El Anticristo II: reto al diablo

I love 80's horror movies but they usually don't scare me; i mostly watch them for gore/special effects/monsters/nudity, etc. you don't find in the watered down PG-13 crap that passes for horror today. I gotta admit this movie actually creeped me out pretty good. THE UNHOLY involves an evil demon that takes the form of a major babe in order to seduce priests so it can claim the innocent for Satan or something like that. It reminded me a lot of the Italian horror movie THE CHURCH which i also enjoyed. Both take place mostly in big Catholic churches and are filled with satanic hallucinations.

I won't give it away but the opening scene is simply awesome. The movie slows down in the middle but remains stylish with music that almost gives it a similar feeling to the THE LOST BOYS. It also has lots of cool blue and red lighting which makes it look very 80's. (I mean that in a good way, not that the film looks too dated or anything.) It picks back up towards the end and was actually starting to get scary until a couple of cool but funny looking demons show up. There is some sweet gore scenes, cool slimy monster effects, and even some nudity. The pace coulda been a lil faster but the awesome finale makes it well worth it. If you like this i would also recommend THE CHURCH and vise versa.

New Orleans church St Agnes has become the grounds of an evil entity, which has tempted the first two priests to their unholy deaths. Soon the head of the church gets Father Cross, who they believed is spiritually blessed to take over the church. The evil is in the form of a ravishing beauty, whom does its best to seduce Cross and make him commit the ultimate sin, which will see him, end up in hell.

Looking at the tag line "Seduction. Submission. Murder. Tonight… evil goes over the edge." Well this doesn't really happen until the last 10 minutes, because the lead up to the hysterically bold and bloody climax with ridiculous rubber demons is damaged by a flat script and woodenly uninterested performances. The main problem I found was that it seems to coast along, with very little happening and the talky script was less than engaging with its uneven context covering religion and sexual repression. Not helping was that the straight-faced premise is the same-old, same-old for those familiar with the sub-genre, and succumbs to trashy silliness. One or two decent set-pieces (like an ominous sounding phone call) slowly creep up onto the viewer, and Camilo Vila's smoothly sterile direction drips with moody brushes, sexual allurement and dreary lighting that creates a visually smoky atmosphere. The music score had that oddly uncanny vibe, which can come across quite bloated. The special effects were pretty much a misfire, though I didn't think that they were the complete pits. Now what really caught my eye was the curious support cast featuring Ned Betty, Hal Halbrook, Trevor Howard and William Russ. Jill Carroll turned out okay and Russ was great, but the former did little to nothing. Ben Cross' sombre performance in the lead role is ploddingly lacking. The irresistible Nicole Fortier as the demonic entity, "The Unholy" glows with seductive temptation and can keep you glued. At least she's turned on for the occasion.

Been down this both before, and what's served up here is cheap, and mostly uninspired. Not awful, though.

Some unutterable evil is happening on the dark streets of New Orleans and it is up to Catholic priest Ben Cross to stop the spirits that are killing people when they are in the act of committing sins. The film benefits from established actors like Ned Beatty and Hal Holbrook, but it is the unknown William Russ that gives the stunning performance in the film. But the film goes more for shock value than anything else and a truly interesting idea becomes somewhat trivial with typical cliches that dominated films like this in the 1980s. All in all "The Unholy" is good for a scare, but overall it is a film that misses the mark and could have been so much more. 2 stars out of 5.

"The Unholy" is a typical two-star horror effort: serious-minded and with many positive points, but still somewhat disappointing. It has a good basic concept, good (if rather sparse) special effects and a surprisingly distinguished cast (even Trevor Howard, who died the same year, has a small but pretty important role). BUT... it moves kind of slowly, the direction is too often choppy in the wrong places, and when the demon appears at the end, he (or "it") seems childishly conceived (although it's technically well-executed) and doesn't fit in an otherwise very serious movie. Anyway, most horror fans WILL probably find this worth a (single) viewing.

Despite having an interesting concept (co-scripted by Philip Yordan no less), THE UNHOLY is an uneven mess that tries too hard to emulate titles such as THE OMEN or THE EXORCIST. There is a usually high class cast for a low budget horror film. Ben Cross is very good as the put upon priest. He plays it all serious despite being given embarrassing moments like raising his fists and screaming "Dear Godddddd, what will you have me do?" The only weak performance is by Jill Carroll as the young virgin/temptation who shacks up with the priest after deciding she didn't like being a waitress at a satanic club (uh huh). William Russ is interesting as a club owner who may or may not be evil and there are also fine supporting turns by Holbrook and Beatty. And screen vet Trevor Howard made his final screen appearance as a blind priest.

But all these performances are betrayed by perhaps the flattest directing ever. Camilo Vila is a terrible director who films the scenes with barely a pulse. The dialogue scenes are all shot in close ups so at times it is hard to even tell the proximity of the characters. Vila has no desire to build up to bizarre dream sequences or set pieces, they just happen right out of the blue. And speaking of blue, Vila should never be allowed near blue gels ever again. Apparently he feels this creates mood and constitutes style as he uses them in every other scene to numbing effect. The film actually underwent an extensive re-shoot to up the monster factor for the film's final act. Regardless, these inserts offer little salvation as whoever shot them imitates Vila's dreary style and shoots the titular beast with no mystery at all. The effects work from Bob (HELLRAISER) Keen, no matter how poorly shot, is impressive though. Perhaps under a better director the film would have been more effective.

THE UNHOLY opened in April of 1988 and fared rather poorly. However, it did become Vestron Pictures second highest grosser ($6.3 million) of their short lived theatrical career. Of course a difference of $57 million separates this from their number one rental DIRTY DANCING (1987).