The Church (1989)

I am such a huge fan of Michele Soavi. I absolutely adore Stagefright, the best slasher ever. Dellamorte Dellamore is quite simply a Gothic masterpiece, a near perfect zombie film with a philosophical overtone to it. I also thought The Sect was a quite effective nerve-jolter filled with incredible surreal images and solid scares. So I was disappointed after viewing The Church, I had such high hopes.

It starts of well enough. Medieval knights massacre a village they fear is possessed by demonic spirits and the priest orders that a church should be built on their buriel ground. Fastforward to the present, something weird is going on in that church; some evil seems to be lurking about and possessing people. A showdown between good and evil is unavoidable.

The film has style to burn. Michele Soavi is a master at creating surreal imagery and his camera knows no limits. This is the film's high point along with some terrific set pieces, one in particular involving a subway and a teenage girl. Another thing I must mention in the film's favour; the music score. It's always wonderful to hear Goblin and Keith Emerson also provides some good music. But good music is simply something you can always count on in these Italian productions.

The thing that doesn't work here, and it's a big thing, is the plot. It's practically nonexistent. The film doesn't make any sense, jumps from one setpiece to another (though some are brilliantly executed), with only so little to tie them together. It's got wooden characters, none you really care about (Tomas Arana in particular). The final showdown in the Church, although well done in terms of effects, is a real letdown, nothing much happens and in the end, well...I felt cheated in a big way.

As it was originally conceived of as the second sequel in the Demons saga, I expected this to be full of violence. It's not, apart from the rather gory opening. I guess Soavi wanted to do a more serious film, with some philosophical input or something. He should have had a better script to work with.

Although it's disappointing, it's certainly not without interest.

Fmovies: In the middle ages a group of Knights slaughter a village full of suspected devil worshippers and a large cathedral is built on their burial pit. The church is now being reworked on, and when the seal from the crypt is broken by the new librarian Evan, slowly the occupants become possessed. An ancient mechanism is triggered off and a group of visitors find themselves locked inside with this relentless terror of madness and lust.

If you could ever say style very much over substance, director Michele Sovai's lavish Gothic horror piece "The Church" falls comfortably into that category. Originally it was going to be the third entry of the "Demons" films, But Sovai shaped it into what he wanted. Obviously the familiar groundwork of those films is still presented here, as this time the action takes place in a church where the trapped characters are eventually possessed. However it does take its time before the demented mayhem eventually erupts. Even then the splatter isn't particularly grisly, with more concern on the brooding atmosphere, striking art direction and gorgeously shot set pieces. The pacing might be terribly bumpy, but Renato Tafuri's dramatic flashes with the camera provide the film's main energy. Even the musical score by Keith Emerson and The Goblins stays fairly sombre, but poignantly effective nonetheless. What really lets this one down is the messy and inconsistent writing. Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini and Michele Soavi contributed to the material. Too much of it seems rushed and undeveloped, where the base of it was an inventive reworking that well thought-out, but there's too many loose ends. The script is pretty simple-minded, even with its religious structure, but it's not as compelling as it should be. At least your eyes have something to glaze over as Sovai's slow-grinding and densely detailed approach infuses some visually poetic images with a slowly surreal and claustrophobic feel making its way in. He makes great use of the shadows and lighting within well-etched infrastructure of the ominously sedate, but remarkably succulent looking cathedral. The demon make-up effects are well-exercised and look disturbingly menacing. Performances are hard to judge, because characters do seem to come and go. Tom Arana, Hugh Quarshie and Barbara Cupisti are solid. Also there's a fine turn by Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as the tormented Bishop and a young Asia Argento really does impress with her talented performance.

Accomplished direction, professionally catered production and a polished look help out on the problems facing its flat, confused material. Worth-a-look.

This work o Michele Soavi looks like stilistic exercise - plot is pretty weak but camera work is simply AMAZING! Movie contains one of the best steadycam and crane shots I've ever seen! But poor story definitely does not improve entire impression...

Anyway, mood, atmosphere and stunning camera work are really remarkable and worth seeing and that keeps movie from falling down.

Still, Dellamorte Dellamore is the best Soavi's movie I've seen although camera work here is much better.

