A Catedral

In the Middle Ages, the Knights Templar invade a supposed coven of witches and they slaughter the community. The dig an unholy collective grave, bury the bodies and build a church on the top of the corpses.

On the present days, the ambitious librarian Evan (Tomas Arana) is hired to organize the books of the church. He meets the archaeologist Lisa (Barbara Cupisti) that is researching the catacombs of the church and he accidentally unleashes and is possessed by an ancient demon. Sooner several visitors are trapped inside the church and possessed by demons. Father Gus (Hugh Quarshie) and the teenager Lotte (Asia Argento) are the only persons that are not possessed, and Father Gus discovers a secret in the construction of the church that might be the last chance to save mankind.

"La Chiesa" is a great Gothic horror film with story of Dario Argento and his daughter Asia Argento in an important role. The plot is a prequel to Demons 1 and 2, and I saw this film for the first time on 17 February 2012 and today I have decided to watch it again. Unfortunately this film has not been released on DVD or Blu-Ray in Brazil and the image of the VHS awfully dubbed in English is poor and does not highlight the magnificent cinematography or the creepy special effects. The soundtrack has the music of Keith Emerson, Goblin and Philip Glass and completes this great film of demons. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Catedral" ("The Cathedral")

Note: On 22 Jn 2017, I saw this film again on DVD, unfortunately dubbed in English.

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.

Taking many aspects from other films the church builds a solid film with a decent plot and cinematography and it didn't disappoint overall. However, whilst the plot is good on paper halfway through it loses tension and steam and I found the ending to be a bit of a let-down, although not awful.

Acting wise I'm sure it was good but I watched the dubbed version in English, and the dubbing was quite frankly terrible. I think the girl (Lottie) was dubbed by an older woman which was a bit weird I found.

Scares wise I found it impressive, it included great practical effects and lots of hammy gore. Surprisingly it was meant to be a completely serious film but I still feel like a lot of it is played off as tongue in cheek.

6/10: Good overall and definitely worth a watch for horror fans but there are a lot of issues that I feel drag it down such as the loss of tension in the second half and poor dub work

Director Michele Soavi gained worldwide recognition with his 1994 masterpiece "Dellamorte Dellamore"; however, he had been mastering his craft under the guidance of horror master Dario Argento for years before that hit. "La Chiesa" was his second feature length effort as director and he displays his craft with a visually stunning Gothic movie about possessions on the vein of Lamberto Bava's "Demoni" (In fact, it was conceived as the series third chapter), but with Soavi's visual style all over it.

"La Chiesa" or "The Church", is a tale of an unholy supernatural evil contained under a Gothic Cathedral. Centuries ago, a group of Templar Knights brutally killed a town accused of being devil-worshipers; in order to keep the evil down they built a cathedral and sealed it. Now, in the present, a greedy librarian named Evan (Tomas Arana) breaks the seal and frees the forces of evil. The Church starts a self-protection devise that serves to trap the evil, but it also traps a lot of innocent people who become the target of the demons who begin to posses them.

The movie is a visual Tour-De-Force where Soavi experiments with his outstanding camera-work creating haunting atmospheres of supernatural beauty. Complete with a terrific score with music not only by horror veterans Goblin but also by Prog rock virtuoso Keith Emerson and the remarkable composer Philip Glass. Their music works perfectly with the movie and completes the wonderful composition that Soavi creates.

The Gothic Church is a character itself and Soavi gives it life and uses the location with great skill. The lighting and special effects are used with great care in order to increase the Gothic atmosphere of the film. Despite this, the story is a bit weak and the surrealist scenes Soavi intends to use to increase the atmosphere actually decrease the coherence of his plot, making it to drag a bit with scenes that seem to serve no purpose. This sadly becomes a major flaw in an otherwise flawless film.

The acting is very good, although the English dubbing is kind of average. Tom Arana and Hugh Quarshie are very good in the lead roles, and Barbara Cupisti makes a great romantic interest. However, two members of the cast remarkably steal the show. Feodor Chaliapin Jr. gives a great interpretation as the head Bishop of the Church, giving a haunting performance as an old man with many secrets. The true star is young Asia Argento as Lotte, the teenage daughter of the sacristan who prefers to be at discos than working at the church. Her character may be small, but she shows her great talent and certainly shows why is she now the great actress she is today.

As written above, the strangely constructed plot is a major turn off, as the last third of the film becomes very strange and a bit disappointing considering that the previous two thirds are a terrific haunting film. Still, Michele Soavi's technique is always perfect and his visual perfection is never disappointing. It is no wonder why with a better script he crafted a masterpiece with "Dellamorte Dellamore".

"La Chiesa" may not be a perfect film, but it is a very good experience and a good introduction to modern Euro-horror. It is a shame that Soavi has decided to stay on TV films because his stylish art seems to have no limits when correctly developed. Fans of Italian horror will be pleased with "The Church". 7/10

Being a big fan of Michele Soavi's brilliantly grotesque "Dellamorte Dellamore" (1994), I was looking forward to seeing this Gothic entry to his oeuvre quite a bit. I must say that, while "La Chiesa" aka. "The Church" of 1989 is definitely not a bad film, I was overall slightly disappointed in regard that this is a Soavi film produced by none other than Italian Horror deity Dario Argento. I did not expect anything like "Dellamorte Dellamore", and generally think of the celebrated "Deliria" (aka. "Stagefright", 1987) as slightly overrated by most of my fellow fans of Italian Horror.

Visually, "La Chiesa" is absolutely striking, and while the premise is very promising, continuity is not the film's strongest point. In the 12th century, an entire village of accused heretics are brutally massacred by an order of Teutonic knights, and buried in the woods. In order to ban evil spirits from coming back for eternity, a cathedral is built at the burial site. Centuries later, an employee at the church finds a mysterious document, and subsequently releases sanguinary demons... The idea of a haunted church is one that most of my fellow Horror fans would applaud. The film's strong points are the phenomenal visual style, wonderful setting and creepy Gothic atmosphere, as well as another great score by Progressive Rock Band / Film Composers Goblin. The cast includes a very young Asia Argento and Giovanni Lombardo Radice as an arrogant priest. Russian actor Feodor Chaliapin Jr. is very good and creepy-looking as the elderly Bishop responsible for the church, and Ghanese actor Hugh Quarshie makes a refreshingly unusual hero (an African Roman Catholic priest). The negative aspects are the lack of continuity and logic, and the fact that the characters are not well-drawn. Actually, one does not terribly care about the characters (except maybe for the girl played by Asia Argento), which makes it hard to be scared for them. Overall, this is an enjoyable film for my fellow Italo-Horror buffs, but it certainly isn't spectacular. Definitely recommended to Soavi-fans, but those unfamiliar with his work should watch "Dellamorte Dellamore" first.