The Sect (1991) User Reviews

Another respectable effort from Soavi.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 2 April 2018]

Jamie Lee Curtis' older sister Kelly is front and centre here as she plays Miriam Kreisl, an expatriate American schoolteacher working in Frankfurt, Germany. One day she nearly runs down an elderly, weird stranger named Moebius Kelly (genre veteran Herbert Lom, "The Dead Zone"), who passes away after she brings him to her house to recuperate. From there, even nuttier things begin happening, starting with the discovery of a catacombs beneath Miriams' own house. A handsome young doctor named Frank (Michel Adatte) sympathizes with her, and attempts to help her unravel the mysteries now abounding in her life.

Written by director Michele Soavi along with his producer / mentor Dario Argento and Gianni Romoli, "The Sect" is noteworthy for some very slick, stylish, accomplished filmmaking. This is supplemented by a screwy plot where, for a while anyway, you're not exactly sure where all of this is going. The ultimate diabolical plans for Miriam automatically call to mind another horror classic that has clearly inspired "The Sect", but that won't be mentioned here. And this plot is helped along by some genuinely interesting and compelling horror film imagery; viewers may be pleased by the various squirm-inducing (although not necessarily gore-oriented) effects set pieces. Among the elements incorporated are a hallucinogenic insect inserted into a nostril (!), Miriams' sweet but magical pet bunny, who at one point does some channel surfing (!!), and a Manson-type Satanic cult leader named Damon (Tomas Arana, "Gladiator").

The film eventually goes on a little too long to be completely effective. The subplot with Miriams' friend Kathryn (Mariangela Giordano, "Burial Ground"), for example, isn't all that necessary. Still, it's hard to deny the overwhelming, crazed atmosphere of "The Sect", enhanced by an excellent score by always-reliable Pino Donaggio ("Piranha" '78, "Dressed to Kill" '80, "The Howling").

The performances are all reasonably good, with sexy Curtis creating a likeable lead character. Italian film veterans Giovanni Lombardo Radice ("Cannibal Ferox") and Donald O'Brien ("Zombi Holocaust") also appear, but it's the magnetic Lom and the effectively creepy Arana that leave the biggest impact.

Highly recommended to fans of Spaghetti Horror and director Soavi.

Seven out of 10.

Strange Italian horror film from director Michele Soavi and writer-producer Dario Argento.

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 29 April 2023]

.An American school teacher (Kelly Curtis, older sister of Jamie Lee Curtis) in Frankfurt is targeted by a mysterious cult with sinister purposes. Also featuring Herbert Lom, Tomas Arana, Mariangela Giordano, Michel Adatte, Carla Cassola, Angelika Maria Boeck, and Giovanni Lombardo Radice.

This slow, long (117 minutes) film has good production values and decent acting, but the script is beyond bizarre, and it takes a long time for things to come together in any comprehensive way. I expected the usual devil-worshipers-trying-to-foment-the-antichrist type of thing, but that's subverted, as the cult has something to do with an insect that went extinct 10,000 years ago but has recently been re-discovered in Antarctica. So you've got some Rosemary's Baby mixed with a little of The Thing as well as Prince of Darkness, as churning well of mysterious blue liquid is found under the protagonist's house. It's all very odd, and there's a bit of gore, too, with one scene reminding me of something in Hellraiser. This was also released in the U. S. as The Devil's Daughter.

One of the last good Italian horror films

[Red-Barracuda · 7/10 · 3 September 2012]

A woman is chosen to bear the son of Satan by a cult headed by a mysterious old traveller.

I find it pretty unfortunate to say the least that Michele Soavi last made a horror film way back in 1994. Unlike most of his Italian peers he seems to have bowed out on a high. With this film along with Stagefright, The Church and Cemetery Man, Soavi has a pretty impressive body of work. He was the premier Italian horror director from the period 1987-94. I can't say definitively why he never returned to the genre but needless to say he is a great loss.

Similar to his earlier movie The Church, The Sect was also produced and co-written by Dario Argento. Soavi was something of a protégé of the great man. This one shows the influence pretty clearly once again. It has stylish direction and inventive cinematography. It also benefits from a good score from Pino Donaggio. So its overall look and feel is pretty good, while it has some well-conceived locations such as the tree and the well. Soavi really comes into his element with the dream sequence and cult ceremony scenes. The dream sequence in particular is a bravura display of cinematic technique. It's surreal, weird and very memorable. It's the highlight of the movie for sure.

It has a decent enough cast that includes Herbert Lom as the mysterious old traveller, cult favourite Giovanni Lombardo Radice as the man who is chased in the underground with the human heart, while Jamie Lee-Curtis's sister Kelly leads the picture in the role of the teacher. It's by no means a faultless film; in fact it's probably the least good of Soavi's quartet of movies. It's probably a bit over long while its ending did seem very rushed and a bit unsatisfying. Nevertheless, it remains one of the very last good Italian horror films and like all Soavi films, is well worth catching.

'Rosemary's Baby' on crack?

