't something that we were able to muster up our strength to do on our own willpower."