![]() ![]() Morgan does his grizzled B-movie best, slightly better served by what he has to play with than his co-stars: a confusingly accented Cary Elwes as a local bishop and a stranded Katie Aselton as the town doctor who is somehow remarkably an expert in every single medical field. The jumps employed by Spiliotopoulos are equally unsuccessful, as overused as they are over-emphasised, that familiar orchestral crash doing all the work over and over and over again. The creature that acts as a servant of Satan, killed back in the 1900s in human form and returning through Alice, is all jagged movements, crunching bones and extended claws, a cribbed, indistinct design that’s too lacklustre to evoke any real scares. But Spiliotopoulos, best known for having a hand in workmanlike blockbuster scripts like Beauty and the Beast, Hercules and Charlie’s Angels, is a disastrously unsure hand behind the camera, never quite managing to conjure up even the slightest ounce of menace with dated, cheap-looking visuals and a distinct dearth of dread. It’s exhaustively well-worn territory but the premise does initially offer up the vague hope of an interesting spin, exploring the danger of automatic, unquestioning faith and a clear, juicy example of the Martin Luther quote “For where god built a church, there the devil would also build a chapel”. Her miracles start to spread throughout the community but they rely on ultimate, unwavering belief in Alice’s new friend “Mary”, and when that is tested, all hell, or at least the most boring part of it, will break loose. His search takes him to a small New England town and Alice (newcomer Cricket Brown), a local hearing-impaired girl who claims she can now hear and speak because of a holy visitation. Plaudits are then earned for this but precious little else, writer-director Evan Spiliotopoulos taking an intriguing concept and doing the very least with it, disappointment soon turning to disinterest.īased on James Herbert’s 1983 novel Shrine, the plot follows disgraced journalist Gerry (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as he tries to find a story worth getting paid for. But surprisingly here that isn’t the case and instead, The Unholy was actually in production as the pandemic struck, becoming one of the first films to grapple with the complexities of having to film around a deadly virus. I don’t know if this movie will ever be remade in the future, but I hope it is, and I hope more attention is given to the solidity of the story, and to the mystery aspect of it.It has the cursed aura of something shot three years ago, shelved and then dumped, a doomed hobble to the screen that’s become more commonplace in the last year as studios have understandably used the opportunity to offload their damaged wares. I’m not sure what could have prevented it, but I do think it was possibly rushed, or lacked focus. But the plot was predictable, and seemed to crumble toward the final one-third of the film. At least it’s a little different than mot horror tropes. Even the religious aspects were intriguing. ![]() I liked Morgan’s character – a reporter looking into the supposed miracles and supernatural events, and the whole fanfare around Alice’s miraculous healing and supposed abilities. That should have been kept a mystery and then revealed at the end, because, there were no surprises, no motivation to figure out. Is the film trying to be another Exorcist or Ring? A major flaw, at least for me, was spoiling the REASON for the curse in the opening scenes. The Unholy was directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos, and maybe it’s the director’s choices or approach, or the script itself, but for me, this film struggles with originality and execution of suspense/horror. Maybe that’s the director’s fault, though, and not Morgan’s, because Morgan is a talented actor. I think his acting choices in “Dead” were too exaggerated, bordering on cartoonish. I much prefer Jeffrey Dean Morgan in a more low-key role like this than the over-the-top Negan on The Walking Dead. ![]() I mean nothing personal, and am a huge film fan, with horror being one of my go-to genres. I realize my opinions are just that–opinions, and may differ from yours. But the ominous question is, is she for real, where does her power come from, and what does it all mean? If you don’t mind reviews that are tough, balanced, and fair, keep reading, because this is one of those reviews. It catapults her to cult-like popularity. The plot revolves around a young hearing-impaired woman who can suddenly hear again after an encounter with the Virgin Mary, and what’s more, can miraculously heal others. The Unholy is a horror movie that wastes the acting talent of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and other cast members. ![]()
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