[Infofreak · 8 January 2002]

'The Sect' is a profoundly strange Satanic thriller. Directed by Dario Argento protege Michele Soavi (best known for the zombie movie 'Dellamorte Dellamore'), and co-scripted/co-produced by Argento himself, this shares the surreal, dreamlike feel of 'Suspiria' or 'Inferno', but without their distinctive stylish atmosphere. At times it appears to make no sense at all, especially the bizarre sequences using insects and animals, but it always holds your interest, and is certainly original and worth watching.

Kelly Curtis plays the sexy but nice schoolteacher who finds herself the centre of an evil cult who have big plans for her. Horror veteran Herbert Lom ('Mark Of The Devil', 'Asylum', etc.) is a mysterious old man who she befriends after nearly accidentally running him over. Can he be trusted? Can Miriam's pet white rabbit be trusted? And what exactly do subterranean wells, a Manson-like hippie killer, evil storks, Lewis Carrollesque dream sequences, and sticking extinct earwigs up people's noses have to do with it all? I'll leave you to work it all out.

A very freaky but entertaining movie that will probably become a future cult classic. Highly recommended.

Michele Soavi: Italian horror prodigy!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 13 November 2004]

Soavi's third film credited as a director simply is a unique experience. It's a complex and demanding horror adventure, handling about a young German schoolteacher (Kelly Curtis) who becomes dangerously involved with a satanic sect led by veteran-actor Herbert Lom. The screenplay (co-written by Dario Argento) often is confusing, but the energy and enthusiasm Soavi puts into the direction simply make this one of the greatest Italian genre efforts ever. The Sect has a terrifically sinister premise and it's brilliantly cinematographed. Soavi clearly has eye for camera-movements and original angles. Even though this film features a rarely seen level of morbidity, you can't just categorize it as horror alone! In a way, The Sect also is a twisted fairy-tale (try and detect all the similarities between Miriam's adventure and 'Alice in Wonderland') and a ultra-black comedy (the sect's most devoted killer looks exactly like Charles Manson!). I'd love to write more about this intriguing film but I'm reluctant to reveal too many spoilers. At any moment in this film, you have no idea what'll happen next. Anything is possible in Michele Soavi land and I'd love for you to check it out yourself! There are a few deliciously grim sequences and great make-up effects. Highlight of the macabre unquestionably is the face-ripping scene! And there's another great trivia detail for Italian horror buffs: Giovanni Lombardo Radice has a small role early in the film. The man is clearly aging but he still knows how to gruesomely die in films.

Let's talk about Michele Soavi!! Unquestionably Dario Argento's most gifted acolyte, but he never really got out of Argento's or Lamberto Bava's shadow. Dario Argento (Tenebrae, Inferno, Suspiria…) took Soavi under his wings because they have the same tastes in film-making and they both share a passion for horror. Very true, but I think you can't deny Soavi is a lot more subtle than his mentor and merely chooses for suspense and atmosphere rather than to rely on graphic gore. The film I saw of him (The Sect, Dellamorte Dellamore and The Church) all had a fair share of blood but they're not exactly the gorehound festivals Argento often delivers. I also think Soavi puts more dept and intelligence in his films. Everything he ever was involved in comes with my highest possible recommendation

Worthy predecessor to Dellamorte Dellamore

[Scott-42 · 7/10 · 11 June 2000]

Much, much, better than The Church or Aquarius, Soavi is obviously finding his way as a director. A bit too over long and not everything makes sense - what's up with that rabbit?, but the film keeps your attention for much of it's length even though you aren't really sure what is going on. Most everything is explained in the end, and it was a nice surprise to see Herbert Lom outside of the Pink Panther films again.

Overall, a more worthwhile choice for those that liked Cemetery Man than either of Soavi's previous films.

Creepy? Yes.

[ddukart · 6/10 · 28 December 2006]

Another submission into the Lovecraftian film genre. So, being an HPL fan, I rushed to ebay and found a copy.

This film, though low budget maintained a dark, sinister, atmosphere and does, indeed belong on the Lovecraftian list. Not only Lovecraft fans will like it, but so will possession movie fan, and it hold up with the likes of Rosemary's Baby, Beyond the Door, and the Manitou as a classic diabolic thriller. It reminded me of Fulchi films, but without the nonstop gore (and was still good anyway, ha ha ha). Hey, what more can you ask for? get two fixes with one flick!

If you're a fan, check it out.

Too Long with Incoherent Story

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 17 June 2018]

"La seta", a.k.a. "The Sect" or "The Devil´s Daughter", is a terrible and too long "Rosemary's Baby" rip-off with an incoherent story. The segments in 1970 in California and 1991 in Frankfurt are absolutely unnecessary and do not add any value to the plot. The lead story of the school teacher Miriam Kreisl, performed by Jamie Lee Curtis' older sister Kelly Curtis, who is awfully dubbed in Italian, is full of unnecessary comings and goings. A young woman living alone in a lonely place bringing a lunatic stranger home is something that does not make any sense. Everything the guy does at her place during the night could have been done while she is at school with the exception of the worm in her nose that would have taken a moment during any night by anybody from the satanic cult. The conclusion with the devil´s baby sacrificing to protect Miriam is another absurd in the poor story. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "A Filha do Demônio" ("The Devil´s Daughter")

Haunting Imagery

[deborahrighetti · 8/10 · 30 October 2020]

Kelly Curtis gets a chance to follow in her mother and sister's scream queen shoes as she plays a teacher who gets stalked by members of a cult who want her to have Satan's baby. It might sound like Rosemary's Baby, but I promise you the execution is about as different as you can get. It's much more dreamlike and surreal and some of the imagery in the film is excellent and haunting.

