I am a degenerate for most things Dario Argento has done. Sadly, this film he produced came out in the middle of his prolonged creative slump. It's not bad, but could have been a whole lot better. I kept making Holy Grail references throughout this movie.
[Reprinted from Eric's Myspace page, Sept.19th, 2009]
When you have a new girlfriend, you want to show her your world, what you are about. Well last night, I introduced Sarah to the world of the Italian horror movie with the 1989 Dario Argento-produced movie, The Church. This movie begins in medieval times with the Knight Templar(Nee!) on their quest to eliminate all evil in a village (burn the witch! burn the witch!). Of course they succeed and bury the bodies in a pit(along with a horse who slipped). A church is built over this mass graveyard and all is forgotten, right?
Are you crazy? Flash forward to 1988 and the assortment of visitors visiting the spacious, gorgeous structure. From there it goes into the standard formula of a seal broken and spirits of the dead village arise and beginning to take their revenge. It's up to a priest and a Sacristan's daughter(played by a young Asia Argento, daughter of Dario) to stop the evil forces before they had to the outside world.
Sadly, this is not one of Italy's better exports. While the setting and camera work is beautiful, this movie just didn't quite do it for me as a fan of the genre. Some of the lines and situations were very, very laughable. This is pretty much A-Z, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, AC/DC-type of movie. It's what I call a gateway film. From here, check out Suspiria, Tenebre, and Zombie. Again not bad, not good.
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