The Unholy (1988)

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nTitle: The Unholy (1988)

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nDirector: Camilo Vila

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nCast: Ben Cross, Hal Holbrook, Ned Beatty, William Russ

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nReview:

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nThe Unholy came upon the horror scene about a decade toonlate, the script had been written by veteran screenwriter Phillip Yordan (ElnCid, Day of the Triffids) in the 70’s when films of the supernatural werenextremely popular at the box office. Nothing came of that script until a decadenlater when Cuban film director Camilo Vila found the script in Yordan’s office andndecided to make it into a film. Unfortunately by 1988, the big 70’snsupernatural film fad, which spawned films like The Omen (1976), The Exorcist (1973),nThe Sentinel (1977) and The Amityville Horror (1979) (amongst many others) hadnpassed and well, The Unholy didn’t get to ride on that band wagon. The Unholynwas released during the time when the big anti-heroes of horror where at thenpeak of their powers, I speak of course of Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger,nMichael Myers and Pinhead. Horror was no longer about catholic priestsnexorcising demons; by then these types of films were considered passé. Horrornfilms where now about serial killers and special effects, some horror filmsneven mixed dark fantasy elements into them. But that didn’t stop the filmmakersnbehind The Unholy from making their film.

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nThe Unholy tells the story of Father Michael, a priest whonmysteriously survived being pushed from a seven story building! Without ansingle scratch! This miraculous event leads the leaders of the Catholic Churchnto think that Father Michael has been chosen by god to fight against a priestnslaying demon called ‘The Unholy’. This demon has been killing priests for yearsnand the church will have no more of that! So they send their best holy warrior:nFather Michael! Problem is that the demon tempts the priests with sex; cannfather Michael withstand the temptations of sensual pleasure?  

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nThe Unholy starts out actually quite promising, with thisnvery serious vibe to it. I liked how the film was exploring those themes of sexual repression amongst religious folks, a restraint I never could really understand. Director Camilo Vila effectively conjures up annalluring atmosphere starting with this demon that takes the form of a beautifulnsuper model dressed in see through dresses as the wind blows; If I didn’t knownany better I’d say I was watching a Jean Rollin film! We are introduced to thisnmystery, who is killing these priests and for what reason? Father Michael, thenmain character of the film takes it upon himself to find out, so he works as andetective of sorts. In all honesty, the film has a film noir vibe to it that Inenjoyed. Most of the film takes place during the night, the priest is thendetective. Then there’s the colors in the film, now, we could chalk the excessnblue and red to the fact that this film was made during the 80’s and back innthose days, practically every film director was bathing their visuals withnblues, pinks and reds, it was just the thing to do. To corroborate this youncould watch say Vamp (1986) which was also a candy colored horror film; but wencould also say that Mr. Vila was emulating the films of Mario Bava or DarionArgento, in look anyways. 

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nBut speaking of films that inspired this one, I’d saynthe biggest blue print for The Unholy was obviously The Exorcist (1973).nActually, certain shots pay direct homage to Friedkin’s film, if only ThenUnholy hadn’t strayed into goofy territory, it could have proudly stood as anbastard stepchild of The Exorcist, unfortunately, things turned outndifferently. The Unholy also has a little of The Sentinel (1977) in it as wellnwhen it comes to its priests who have seen so much evil they go blind. The problem with The Unholy is that director Camilo Vila wasnashamed that he was making a horror film and didn’t want to admit it. In fact,nin interviews he emphatically denied this was a horror film. Come on man, yournmovie is about demons from hell killing off priests, how could you say it’s notna horror film when it so obviously is? I hate it when directors  are ashamed of working in the horror genre, it shows they don’t really have their hearts into it. And so, at the end of the day, when thenfilm was finished, producers found the final product a bit too tame for modern audiences. They wanted a more graphic film, with a biggernemphasis on effects, so they ordered a couple of reshoots involving more gorenand effects. In terms of the gore, the film is quite graphic, there’snripped off throats and people hanging from crosses with their bowels hangingnfrom their guts and that’s all fine and dandy if you like your gore.nUnfortunately when it comes to the demons in the film, the movie turnsncompletely laughable.

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nI have to be really honesty here, whoever was responsiblenfor creating the creature effects for The Unholy did a terrible job. At firstnthe demon looks like this hot babe which is a great effect on its own, but then when the demon shows its truenface, instead of looking scary, it instead looks like this totally ridiculous rubbernmonster. When the thing finally shows itself, it literally wobbles like somenbad puppet that can’t move right? It is the least menacing looking thing younwill ever see. Its face looks monstrous, but in a cartoony sort of way, it definitelyndidn’t fit with the tone of the film. Here we have a film that is trying tonplay in the same ball park as The Exorcist, but then during its last 15 minutesnturns into some cheesy monster movie. I wouldn’t mind seeing a creature likenthat in a cheesy monster movie, but in this film which is trying to be allnserious? The film takes a left turn towards goofy territory and it allngoes to hell from there.

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nSome directors just don’t have a good grip on what comes offnas cheesy or serious. Sometimes holding on to a specific tone for your film cannbe a difficult thing, and this is something that director Camilo Vila completelynfailed at. The movie goes from serious supernatural flick, to a goof fest,ncomplete with midget demons straight out of Phantasm (1979). My guess is thatnthe producers knew they were going to go up against effects heavy films like ThenNightmare on Elm Street films or Hellraiser and they wanted to up the ante, benon the same level, they wanted something to wow their audiences with,nunfortunately this effects heavy ending fails because the effects were terriblynachieved. Not only that, some of the dialog is just completely laughable. I don’tnknow what it is about Satanists, but they always make me giggle! No matter hownhard they try to be all scary, they just come off as a bunch of goof balls! So anyhow,nI’m glad I finally got to see this one because I remember watching it as a kidnand being kind of scared of it, but now as an adult I realize this film is completensilliness. It’s not a complete waste of time, there’s a place for this kind ofngoofy supernatural film that tries to be all serious, but isnt’, its callednboring Saturday night. I’ve seen worse films about priests with little faithntrying to exorcise demons that’s for sure. For the longest time this film wasnnot available on dvd, but Miramax released it on this 8 film boxed setnaccompanied by other equally cheesy classics like Ghoulies III: Ghoulies go tonCollege (1991), Chopping Mall (1986) and C.H.U.D. II (1989). Not a bad collectionnto own, just remember to save The Unholy for when you’re in the mood for anslice of supernatural cheese.

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nRating:  2 ½ out of 5

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