A kindergarten teacher becomes involved with a Satanic cult resulting in horrifying and terrible events

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 19 February 2021]

Horror movie mostly set at a house with a great number of gory and bloody scenes. Third movie by Italian horror maestro's most gifted acolyte, Michael Soavi. A school teacher : Kelly Curtis becomes involved with an elderly man : Herbert Lom who she previously ran over at a car accident . But Satan has chosen his victims. Soon after , she finds herself being hunted por an eerie Satanic cult . The battle with evil has begun.

Creepy and scary movie with a number of amazing and terrifying scenes and lots of blood of gore. It is an atmospheric chiller with subterranean secrets about a young German schoolteacher who becomes involved with the Manson-like devil-worshipping sect headed by a mysterious person . The film is acceptable and passable but has a convoluted plot, being middlingly paced with several scenes that don't make sense and some frames in the wake of Argento's Inferno. The picture blends sacrifices, tortures , bravura set pieces, supernatural events, Alice in Wonderland references, ghastly appearances, general dream-like ambiance, stylist visuals and anything else.

It packs a colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Raffaele Mertes . As well as thrilling and mysterious musical score by Pino Donaggio. This gore-feast picture was regularly directed by Michael Soavi, that's why it has a number of flaws and gaps. Soavi is a fine artisan who started as a director assistant in various notorious films most of them directed by his maestro Dario Argento or Lamberto Bava as Tenebre, Phenomena, A Blade in the Dark, Demons. With new skills went on assisting Dario Argento as FX supervisor for Opera. Then Argento offered him to shoot another movie, the horror film titled La Chiesa or the Church with Dario as producer and shot in Hungary. In the Eighties and Nineties Soavi made some decent terror movies such as "Aquarius, The Chiesa, The Sect and his best one : Dellamore Dellamore or Zombie Graveyard" with Rupert Everett and Ann Falchi. All of them established as an fine expert more on suspense and scares than on graphic gore.

Painfully boring...

[markovd111 · 5/10 · 22 August 2020]

Soavi's "StageFright" is one of the best Italian horror movies ever made, so I'm amazed how I'm constantly disappointed in the rest of this man's work. This movie suffers from the same problems his other movie "The Church" does and that's weak characters, horrible pacing and plot that tries too much but fails to have any impact on the viewer whatsoever. Dario Argento was involved, but he only adds red and blue with which he slaps you, hoping it's good enough to call the movie a piece of art. Well, surprise, it isn't enough. I was literally cheering for the movie to end as it was approaching it's ending. We aren't even awarded with something for lasting through this barely less than a two hours ride other than some nice camerawork and some interesting imagery. There is no nice nudity, cool chase scenes or gore. There's nothing. Only some cheap jump scares. "The Sect" is a flawed movie which isn't worth your time and nothing can save it. Even Herbert Lom, who is criminally underused given the role he was given, since anybody could act like that. 5/10! Even to my fellow horror movie fans I say: "Avoid it if you can."

The Sect

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 16 February 2008]

An evil, Devil-worshipping sect, led by their enigmatic leader Moebius Kelly(Herbert Lom)have dastardly plans for Mirian(Kelly Curtis)and it concerns unleashing evil on the world through a sordid type of birth.

That's the best I can do to explain this baffling supernatural, surreal religious horror outing from director Michele Soavi whose camera is always moving, capturing the action of every scene. The way an unusual blue water flows in Miriam's house' pipes or the POV of a rabbit as it moves throughout Miriam's abode..Soavi's camera captures such action intensely. There are quite a few bizarre moments in this flick like Giovanni Lombardo Radice's stabbing of a woman, later having her heart found in his pocket in a subway as a looter tries to lift something from his coat leading to his suicide after police surround him after aborting the train. Or a bizarre sequence where Miriam's neck is picked at by a crane. Herbert Lom has the most interesting part as the sect's leader, who informs Miriam of why she was selected to carry out benevolent plans against the world and God. There's a hole in her house's basement with major significance to the plot as it works as a type of gateway. What occurs to Miriam's schoolteacher friend Kathryn(Mariangela Giordano)when her face is "attacked" by Moebius' facial death shroud, and Frank(Michel Adatte), Miriam's confident whose a doctor she depends on as her life is spiraling out of control,when he discovers what the sect is up to(..like Frank, we are an eyewitness to a very disturbing ceremony where a female victim's face is removed so that their leader can gain "new life")are also very strange occurrences within the film. Miriam soon finds herself on her own against the dangers of a sect wielding a power far greater than mankind has ever known.

