The Church (1989), Entertaining Demonic Horror In Two Disparate Parts
At the risk of alienating readers, the Catholic Church has spent the better part of two millennia committing unspeakable atrocities. From burning sinners at the stake to covering up child abuse, the Catholic Church doesn’t have much moral ground left to stand on. In the real world, it makes one wonder how it still exists and exerts so much power. However, in the world of cinema, it offers horror filmmakers thousands of years worth of material. In Michele Soavi’s The Church (1989), released as La Chiesa in Italy, the historic brutality of the Catholic Church serves as both a source of horror and, to a degree, a thin barricade protecting the rest of us from untold evil.
The film begins in Medieval Germany, where blood-thirsty crusaders massacre a group of (alleged) demon worshippers. To protect the world from their evil, the Teutonic Knights bury the dead in a pit and build a Gothic church on the spot. The film moves to the present day, where Evan (Tomas Arana) starts his first day of work as the church’s new librarian. Evan quickly develops a romantic interest in Lisa (Barbara Cupisti), the painter restoring some of the church’s frescoes. Meanwhile, restoration efforts in the catacombs screech to a halt, as the construction threatens the integrity of the church’s infrastructure.
While exploring the catacombs, Lisa comes across an ancient parchment containing cryptic schematics. She shares the document with Evan, who becomes obsessed with deciphering its meaning. However, this leads him to discover a massive void hidden under the church, protected by a seven-eyed seal. Upon opening the seal, Evan unleashes an ancient evil that turns anyone it touches into a demonic creature.
This essentially summarizes the first half of the film, though there are many characters and subplots that I have omitted. For example, the grumpy Bishop (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.) seems to know more about the church’s hidden secrets than he’s letting on, while Father Gus (Hugh Quarshie) attempts to fit into his new role among the stuffy, conservative priests. At the same time, Lotte (Asia Argento) is the daughter of one of the priests, though she spends most of her time running around the catacombs and escaping the confines of the church to enjoy more worldly pleasures.
In any case, the first half of The Church (1989) builds the foundations of an entertaining premise, with promises of ancient evil and demonic possessions. However, there is a very sudden and jarring shift about halfway through the film that brings about one long, strange, drawn-out climax. After releasing the evil, the church inexplicably locks itself, trapping a whole cast of new characters inside, including a teacher and her young students, a bride, her groom, their photography team, a biker couple, a random old couple, and probably a few others that I’ve forgotten. As you can imagine, the sanctuary becomes the staging ground for a bloodbath.
hurch. In typical 80s Italian horror style, the second act uses everything at its disposal to create over-the-top carnage and ridiculous scares. At one moment, Lisa is getting raped by a demon and in the next, an old woman is using her dead husband’s severed head to ring the church bells. It’s all nonsense and chaos, but it’s just crazy enough to keep you watching until the bitter end.
Though Dario Argento produced the film and had a lot of input in its making (including casting his daughter in a central role), The Church lacks his signature style. Though technically a follow-up to Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1986), The Church (1989) diverges from the previous entries in an attempt to make a more “sophisticated” horror film. While it does aim higher with its budget and the breadth of its script, it doesn’t improve upon its predecessors as much as I had expected. It is a superior film in most respects, but there is just too much lost potential to ignore.
Michele Soavi and Dario Argento try to go in a hundred different directions in one film. There are blatant references and call-backs to other horror films, particularly Rosemary’s Baby (1968). However, there comes a time when you expect the film to find a sense of direction, only to discover that it never really had a direction at all. The story unfolds with a clear sense of purpose in the first 30 minutes or so, but that purpose loses strength in all of the attempts to keep the film horrific.
As a viewer, you start to wonder if The Church is just a vehicle for random death scenes and moments of occult horror, rather than a well-thought-out script. While this ensures that the film remains entertaining from start to finish, it also leaves a dozen plot holes and question marks. Many of these could have easily been avoided with a little more care and attention during the pre-production stages.
Ultimately, The Church (1989) works best when it conflates the evil from which “the church” protects us and the evil that arises from the church itself. The crusaders are shown for what they really were: blood-thirsty, violent barbarians using religion to justify some of the worst atrocities in human history. But at any given point, it’s hard to decipher which kind of evil we are seeing. In the end, the film lands on the side of the church, and puts most of the blame for the violence and death on unseen evil. However, it’s never fully explained if the demons came to be as a result of the crusaders or the devil worshippers who rest beneath the church. Consequently, the film loses much of its gravitas with all of its mixed messages.
The Church (1989) Movie Rating: ★★½ out of 5
If you’d like to watch The Church (1989), it is currently available to stream online for free via Tubi or via Amazon Prime. For more film reviews like this one, be sure to check out the Philosophy in Film homepage!
