| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | The Church (1988) |
| Original Title | La Chiesa |
| Release Year | 1988 |
| Director | Michele Soavi |
| Writer | Dario Argento, Michele Soavi, Franco Ferrini |
| Producer | Dario Argento |
| Lead Cast | Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana, Feodor Chaliapin Jr. |
| Supporting Cast | Barbara Cupisti, Asia Argento, Giovanni Lombardo Radice |
| Genre | Horror, Supernatural, Gothic |
| Language | Italian, English |
| Runtime | 102 minutes |
| Country | Italy, Germany |
| IMDb Rating | 6.1/10 |
For those who think that Dario Argento cornered the market on stylish horror films from Europe, The Church might change some minds. Sure, director Michele Soavi got his start under maestro Argento, and they share a fondness for showy camerawork and innovative gore, but there’s more than copycatting going on here. Though Soavi hasn’t made any masterpieces, all his movies are worth a look. So kudos should once again be given to distributor Anchor Bay for making available obscure and wonderful movies for cult flick aficionados.
The Church, like other great examples of the genre, has an extremely florid plot. In the prologue, a renegade group from the Crusades called the Satanic Knights attacks a village of so-called heretics and buries the bodies in a large pit. A cathedral is built on top of the mass grave, and needless to say, the place quickly becomes haunted.
A librarian named Evan (Tomas Arana), hired to catalogue the church’s holdings, is the first to discover strange goings-on, and a mysterious parchment only spurs him to further investigation. When the ancient paper leads him to a stone with seven eyes, a demon overtakes the mild mannered soul and causes him to behave perversely with various people he comes across.
Later, the main door to the church is sealed, trapping a motley crew inside and leading to a contagion of possession by evil spirits. This leads to a killer climax involving a green eyed demon, a female sacrifice, and lots and lots of candles.
Soavi’s film doesn’t have the budget of something like End of Days, so some of the effects are a bit cheesy. But that’s part of the fun. The Church is also pretty creepy at times, rarely predictable, and doesn’t suffer from the atrocious dubbing that mars some of these movies. Most importantly, it’s a far sight better than the horror swill (including the aforementioned Schwarzenegger pic) that Hollywood has been throwing at the multiplexes.
Anchor Bay always offers great bios and their write up on Soavi is terrific, taking readers through his work with Argento, a gig with Terry Gilliam, and his directorial efforts. The only other feature is an effective, dialogue less trailer.
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