Granted, as much as I enjoy horror movies, of course I took the chance to sit down and watch "The Unholy" here in 2019 when I was given the chance. Sure, 31 years after the movie was released, but so what? The reason for me deciding to watch "The Unholy", aside from it being a horror movie, was the title of the name and also the fact that Ben Cross starred in it.
Right, well the premise of the movie was good, writers Philip Yordan and Fernando Fonseca definitely had some interesting enough ideas on paper. But director Camilo Vila just failed to bring the movie to a satisfactory fruition.
The storyline started out nicely enough, but then it quickly lost its momentum and settled into a slow and mind-numbingly monotonous pace. And essentially it was only the first quarter and the last quarter of the movie that made it worthwhile watching. Everything in between was just filling, a slow-paced and essentially boring filling.
Now, the movie does have a pretty good cast ensemble, which included the likes of Ben Cross, whom carried the movie quite well with his performance as Father Michael. It was interesting to have him on the good side - and by that I mean to see him play a hero character instead of a villain for a change. But the movie also had good performances and appearances by William Russ, whom is a very familiar 1980s face, Hal Holbrook and Ned Beatty.
As for shock and scares, well, let's just say that you shouldn't put yourself up to an overload of such. And the special effects in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the age of the movie. But they weren't exactly scary or made me go "wow, now that was impressive".
"The Unholy" felt like an ambitious project which failed to deliver on everything the director set out to achieve. The movie felt very bland and mundane, to be bluntly honest. There are far better movies in this Christian vs. Satanic and God vs. The Devil genre available. And of course, with "The Unholy" being in this genre, you know the very outcome of the movie even before you sit down to watch it. And yes, sure enough, that is exactly how the movie ended. Predictable.
Right, well the premise of the movie was good, writers Philip Yordan and Fernando Fonseca definitely had some interesting enough ideas on paper. But director Camilo Vila just failed to bring the movie to a satisfactory fruition.
The storyline started out nicely enough, but then it quickly lost its momentum and settled into a slow and mind-numbingly monotonous pace. And essentially it was only the first quarter and the last quarter of the movie that made it worthwhile watching. Everything in between was just filling, a slow-paced and essentially boring filling.
Now, the movie does have a pretty good cast ensemble, which included the likes of Ben Cross, whom carried the movie quite well with his performance as Father Michael. It was interesting to have him on the good side - and by that I mean to see him play a hero character instead of a villain for a change. But the movie also had good performances and appearances by William Russ, whom is a very familiar 1980s face, Hal Holbrook and Ned Beatty.
As for shock and scares, well, let's just say that you shouldn't put yourself up to an overload of such. And the special effects in the movie were adequate, taking into consideration the age of the movie. But they weren't exactly scary or made me go "wow, now that was impressive".
"The Unholy" felt like an ambitious project which failed to deliver on everything the director set out to achieve. The movie felt very bland and mundane, to be bluntly honest. There are far better movies in this Christian vs. Satanic and God vs. The Devil genre available. And of course, with "The Unholy" being in this genre, you know the very outcome of the movie even before you sit down to watch it. And yes, sure enough, that is exactly how the movie ended. Predictable.