The Church (1989)

Originally planned as a sequel to Dario Argento's Demons (1985), The Church was taken over by Argento protege Michele Soavi after Lamberto Bava was dropped from the production under orders of the producers - his name being overly associated with second-rate horror pictures. Soavi made re-writes to the script to remove any reference to the Demons films.

After a medieval opening, showing the massacre of a village of devil worshippers we move to the modern day inside large gothic Cathederal built on the same site, and quickly introduced to a variety of characters; Evan (Tomas Arana), Lisa (Barbara Cupisti) and Lotte the sacristan's daughter (a young Asia Argento). Evan is starting his first day as the librarian, Lisa is working on restoring parts of the Cathedral and the two rapidly become attached. Lisa discovers an ancient scroll after breaking through part of the basement wall, Evan decodes it and discovers it is a clue to something buried below the building. Unscrewing a figure in the basement, Evan releases the demons from their pit - he becomes possessed and attacks the sacristan. The next morning, the Sacristan has become convinced he is the angel of death and kills himself on a pneumatic drill, disturbing an ancient mechanism that seals the only door to the chapel as an attempt to keep the demons inside. The various people now stuck in the building struggle to find a way to escape the and avoid becoming possessed, but for many of them it is too late....

The Church has three distinct chapters to it. The medieval opening, the middle section with Evan's opening of the pit, and the entrapment sequence. Unfortunately, despite a good build up, by the final section the film's script takes a strong turn for the worse. The opening is swift and to the point withminimal dialogue, the middle part of the film is strong and we meet a variety of interesting and plausible characters, the subtle hints of haunting in the church, including the sound of horses hooves is very eerie. On the negative side, Evan and Lisa's love affair does seem to happen rather quicky and easily. The script quickly falls apart in the final section as the characters become trapped in the building; the film introduces a bizarre mix of semi-comic characters that jolt away from the impressively dark atmosphere acheived until then. The 'groovy' speaking old-couple serve no purpose whatsoever except for a cheap gore scene, the school kids are pointless and have some inexplicable scenes, why the biker couple is even in the church is never explained, and the bridal photo pair are poorly characterised. It seems as though the script was written by a different, inferior writer at this point, as all the characterisation from the middle third of the film is lost, characters seem to appear and disappear when necessary and we don't care for any of them. A demonic worship in the basement looks like something out of another film and serves no purpose at all. Father Gus suddenly becomes the lead character, without any prior build-up in the earlier scenes. The script would have worked much better with fewer people trapped in the building, allowing a beter retention of the atmosphere already built up. Fortunately, the very end of the movie picks up slightly, although not enough to save it.

As with many films of this period, The Church contains numerous of references to other work; Soavi himself dons leather gloves as a police officer in a tribute to Dario Argento's giallo pictures, a brief shot (shown below) pays tribute to Peruvian fantasy artist Boris Vallejo and a Philip Glass track (Floe) is used to accompany Evan's possession. Reference is also made to the mysterious French alchemist Fulcanelli and his books on Gothic Cathedrals.

Soavi's direction is impressive throughout, including a couple of good flying camera sequences. In the middle part of the film he is able to build up a good sense of tension in the various basement sequences as well as a very impressive set-piece at Lisa's house. However, despite some solid direction in the final section, it cannot lift the poor script. The special effects are decent when used, including some very strong gore effects and although some of the Demons look rather cheesy, the goat headed (Goat of Mendes?) Devil is actually quite scary when it appears outside Lisa's house. The film is backed by a strong soundtrack with some heavy organ music to build up the atmosphere.

An impressive cast is on hand for the film. Hugh Quarshie as Father Gus is the stand-out, although he only takes the lead role in the film in the poor final third. Asia Argento is still quite young in this film but acts well. Most of the cast in the middle half look good, but the oddball mix of characters in the final section don't look great, the child actors are especially poor.

The Church is ultimately very disappointing. The promise shown by the first part of the film is let down by a very poor final third that really looks as though it were tacked on by a lesser writer. Soavi's direction is solid throughout, and thanks to the strong soundtrack, the film is actually quite scary at points in the middle section, although he can do nothing to save the final third of the film. Partly recommended to Euro-cult fans, this is certainly not the best place to enter the exciting world of euro-cult-horror.

Anyone famous in it?	Hugh Quarshie - Highlander (1986), Nightbreed (1990) and Ric Griffin in UK TV series Holby City. Tomas Arana - appeared in Gladiator (2000) and was Lazarus in Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Giovanni Lombardo Radice - in many horror films including City of the Living Dead (1980) as Bob. Barbara Cupisti - appeared in Fulci's New York Ripper (1982) and Argento's Opera (1987) and a young Asia Argento, daughter of director Dario Argento and star of Land of the Dead (2005)
Directed by anyone interesting?	Michele Soavi - director of Stagefright (1987), and Cemetery Man (1994)
Is it scary?	There are some tense moments you might find scary and a couple of good jump scares.
Any gore?	There are a large number of good looking gory death sequences
Any sex?	A couple of brief topless scenes.
Who is it for?	Gore-fans and fans of Italian horror will enjoy. Some religious horror elements.
Good soundtrack?	Good organ-music score from The Goblins, Philip Glass and Keith Emerson.

Visuals	Original Aspect Ratio - 1.85:1 widescreen. Anamorphically enhanced. Colour. The disc is strong visually, good colours, mininal print damage is evident. Some grain.
Audio	English Language Dolby Digital: Original Stereo Surround Sound and Remixed Dolby Digital Surround Ex. No problems with the audio, although the dubbing is distractingly poor on some of the background characters.
Subtitles	None
Run-time	Feature 1hr 41m 57s
Extras	The disc includes: Anamorphic original trailer. Contains no dialogue, heavy spoilers. (2m 05s) An on-screen text biography of Soavi. Detailed, although an interview would have been better.
Packing	Standard Amray case. Includes chapter insert, with poster rendition on reverse.
Region	Region 1 (North America) - NTSC
Other regions?	None superior.
Cuts?	The film is believed to be fully uncut.

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