While, at first, I tried to make sense of it all, soon I just gave up and enjoyed Soavi's distinctive camera-work..he really doesn't take an easy way out trying every type of visually innovative trick he can think of to make each scene memorable. And, there enough wildly imaginative ideas at work to keep one from getting bored. Very dreamlike, hypnotic score from Pino Donaggio seems to mesh well with Soavi's style and the film's strange subject matter.

90's Italian Horror!!!!

[TodaysHaul317 · 7/10 · 11 February 2024]

The Sect (aKa La Setta, The Devil's Daughter, and Demons 4) is a 1991 Italian horror film co-written and directed by Michele Soavi (Dario Argento's World of Horror, Stage Fright, The Church, and Cemetery Man). It was co-written and produced by Italian legend Dario Argento (Opera, Two Evil Eyes, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Cat o' Nine Tails, Suspiria, and Four Flies on Grey Velvet). Soavi started out as an actor in such films as Alien 2: On Earth, City of the Living Dead, A Blade in the Dark, and Demons. Soon after, he became an assistant/second unit director on Tenebrae, A Blade in the Dark, Blasfighter, Phenomena, Demons, and Opera. After their last collaboration The Church was a success, Soavi and Argento decided to team up again for The Sect. Soavi was destined for greatness in horror after striking gold from 1987 to 1994 in the genre with StageFright, The Church, Cemetery Man, and this all in a row. It's still a mystery why he stopped out of no where when he had so much potential to be the next big horror director in Italy. It's great to see his films get proper high definition treatment. In the 80s and early 90s it was a popular trend to cast family members of the famous actors or actresses in a lower budget productions to draw more attention. Kelly, the older sister of Jamie Lee Curtis. Also the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh was cast as the lead in this!!!!

It starts out in 1970 with a bunch of hippies partying and enjoying life near the water. They are greeted by a drifter named Damon (played by: Tomas Arana from "The Church", "Body Puzzle", "The Last Temptation of Christ", and "Gladiator"). He says he's been on the road for a long time and looking for help. They take him in and treat him as one of their own. Later that night, when everyone is asleep other strangers show up. Damon and his Manson-like cult murder the entire group. Damon goes to a vehicle to talk to his mysterious leader. He is told he needs wait for the orders that the cult has been waiting on and he says it could take years. It's now present day 1991 in Germany. In a homage to "Psycho", Marion Crane is introduced as a possible main character as she is followed by Martin Romero (played by: Giovanni Lombardo Radice from "The Church". "StageFright", "City of the Living Dead", and "Cannibal Ferox"). He has the sudden urge to leave his family to pursue the young lady as she leaves town. He breaks in her place and loses it. The police trap him, he starts talking about some conspiracy. An older man Moebius Kelly (played by: Herbert Lom from "The Dead Zone", "The Phantom of the Opera", "Asylum" and the Pink Panther films) nearly gets hit by Miriam Kreisl (played by: Kelly Curtis from "Trading Places", "The Sentinel", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and "Magic Sticks") when she's driving towards him. She feels bad so she decides to let hm stay the night with her. When she's asleep, Moebius comes in her room.

He whispers some words which sound like some curse and puts a bug into her nose. She starts to have to nightmares. Miriam wakes up and finds Moebius in bad health. She leaves to find her doctor but she has to get someone else for help. Frank (played by: Michael Adams from "Vater, lieber Vater" and "Ameisenweg") comes over to to see what's going on. They find the old man dead in the basement covered in a white cloth almost like a mask. It's almost like it became his skin as tight it was and it appears to have suffocated him. She goes back to her job as a teacher. One of her students draws a picture of a bug that instantly grabs her attention. Shes finds out it's been extinct. They symbolize fertility and evil. She meets up with her friend Kathryn (played by: Mariangela Giordano from "Burial Ground", "Satan's Baby Doll", "Patrick Still Lives", and "Vampire Killer Barbys"). She's helping her go through some things when the same white cloth as before latches on to her face real tight. Miriam gets a voice recording from Moebius which makes no sense considering the last time she seen him he was dead. Frank joins her for an urgent visit to the hospital. Damon meets up with a familiar face from the hospital. The cult is now in Germany and finally going to carry out their long awaited plan. Miriam goes through a nightmare that won't stop & it leaves you wanting more. Is it reality or just a bad dream????

Is it reality or dreams? This visual nightmare with crafty camera work from cinematographer Raffaele Mertes (Trauma, Blood Delirium, and The Flight of the Innocent) and a haunting score from Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Piranha, Dressed to Kill, The Howling, Trauma, and many others) is truly bizarre. I haven't seen too many movies like this, it stands out from the other films made during the early 90s. The Sect has some great practical special fx during some of the weird moments and the kills in this. It has a solid cast that includes Herbert Lom, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Tomas Arana, Michael Adams, and Kelly Curtis. It was a common practice in the Italian film industry to rip off bigger American pictures and they make their own version on a lower budget. Lots of those projects ended up being so more fun and way more entertaining than it's original influence. It's no a secret or a big surprise that this heavy resembles Rosemary's Baby with a touch of The Innocents. Honestly, I thought this was WAY better than Rosemary's Baby. It had so much more going for it and I found it more interesting to be real. This feature is full of chaotic moments that you won't forget on screen which makes this Italian horror worth checking out or revisiting any time!!!!

