As every other positive review has noted, The Church is atmospheric in the way that is unique to Italian horror flicks from the '70s and '80s. Numerous horror set pieces, gruesome shots and death sequences, and moments of inventive use of sound and camera movement, highlight a plot which somehow makes less sense than the overall story (itself another hallmark of classic Italian horror). Also contributing to the overall disorienting, unsettling effect of the latter characteristics is another common component of this kind of Italian horror movie: people wandering off by themselves to meet gruesome ends, and others wandering around in clear distress, while everyone else wanders or sits around passively, oblivious to the lured fates and suffering of the others.
It's also interesting to note the very specific lifting of a demon rape scene right from Rosemary's Baby. In addition, one of the characters drops a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and indeed this movie makes ample use of the kind of gear- and tension-driven traps and mechanical apparatus which characterize the Indiana Jones movies. Also noteworthy, it is an African who ultimately holds the role of hero/protagonist. One wonders whether the director and Dario Argento, who produced, we're thinking of Romero's Night of the Living Dead, given how rare a non-white protagonist was and still is in horror movies.
If you like gruesome, highly stylized horror, with inventive set pieces, and in particular if you like Argento's work from the 70s and '80s (the director of this movie was an Argento protege), The Church is a must-see.
It's also interesting to note the very specific lifting of a demon rape scene right from Rosemary's Baby. In addition, one of the characters drops a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and indeed this movie makes ample use of the kind of gear- and tension-driven traps and mechanical apparatus which characterize the Indiana Jones movies. Also noteworthy, it is an African who ultimately holds the role of hero/protagonist. One wonders whether the director and Dario Argento, who produced, we're thinking of Romero's Night of the Living Dead, given how rare a non-white protagonist was and still is in horror movies.
If you like gruesome, highly stylized horror, with inventive set pieces, and in particular if you like Argento's work from the 70s and '80s (the director of this movie was an Argento protege), The Church is a must-see.