Sanctuaire

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.

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.

As far as writer Dario Argento's films go, "The Church," directed by Michele Soavi, is squarely in the middle.

The plot involves a Gothic cathedral built on the mass graves of medieval villagers massacred after being accused of devil worship. As you might expect, the dead don't stay buried forever, and they come back to wreak vengeance on the living.

The visuals are remarkable. The scenes of modern-day worshipers battling the risen demons are well directed, and the makeup and gore are remarkable — though certainly not for the squeamish.

Unfortunately, bad dialogue and worse acting weigh heavily on the film, and are likely to generate some unintentional laughs.

Still, "The Church" is worthwhile for Soavi's stunning direction, as well as a propulsive synth score by Keith Emerson. Fans of Gothic horror should consider "The Church" a reluctant obligation.

At the beginning it is set at the Middle Age when Templar Knigths carry out an extreme and macabre massacre against villagers . Nowadays , a librarían , Tomas Arana , arrives in a gargoyle-glutted Gothic cathedral, there he meets an archaelogist , Barbara Cupisti , and the adolescent Lotte , Asia Argento . And the senior priest , Feodor Chaliapin Jr who has dark knowledges about the sinister past of the church . Then , horrible happenings take place at the crypt with fateful consequences. It happens to stand on the site of the gruesome mass murder is renovated, and the kirk-cleaning turns into special effects loaded demonic epiphany, including stabbing , possession, crushing to death, behading and others , until a surprising ending .You have not for a player. It will make you squirm . In this unholy sanctuary you have not got a prayer...

Creepy and scary film with a lot of amazing and horrifying scenes including lots of blood and gore . The film is acceptable but regularly paced with several images with no much sense. The picture mingles Teutonic knights , Ghotic Cathedral , self-sacrifices, supernatural events, Witchcraft, necromancy, ghastly transformations , and terrible monsters .The film displays dozens of gory scenes including slashing , heart ripped out , slitting, punched in the face , stabbing in the chest, decapitation and many others . The picture is also known as Demons 3 , similar to The Sect titled Demons 4 , though its script have nothing to do with Demons saga by Lamberto Bava who is son of the Italian thrill-meister Mario Bava.

It displays a colorful an evocative cinematography by Renato Tafuri. As well as sinister and punching musical score from Philip Glass , Keith Emerson and Goblin . This ecclesiastical gore-feast picture was professionally directed by Michael Soavi , though it has a great number of flaws and gaps. Soavi is a good craftsman who began as a director assistant to important filmmakers as Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento . As he collaborated as first director assistant in A Blade in the Dark , Demons , Tenebre , Phenomena , among others . With new skills Soavi returned to Argento as a supervisor for special effects in Opera , where Argento offered him to direct another film , the horror film La Chiesa , or The Church. With his first big film project, a budget 3 or 4 times the budget of Statefright or Aquarius , with Argento as the producer and shot in Hungary . In the Eighties he made various decent terror movies as Aquarius , The Sect , and the classical Dellamore Dellamore or Zombie Graveyard with Rupert Everett and Anna Falchi.

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