A few good moments lost in a hopelessly confusing and boring experience

[Groverdox · 5/10 · 3 July 2018]

"La Setta", or "The Sect", is that most unfortunate type of film, the kind with a collection of good moments but no discernable thread to string them all together. The result is a movie so boring that when a memorable scene happens, you probably won't be paying attention.

The plot has something, loosely, to do with the titular sect of devil worshippers, who appear to be based on the Manson family, at least in the movie's prologue. They kill a bunch of hippies in 1970, while a song from 1972 plays on the soundtrack. They also look shaggy and unkempt.

Then the movie switches to present day, and a kindergarten teacher almost runs over an old man, played by legendary German actor Herbert Lom. Of course, the meeting is really no accident, he's involved in the sect, and as with so many horror movies about evil cults, our protagonist is involved with the sect too, she just doesn't realise it. She's the essential ingredient the cultists need to make the devil come back or whatever.

If you think that last bit was a spoiler, the English-language distributors apparently disagree with you: they give it away in the film's title on those shores: "The Devil's Daughter".

You've seen it all before anyway, and done better: "The Wicker Man" also featured a religious cult in which the unsuspecting hero was the vital ingredient the cult needed for their evil plan. So did a little-seen, (but much better than "The Sect") Dutch movie called "The Family". "Rosemary's Baby", anyone? Maybe even "The Omen" films, in which the protagonist was indeed evil, but didn't know it at first.

It's been done before, and done better, and you've seen it at least a few times.

I said the movie has memorable moments but no interesting plot to tie them together. I think what it really has is moments that could be memorable in a better movie, but here, are not.

I'm at a loss to explain how this movie was directed by Michele Soavi, who made the superb "Cemetery Man" next. Perhaps it was the influence of Argento co-writing the screenplay that made this one so confusing and dull.

Not to mention overlong. Who the hell thought a trite devil-worshipper movie needed to be almost two hours?

hugely entertaining

[kevin-jones · 13 May 2004]

I first saw this film prior to its original release in the UK at the London Film Festival where Michele Soavi himself was in attendance. Afterwards I shook the man's hand and congratulated him on a fine film. The whole audience was very appreciative really. That was the last time I saw it until I finally found it again on a fine import dvd from xploitedcinema. I'm glad to say it still holds up very well indeed - the story grips from the start and doesn't let go right up to the incredible ending. Ok, so the story may have echoes of Rosemary's Baby but how often do you see a truly original horror film ? I can only think of a handful. Track this film down and you won't be disappointed.

An incoherent (albeit entertaining) mess

[drownsoda90 · 6/10 · 5 March 2018]

"The Sect," also released as "The Devil's Daughter" in the U.S., follows an American schoolteacher in Frankfurt who crosses paths with a mysterious elderly man. Little does she know, he is not as innocent as he seems, and their chance encounter sets in motion the plot of a group of Satanic ritual killers who plan to use her for a very important occasion.

Comparisons of this film have been made over and over again to "Rosemary's Baby," though I think that's a bit unfair to both films; it's no doubt an influence, but "The Sect" is far weirder and considerably less well-plotted (and the truth of the matter is that only the last ten minutes even remotely resemble Polanski's epic). Directed by Argento protege Michele Soavi, "The Sect" is as entertaining as it is absurd. The plot is shoddily strung-together, borrowing heavily instead from Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy. Incoherence comes with the territory of Italian horror by and large, and "The Sect" is no different; plotholes abound and the real motives and nuances of the Satanic cult remain incredibly vague, which is a major pitfall.

That said, in all of its unintentional ambiguity, the film is hinged on several key moments that are quite memorable and well-executed, one of which involves a completely demented operating room sequence. The demonic angle underpins all of this, but is again underdeveloped, and the finale is clunky as it doesn't really manage to bring the audience to any sense of resolution or awareness of what they've just witnessed.

Kelly Curtis (first daughter of Janet Leigh, sister of Jamie Lee) is hit-and-miss here, though the overdubbing makes it difficult to really gauge her performance. Herbert Lom makes an appearance as the elderly henchman who sets the entire plot into motion and is a welcome presence.

All in all, "The Sect" is an entertaining mess of ideas. It has all the cornerstones of a good Satanic horror flick: A mysterious cult, inexplicable supernatural phenomena, possession, conspiracy, and ancient beetles-but there is not really a thread running through any of these things to make for a sturdy film. That aside, I do find it incredibly entertaining in all its weirdness, and there are a few hallucinogenic sequences that are well-executed. Standout moment: The sequence in which Curtis's posessed colleague propositions for sex at a truck stop, and everything that follows. 6/10.

Scary, very scary...

