Michele Soavi in the director's chair, Dario Argento as co-scripter, Goblin composing. Sounds like a recipe for success, doesn't it? Having seen a few of Michele Soavi's genre films, I think I raised my expectations too high for this one. I liked Stagefright, and I loved Cemetery Man, but I can't praise The Church. There are some stunning visuals in this thing; many you aren't likely to forget soon, especially in the climax. However, the lack of coherency keeps me from enjoying anything I see on screen. It's frustrating. I want to dig it so bad, but the storyline is just lacking. A great prologue allows us to witness a massacre in the middle ages and shows us the building of the titular church. It's not hard to figure out why the place is cursed. Fast forward to the late 80's where the church is being renovated. It's not long before the curse is unleashed and very strange things start to happen. Many of the odd occurrences are never explained. For instance: Why are the kids so weird? Some of them are infected, but some seem to be just wandering around. Why do they never really attack the uninfected? I find it hard to believe that this movie was going to be Demons 3. It just doesn't have the same unrelenting flavor. And what was up with the ending? I plan to watch Bava's Demons 3 in the near future and see how he faired. The cast includes Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana, Barbara Cupisti, a young Asia Argento, and Giavanni Lombardo Radice (that's John Morghen to you and I).
Review of The Church
