Rish's Reviews
The Church, aka La Chiesa, is another Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento's protege, Michele Soavi, who you'll remember from Cemetery Man. Starring Hugh "I'm too good for Star Wars" Quarshie as a priest, and the oddly-adorable Asia Argento (just a wee lass in this one), the story goes that a church was built on a mass grave from medieval times, and for all these years the evil's been festering. Luckily, a librarian uncovers the grave and releases the dark forces on the unsuspecting people working and visiting the church.
Apparently, this is considered part 3 of the Demons series. It had music by Phillip Glass (boo) and The Goblins (yay). The death-by-jackhammer scene was pretty over-the-top disgusting. There was also a rather amazing-looking demon we see for a split-second in about a shot and a half. The film had a cute archeological subplot, and a lot of potential because of its setting and subject matter. But despite a good opening and a pretty cool story, it was slow-moving and confusing. It was a weird movie, that got less coherent as it went on. After a while, I had no clue what was happening or why. Why do this to a person? It simply made no sense, a great deal of the time. Now, I've seen enough Dario Argento movies to know that they are often heavily edited for American distribution, but this was supposed to be the original, international cut, so I don't know what to say.
Cathedrals are scary places, don't you think? Now, I ain't saying somebody should remake THIS, but I'll bet someone could make a great horror movie with a bunch of folks trapped inside a cathedral while all Hell breaks loose outside. That's not what happened in Prince of Darkness, was it?
Note: Wow, Italian cops are sure efficient. A woman calls the police, and less than ONE MINUTE LATER, they've traced her call and are on her doorstep. Nice.