[deckardinlove · 6/10 · 6 February 2006]

Well this is not and usual terror film like other Hollywood movies. M. Soavi, director of another excellent movies like Dellamorte Dellamore or La Chiesa, takes you to a strange world where the evil surrounds Miriam, a lonely girl who is the victim of a sect, she is the person who must brings the devil to the earth. Visually, the film is incredible, genial camera angles, excellent colours and sounds management that makes you enter the story. There is also a reference to La Chiesa, the hole at Miriam's house, is the door to the evil, like the hole at the church of La Chiesa. Strongly recommended in order to see a different terror from Hollywood

Flawed but fascinating occult thriller from the talented Michele Soavi

[lonchaney20 · 6/10 · 6 August 2015]

This is basically another take on the Rosemary's Baby scenario, but done in that inimitably weird Italian style. By this point Michele Soavi is beginning to find his own voice, and we can see him drifting apart from his controlling mentor/producer, Dario Argento. Things get off to a bad start with a ludicrous prologue in which some Satanic bikers slaughter a bunch of hippies. So far so good, except for the gang leader's ridiculous tendency to quote The Rolling Stones, talking about how their music is full of profound knowledge understood only by the chosen few. It's completely stupid, but it was a necessary sacrifice; Soavi and his co-writer (Gianni Romoli) allowed Argento to write the opening scene himself to ensure that he'd leave the rest of the movie alone. This is hilariously acknowledged in the movie itself, when at one point the head of the titular sect (a creepily subdued performance by Herbert Lom) picks up a music magazine in the protagonist's apartment and, with the air of a man who now knows better, reminisces about how deep the Stones' music was considered in the seventies.

Anyway, like Soavi's other films this is brimming with nightmarish imagery (I love the burial shroud that flits in and out of the narrative) and mysterious symbolism, but it hasn't aged quite as well. The cinematography of Raffaele Mertes is serviceable during the film's moodier sections, but most of the time it feels a bit flat. The same can be said of Pino Donaggio's soundtrack, whose unimaginative synthesizer beats and drones were unfortunately endemic in the nineties. Since this is a Soavi film, though, it's still well above average and certainly never boring - he takes a derivative story and spices it up with bizarre images, stylized scenes of violence, a large helping of symbolism (much of it related to fertility), and even a pinch of Lovecraft. The ending is a point of contention for some, but I think it's both gutsy and surprisingly moving. This is perhaps Soavi's least successful horror film, but here we can already see him experimenting with images and ideas that will be perfected in his next project, Dellamorte Dellamore.

A slow and incoherent horror flick with horrible soundtrack

[ernesti · 4/10 · 12 October 2012]

Soavi has succeeded in making bizarre films in his career and my favourite above them all is Dellamorte Dellamore (aka The Cemetery Man). So the expectations were quite high for this movie. It is understandable that Soavi was finding himself as a director and with Dario Argento the film may end up being interesting at least and incoherent at most.

The script was written by Argento with a couple of others and we all know that most Argento's films have quite a weak script and this time it's not different. People who know Argento's films can see his impact on this film and some fans may even like this but for anyone else there isn't much to see.

The film would have been so much better with higher quality soundtrack, so if there had been someone like Morricone himself making a few scores for the film it'd have raised the film to a higher level.

Secondly the film should be cut to 90 minutes, so easily about 30 minutes could be cut out without losing anything significant. The film doesn't engage as much as it should and i was just waiting for it to end after the first hour.

Acting isn't too good either. I wasn't expecting to see a masterpiece and i can watch and even respect a bad movie. But this is just a bland "americanized" horror flick which lacks a sense of style that many Italian horror films used to posses.

In overall many fans may like the film but for anyone else it's just a waste of time.

Another excellent exhibition of horror from Italy!

[The_Void · 8/10 · 12 July 2005]

You can always count on an inventive and intriguing movie when it comes to anything that Argento has touched, and this Argento-scripted film is just that! The great director has left the directorial duties up to his protégé; Michele Soavi for this movie, and that is somewhat ironic because The Sect easily tops anything that Argento himself directed in the 1990's. Michele Soavi looked pretty promising up until 1994 when he released the astonishing 'Dellamorte Dellamore', and then promptly disappeared off the horror radar. It's a massive shame that the man, up until now, hasn't followed up on his four horror films; as I, and many other horror fans (I'm sure), would agree that if he'd added a few more films to his oeuvre; he could be right up there with the master himself. The plot for this film follows a young woman who almost knocks a man down while driving in her car. She then takes the man home, but due to the events that transpire; it quickly becomes obvious that she didn't take him home purely by chance...

As soon as the movie opens, with America's "Horse With No Name", and then a character quoting lyrics from The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil", you just know that you're going to be in for a great ride; and the rest of the film doesn't disappoint! Soavi succeeds in creating a fabulously foreboding atmosphere throughout the movie, and his direction isn't bad either. The locations are great; the underwater labyrinth underneath the house at the centre of the movie, which echoes Inferno, being the very best in that department! Soavi excels at direction, and this only reinforces my point about the massive shame it is that he hasn't followed up on Dellamorte Dellamore. His camera angles are superb and he really knows how to build tension and suspense! Herbert Lom is the pick of the cast, and the classic horror actor delivers an excellent hammy performance and every moment he's on screen is a delight. The film definitely does have problems, however; the fact that it's about twenty minutes overlong is one of them, and the rather silly ending is another - but on the whole, this is an excellent exhibition of horror and comes with a high recommendation from yours truly!

