Faith-Based Film ‘Undefiled’ Tackles Society's Porn Problem with Grace and Tact

Michie · Jun 30, 2024

Filmmaker Matthew McCaulley received plenty of pushback when he proposed creating a faith-based film highlighting the dangers of pornography. McCaulley just ignored them.

“If God’s telling us to do this, we need to do it,” he says today.

Five years in the making, McCaulley’s film Undefiled follows the story of an aging baseball player who is battling addiction when he sets out to rescue a victim of sex trafficking. The movie is now streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, and Tubi (for free, with ads) and tackles the subject of pornography without being salacious. An 8-part Bible study guide, Living Undefiled, is also available.

It stars Bradford Haynes (War of the Worlds: Annihilation) and Stelio Savante (The Chosen, Pursuit of Freedom).

McCaulley was inspired to make the film after a Christian psychologist friend shared alarming statistics with him: more than 60 percent of churchgoing men regularly watch pornography. Pastors, too, struggle with addiction, his friend said.

“Those hit me in the face,” McCaulley said. “One of the biggest things that Christians would say to me when we said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna make a feature film about this subject’ -- a lot of the Christians would say to me, ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing that. That’s not an issue. It’s just porn.’… And so part of what motivated us was we have to address that thought that of, ‘Oh, it doesn’t hurt anyone, it’s just porn.’”

The pornography industry is fueled by the sex trafficking trade, he said. That intersection is a central theme in the plot of Undefiled.

It received eight nominations at the International Christian Film Festival.

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