spencergrande6 Michele Soavi doesn't disappoint again. Stage Fright was a great closed- set slasher flick and Cemetery Man a great oddball zombie flick. The Church hews closer to a slasher, but owing to its demons and sorcery its much more surreal than I was expecting.There are some great, weird, trippy, gorgeously realized shots in this film. Crosses bottoming out of floors into slowly rising blue mist, beating hearts dripping in dark ephemera raised to the sky in dark tribunal, the echoing thuds of a galloping horse always close behind. Characters see their darkest fears, are driven crazy by it. Philip Glass plays on the soundtrack, an electronic score at disharmony with the proceedings, hinting at the gleeful perversion at the heart of this church.The Church requires a full mind-meld with it; not questioning of plot purity or scene to scene accuracy, just acceptance of the hallucinations of terrible dread playing out on your TV (really wish I could see this on film on the big screen, the purest form of mass hypnosis).

Scott LeBrun Italian film director Michele Soavi certainly showed plenty of potential in his debut "Stage Fright", and went on to do other fine work in the horror genre - "The Sect", "Dellamorte Dellamore", and this entertaining shocker. One might argue that it's kind of slim on story, but the style on display more than makes up for that. "The Church" is unceasingly grim, loaded with atmosphere, heightened by many striking visuals, and packed with some deliciously grisly violence and makeup effects. It's one of those horror films that lives up to the word "horror". It can appeal to a variety of fans within the genre, for it takes its time and gives us the kind of "slow burn" approach that some people wish they'd see more often.In Medieval times in Europe, some crusading knights slaughter the residents of a village - including the animals. They had believed these people to be in league with the Devil. Subsequently, they build a church over top of the dead bodies. Centuries later, a librarian named Evan (Tomas Arana, "Gladiator") is hired by the church, and his fascination with the local history proves unwise. His snooping around allows the forces of evil to arise, take possession of the living, and commit murder. The church seals itself up, and a variety of victims are trapped inside by these demonic forces.The international cast also includes Hugh Quarshie ("Highlander"), Feodor Chaliapin Jr. ("The Name of the Rose"), Soavi regular Barbara Cupisti, Giovanni Lombardo Radice ("Cannibal Ferox"), and the young Asia Argento (daughter of co-writer / co-producer Dario Argento), who plays a spunky child who regularly sneaks out of the church in defiance of her father Hermann (Roberto Corbiletto, "Dangerous Beauty"). The acting is generally solid, with Quarshie an appealing hero.The finale is the absolute best part (at least, it was for this viewer), and worth waiting for. It features one of the most hideous goat like characters to be seen in religion themed horror. And the music by progressive rock specialists Keith Emerson and the prolific "Goblin" is extremely effective throughout.A must for fans of Spaghetti horror.Seven out of 10.

Leofwine_draca Michele Soavi's follow-up to his superb slasher STAGE FRIGHT is this visually stimulating but ultimately confusing thriller about demons materialising in a church. Originally conceived as a sequel to the two DEMONS flicks, this one also has a group of people trapped in an isolated location and gradually getting turned into evil beings. However, the difference is that THE CHURCH is a much more complicated film; whereas DEMONS had a fairly linear plot, this one goes off in all directions in a series of disjointed scenes which are artistically wonderful. The problem is that as a whole this film feels a bit like the Frankenstein's Monster; it's a bunch of different sequences all sewn together in one incoherent bundle which makes little sense at the end.Things kick off in the promising opening which has a bunch of medieval knights slaughtering a gang of frightened villagers and kicking their severed heads through the mud. Unfortunately the film then cuts to the present day and it's another hour before anything else exciting happens. Until then we get some confusion about a newly-appointed librarian investigating a stone face in the floor of the crypt, where he has hallucinations. He cuts his hands open and gets a demonic voice, then turns back to normal and tries to rape a lover and cut open Asia Argento's stomach (!). It's as surreal as it sounds.Until the action begins we have a couple of breathtaking tracking shots which are definitely in Dario Argento's style; I feel he had a little more input than simply "producer" here. A Goblin score thumps away in the background, and together with some weird architectural gargoyle faces some atmosphere is produced. But too much time is spent with characters running about in dark corridors and not really doing much. The real fun begins when an intricate mechanism shuts the church door and traps everybody inside; people don't start turning into monsters, as you might think, but go insane instead and there's mass chaos.Some characters appear and disappear with little reasoning; none of them further the plot apart from providing some imaginative scenes of people being seduced by weird-looking monsters. These "demons" have the capacity to scare but are scarcely used. In one scene a naked woman gives herself to one of these monsters, it takes all sorts I guess. There is some nice gore thrown into the mess but not really that much considering; really only a few isolated but creative death scenes. One man pulls his own heart out of his chest (there's a novel cure for heartburn...) while another decides to commit suicide by jumping on to one of those concrete drills (I can think of less painful ways). Another person pulls their face off in a mirror in a scene heavily inspired by POLTERGEIST.A cool Euro-cast fill out the roles of the survivors; Barbara Cupisti (STAGE FRIGHT) provides the glamour content. An ancient-looking John Karlsen (THE SHE-BEAST) even turns up as a wizened old priest. THE CHURCH is an enterprising and imaginative film ruined only by a too-complex script which tries to weave too many plot strands together in too short a time. It's worth watching but will probably leave you wondering "What?".

Claudio Carvalho In the Middle Ages, the Knights Templar invade a supposed coven of witches and they slaughter the community. The dig an unholy collective grave, bury the bodies and build a church on the top of the corpses. On the present days, the ambitious librarian Evan (Tomas Arana) is hired to organize the books of the church. He meets the archaeologist Lisa (Barbara Cupisti) that is researching the catacombs of the church and he accidentally unleashes and is possessed by an ancient demon. Sooner several visitors are trapped inside the church and possessed by demons. Father Gus (Hugh Quarshie) and the teenager Lotte (Asia Argento) are the only persons that are not possessed, and Father Gus discovers a secret in the construction of the church that might be the last chance to save mankind."La Chiesa" is a great Gothic horror film with story of Dario Argento and his daughter Asia Argento in an important role. The plot is a prequel to Demons 1 and 2, and I saw this film for the first time on 17 February 2012 and today I have decided to watch it again. Unfortunately this film has not been released on DVD or Blu-Ray in Brazil and the image of the VHS awfully dubbed in English is poor and does not highlight the magnificent cinematography or the creepy special effects. The soundtrack has the music of Keith Emerson, Goblin and Philip Glass and completes this great film of demons. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "A Catedral" ("The Cathedral")Note: On 22 Jn 2017, I saw this film again on DVD, unfortunately dubbed in English.