Proceed at your own risk.

[gridoon · 2/10 · 22 July 2003]

As a director, Dario Argento may very well be a master of the horror genre. But as a screenwriter, he has already proved that, more often than not, he doesn't have a clue. The script he has co-written for "The Sect" is so awful that I am inclined to believe there wasn't any script to begin with - they were probably making it up as they went along. The movie is simply a series of disconnected scenes that were thrown together in the vain hope that they would form some sort of "plot". The result is a torturous piece of schlock that bored me to tears. This one should get 0 out of 4 stars, but I'll change it to 0.5 for the cool "face ripping" scene, and for the fun of seeing an aging Giovani Lombardo Radice in a minor role, ten years after "Cannibal Ferox". Still, it apparently has its fans so you may want to check it out for yourself....

Another delight from Michele Soavi!

[Snake-666 · 8/10 · 14 November 2004]

After nearly running over an ageing man (Herbert Lom), Miriam (Kelly Curtis), feeling responsible, offers the old man a place to stay for a short while. However, this innocent invitation triggers a series of events that would change her life forever.

'The Sect' is at once an enthralling, mesmerising and stylish offering from Michele Soavi, the protégé of writer and producer, Dario Argento. Blending several styles of horror, Soavi's own unique presentation of the subject matter succeeds almost in entirety at being haunting, atmospheric and compelling. While one can see the influence of his mentor, Soavi is daring enough to put forth his own, unique brand of directorial style and flair to give 'The Sect' a distinctive appearance that sets it aside from many similar works of the era. His respect for the story and viewer is clear for all to see, never once opting for a style-over-substance approach, instead offering the stylistic elements as an accompaniment to what is already a considerably impressive film. The slow-pacing is an advantage to the film rather than a detriment and is unequivocally intentional. Soavi's methodical approach to storytelling allows him to not only develop his central character, but to gradually increase the tension in a way that does not feel forced and thus makes the climax all that more meaningful. Surrealism, unsettling visual elements and intriguing POV shots are all used to add to the atmosphere but never to become the main focal point. Above all, the keys to the grandeur of 'The Sect' are subtlety and mystery; everything else is but a bonus.

To say that 'The Sect' is without flaws would unfortunately be inaccurate. However, the flaws are particularly minor in the scale of things and the negative effects of these lapses are virtually negligible. While great care has quite obviously been taken to ensure that the storyline remains rational, there are a couple of instances where illogical behaviour and actions are briefly noticeable. As mentioned, these have very little negative effect on the overall film but their use as plot devices is questionable to an extent. It is also worth pondering whether on occasion Soavi went into too much detail perpetuating the tension of certain sequences and disregarded the actual climax of the scenes? For the most part, Soavi took full advantage of the script, presenting an array of memorably shocking and surprising scenes, yet once or twice, the 'money shot' was lacking in the impact that one had come to expect and had a rather unsatisfying short-term effect. Despite these instances, it is worth considering that 'The Sect' managed to almost wholly steer clear of becoming predictable, almost as if Soavi and Argento could predict themselves how an audience would react and what they could expect.

For those who doubt that modern Italian cinema is capable of producing innovative and enthralling horror, free of the paper-thin plots and unnecessarily excessive gore that has scarred so many other genre productions, 'The Sect' is the film that can prove otherwise. An occult horror/thriller full of twists and turns, shocks and surprises, surrealism, nightmarish dream sequences, symbolism, mystery and style, 'The Sect' is a film that only uses a bare minimum of special effects and instead acts almost as homage to the suspenseful horrors of yesteryear, such as 'Psycho' (1960), 'The Innocents' (1961) and 'Rosemary's Baby' (1968). Almost a pure work of art, 'The Sect' is Soavi staking a claim as possibly one of the best directors of the modern era. My rating for 'The Sect' – 8/10.

So bad it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously

[filipemanuelneto · 1/10 · 12 May 2020]

I'm beginning to be afraid of Michele Soavi's films. I confess that I was very disappointed with "The Church" but this film was able to be even worse. In fact, if the first one was still able to entertain me, despite its huge flaws, this film made me sleepy.

The script is based on, at the very least, naive and unrealistic premises: Miriam, a young teacher, takes to her home an elderly stranger called Moebius, she almost ran over. It turns out that he is not as fragile and docile as he appears: he is closely linked to a dangerous satanic cult, which has already killed many people and is now looking at the young woman. The film also has scenes that touch the absurd or, worse, the comic: safe boxes opened with an unusual easiness, a rabbit that likes to watch television, a blue "thing" in the water of the house, an unknown room in the basement that looks like a bathroom, but has a well in the middle and where a stork rapes the protagonist... the film has a bit of everything and ends with a kind of remake to "Rosemary's Baby".

In addition to this story that seems like a surrealist nightmare, we have the poor interpretations of the cast. As a matter of fact, I cannot say whether it is the fault of the actors or the material that was given to them to work on their characters. In any case, things did not go well: Kelly Curtis is a very weak and artificial protagonist; Mariangela Giordano is totally amateur but even worse than them is Herbert Lom, who was a real garage dummy and has a strange and artificial makeup.

