Saturday 24 September 2011

The Church

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Year:1989
Country of origin:Italy
Director:Michele Soavi
Genre:Come to church. You'll never leave!!!
Starring:Tomas Arana, Hugh Quarshie, Barbara Cupisti, Asia Argento
Rating:4/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094860/
Tagline:In this unholy sanctuary you haven't got a prayer
Favourite line:N/A - Subtitled

Written and produced by Dario Argento, with daughter Asia Argento in a prominent role, this is an Argento movie, right?

The plot:
It's medieval Germany, and a group known as the Teutonic Knights roam the countryside, laying siege to villages suspected of being hiding placed for witches. When a witch is discovered - identified as they have stigmata on their feet in the shape of a cross(!) - the Knights surround the village, kill all that reside therein before burying the bodies in a mass grave.
Foolishly, in one instance, they build a church over the burial site. The fools. Skip forward to present day and, in Germany, the great Cathedral still stands. Unwittingly, a researcher breaks the seal that contains the vengeful spirits of the villagers, killed all those centuries ago, and their souls emerge, to wreak havoc on all those trapped within the church.

And it's creepy stuff, for sure.
Argento, though not on directorial duties, has his fingerprints all over this, with lashings of atmosphere and oodles of suspense.
Argento seems to have a preference for directing the Giallo stuff, and leaving his more overtly gory tales for others - Demons 1 and 2.
The movie also features a wonderfully evocative soundtrack from long time Argento collaborators Goblins, as well as Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame, and Phillip Glass, who would later go on to compose the chilling score for Candyman.
Originally planned as Demons 3 - and still called that in certain territories - this is perhaps not an important addition to the Italian horror genre, but is nevertheless an effective one.
Good stuff.

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