The Unholy (1988)
Dir. Camilo Vila
A blind-buy for me that turned out to be a lot of supernatural fun. It stars Ben Cross as a Priest named Michael who gets appointed to a New Orleans parish that has been closed for a few years, for reasons that are shown in the movie's opening scene but which I won't spoil.
Inside the church is an evil presence that strives to influence the newcomer, but Father Michael is determined to resist. Yes, it's another tale of Good vs Evil, Heaven vs Hell, etc, happening on Earth, naturally, because that's where that kind of shit nearly always goes down.
There's often a trade-off in 1980s supernatural movies — such as good FX but bad acting, or good direction ruined by bad editing — but The Unholy does well right across the board.
The story keeps its protagonist as the focus even when things get crazy. Acting is mostly good. Lighting is purposeful and dramatic. Roger Bellon's musical score is excellent, coming to the fore when needed and fully supportive when not. And the FX are plentiful, with dry ice, rubber demons, exploding dwarf-creatures, etc; basically, all the cool stuff that B-Movies used to do before CGI ruined fucking everything.
I'll end by saying that as viewers we know to be wary of semi-naked women who have their own personal backlight and crazy hair that blows seductively in an indoor breeze that wasn't present two seconds before, but movie characters don't — that's just how it is — but, overall, the level of stupidly that characters can sometimes exhibit isn't too bad, thankfully.
NOTE: for fans of extras, there's a fairly lengthy alternate ending that doesn't change the outcome very much, but has its own unique FX that aren't in the final theatrical version.
- No offence, lady, but there's something about you that I just don't trust. -
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