7/10

The Church fmovies. Yes, this movie has plot and logic problems! But so what? Most good horror movies do. That's what makes them so great. I enjoyed this thoroughly. If you are an Italian horror movie fan, then you will like this. I enjoyed the heavy atmosphere of the church, the gore, and the acting. Give this one a chance. Just don't sit there with a pen and paper trying to pick apart the plot.

After making the excellent slasher Deliria (1987), director Michele Soavi collaborated with genre master Dario Argento to produce this above-average tale of demonic evils.

Church constructed upon the mass grave of some medieval witches begins to unleash demons upon its subjects.

Soavi gives La Chiesa such great visual style and inventive direction that it becomes one of the most beautifully atmospheric Italian horror films out there. The storyline falls short at times with some thin plotting, but there isn't a dull moment in this surreal journey. It's a solidly well made film, with some nice special effects, slick cinematography, and colorful imagery. There's a number of dream like scenes in the film and a few unforgettably shocking ones, like the subway escape scene.

Goblin and Keith Emerson provides a unique and beautiful music score that's downright powerful.

The cast also helps to carry the film. Attractive Tomas Arana and Barbara Cupisti make for good leads. Argento's daughter Asia Argento appears as a youngster in the film. The supporting cast is also in good form, despite the English dubbing.

All around, La Chiesa is a great European horror film, especially seen in a technical light or just for style. But horror genre fans will find plenty to enjoy as well.

*** 1/2 out of ****

"I turned what was conceived as schlock pizza cinema into a strong essay on karma and the ambiguous inner conflicts we all face at some time in our lives." --Michele Soavi, from Alan Jones's "Profundo Argento"

'"My brief to Michele was for him to explore the feelings I had about life in contemporary Germany being the beginning of a new Middle Ages. Michele made the Hitler references and evil allusions work."' --Dario Argento, from "Profundo Argento"

Director Michele Soavi's "The Church" is unlike any horror film you will ever watch. To say it is merely horror, however, is a mistake. This is an incisive-critique of the crimes of the Vatican over centuries, the sins-of-intolerance, and the demons they give-rise to. Coupled with newer theories on magical geometry (in 1988,anyway), as well as the studies of European Cathedrals and their connections to occult-lore and symbology, Soavi, Dardano Sachetti and Argento weave an allegory of how evil the roots of organized faith are. One could say that this is a truly "Medieval" story within a Medieval-universe that is similar to the one held by the Manichean-heresy (Cathars). As in Cemetery Man, our Earth is portrayed as a dominion-of-evil, where mankind is unable to transcend an architecture that prohibits redemption at every-turn. A trap, not made by God, but by a lower-entity. In this universe, the world is a prison, created by greater-powers and forces. Like the prison-world of Gnosticism, Soavi hints that we are prone to Lords of this World ("Archons"), and that human-wisdom has been withheld--particularly feminine-wisdom, which is absent in most orthodox-faiths.

Soavi doesn't seem to hold-out much hope for redemption here, but I find that is a theme in his early films. This connects him thematically with directors like Fritz Lang, who posit a fateful universe, and a terminal human-condition (determinist). This is a very modern viewpoint, ironically, since he places it in a Medieval-cosmology, a nice-trick! If you are a student of occult-lore, and symbology, this film is a real treat. It is peppered with imagery that surely has a subconscious effect on viewers. Because of this, I found it created a GREATER sense-of-dread when I watched it, and many scenarios and images are intentionally archetypal. Real Cathedral-friezes are flashed throughout the film, and there is a genuine meaning for their placements-- thematic meanings. If you find the storyline a little meandering, this is why. Most of this film is about themes and symbolic-meaning, rather than a linear-plot, though it does have that. A number of shots in the film demonstrate that some of this film was shot in Germany, but there are definitely images taken from many-other Cathedrals in-Europe. The main interiors were done in a Cathedral that needed restoration-funds in Hungary.

"The Church" also seems to be saying that the Catholic-hierarchy has something to hide in her origins, literally "covering-it-up" by building a Cathedral over the site of a massacre by Teutonic Knights (directed-by the Medieval Church) of a group of peaceful-heretics. Clearly, the sect represents the Albigensians/Cathars, but it can be generalized to the many faiths that were crushed by Christian orthodoxy, including esoteric Christian and pagan ones. Because of this suppression, a valuable-chunk of human-thought, culture and experience has been hidden (the definition of "occult") from the average person. Th