Technically, the film is just as weak. Soavi's direction is amateur, the special and visual effects are notoriously fake, the atmosphere is more of a light comedy than of horror, the soundtrack is terrible. Honestly, it's one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. It even made me want to look at it as satire, because it's so bad that it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously...

I liked StageFright.

[BA_Harrison · 1/10 · 16 November 2019]

Dario Argento protege Michele Soavi hit the ground running with his entertaining 1987 feature debut StageFright, but tripped over his laces soon after, giving us the lacklustre The Church in '89, and this mess of a movie in 1991. A two-hour-long series of disjointed surreal set-pieces that fail to satisfactorily come together for a weak Rosemary's Baby-inspired final act, The Sect is Italian horror cinema at its most bizarre, but almost its most boring.

Jamie Lee Curtis's big sister Kelly plays kindergarten teacher Mirian Kreisl who takes pity on a strange old man named Moebius (Herbert Lom), who she almost runs down with her car. After inviting the man to rest at her home, a series of bizarre occurrences rock her previously quiet world: there's something strange in her water supply, an Asian woman appears in her basement, Moebius puts a prehistoric bug up her nose, her pet rabbit uses the TV remote to change channel, and her usually choosy friend Kathryn is stabbed to death while picking up a random stranger for sex. Other strange stuff involves Moebius being attacked by a piece of linen, the discovery of an ominous well in Miriam's cellar, Kathryn coming back to life on the operating table (after surgeons have failed to revive her by zapping her repeatedly with a defibrillator), and a woman having her face ripped off during a Satanic ritual.

Chuck in a spot of stork rape (!), lots of rabbit imagery (a white rabbit symbolises fertility), a hilariously bad scene in which local doctor Frank (Michel Adatte) opens a coffin with a tin-opener (!!), Giovanni Lombardo Radice as a character called Martin Romero (a name guaranteed to have avid horror fans groaning), and a head-scratching finale in which the devil's baby saves the life of the schoolteacher, and what you have is a thoroughly perplexing oddity that is nowhere near as entertaining as it sounds. The performances are terrible, the direction is uninspired, and the score (by the usually reliable Pino Donaggio) is a Simonetti-style synth monstrosity.

Soavi's next film was zombie comedy Cemetery Man (1994), a film that gets much praise, but which I cannot stand, so as far as I am concerned, the director is very much a one hit wonder. Since then, he's worked almost exclusively for TV. Doesn't surprise me one bit.

Solid Italian Horror -- Up Until About The Last Two Minutes

[Steve_Nyland · 8/10 · 27 May 2006]

I was quite impressed by this film! Surprised actually, by how involving it was on a problem solving level. Just by reading the box you more or less know going into the film that a young woman (Kelly Curtis, who is a dead-ringer for sister Jamie Lee at times) is going to be inducted into some kind of satanic cult, and that she will be used for some kind of blasphemous purpose to bring forth a new son of Lucifer. The fun is in watching her otherwise staid life spiral out of control after she comes in contact with a weird old man (Euro Horror legend & Captain Nemo actor Herbert Lom) who "isn't ready to die yet".

Sure, it's ROSEMARY'S BABY all over again with production by Dario Argento, but the film is completely unpredictable the first time through in ways that were quite engaging: One endeavored to puzzle out the meanings of otherwise unrelated mundane things like blue strands in glasses of water, demonic bunnies, plumbing design, trees decorated with ornaments glittering in the sun, pelicans, fuzz falling from the sky, truck stops, rows of numbers, nasty old napkins, suicidal doctors, basements that are bigger than the houses upstairs, beds crawling with worms, giant fishhooks with finger handles, and the use of America's "A Horse With No Name" two years before the song was released.

I mention the latter because it was the first instance of the movie stumbling, and took place about forty seconds into the proceedings. The only other time when the film stumbled was about two minutes before the end when a seemingly random event interrupted what was otherwise supposed to be someones pre-destined fate. If her fate was pre-destined, how could that have changed? The answer is that it was a plot device perhaps demanded by a producer who thought that the script was getting a bit long in the tooth. But up until then it's a riveting example of Euro Horror from the end of it's cycle: Post-Argento Italian horror. The film might be a bit too methodical in it's unraveling than fans of DEMONS or THE BEYOND might prefer, but stick with it!

The movie pays off a bunch of times and once more to be clear, right up until the last few minutes is as good of a film about this subject matter as you can ask for. It also has an interesting agenda about the power of evil being beyond what any mere one of us can resist, though we can play a role in carrying out it's wishes if we so choose. The rest of the world will turn a blind eye preferring not to believe and finding other answers, starting with "you're just imagining things". Here is a movie that knows this is what we expect and plays with it, unveiling a mythical subversive alternate culture within our own bent upon bringing Satan back to Earth once again, and untouchable due to social considerations we ourselves take for granted. That their plans could be averted by a plot device is somewhat annoying, but if that's the trade off for 110 minutes of otherwise crackerjack horror I'm happy to pay the price.

8/10; Seek it out, you can find old videos for the price of the change between the cushions of your sofa.