The Unholy

Cast: Ben Cross, Hal Holbrook, and Ned Beatty

Director: Camilo Vila  

102 minutes (18) 1988

Lions Gate 
Blu-ray region B

Rating: 7/10

Review by Donald Morefield

  

Camilo Vila’s The Unholy stars Ben Cross as catholic priest Father Michael, appointed as pastor of the reportedly cursed St Agnes church in New Orleans. The church was closed for three years when Father Michael’s predecessors were murdered at the altar after they were seduced into temptation by a demon of desire in the alluring guise of a red-haired succubus (stunning model Nicole Fortier), and the violent crimes were hushed up by parish officials, here represented by Hal Holbrook as Archbishop Mosely. Father Michael learns he’s most likely to share the victims' seemingly predestined fates when the creature also appears to him, offering sensual ecstasy. Can he resist her naked charms? To submit means death and damnation, but perhaps some pleasures are worth dying for...

A late addition to the cycle of religious horrors, then boosted to prominence by sequels to The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976), The Unholy was Cuban-born director Vila’s first English-language production and, given the subject matter, perhaps the genre influence of Mario Bava and Dario Argento seems inevitable. The heavyweight supporting cast led by Holbrook, includes Trevor Howard (then in his eighties) playing the blind Father Silva - apparently gifted with the foresight of prophesy - for one of his last screen appearances; and Ned Beatty is well cast as Lieutenant Stern, the police detective baffled by unsolved homicides. These classy actors do what they can with an obviously weak script, bolstered by special effects work from Bob Keen, ensuring that the movie's production values, at least, earns its well deserved ‘A’ picture status, and their efforts lifted this chiller from the morass of routine schlock-horror video fodder in the 1980s.

A local club practices theatrically cheesy satanic rites, quite appealing to bogus acolytes and the sinfully curious tourism trade. Father Michael counteracts this blatant depravity with slap-happy sing-along hymns, while preaching this comforting familiarity to a newly revived congregation, but his commonplace rituals fail to halt his own persistently erotic nightmares. While investigating, our priestly hero experiences an indoor windstorm that, much like the very sudden tempest at Karswell’s mansion in Night Of The Demon (1957), is centred upon, or prompted by, villainy. Here, it’s the scandal-mongering blond showman and local scoundrel Luke (William Russ). Later, there’s a phone call from Hell, and crazy somnambulistic visions of burning crucifixions (somewhat reminiscent of Altered States), after poor distraught and innocent waitress Millie (Jill Carroll, Psycho II), winds up in a padded-cell at the local loony-bin, before the silent demoness lures the ‘incorruptible’ Father Michael into a betrayal of his vows.

In spite of its dream sequences, there is precious little room in the unfolding of this mystery’s narrative for many convincingly rational or likely psychological explanations of several nocturnal disturbances that are clearly supernatural happenings. So, thankfully, The Unholy has no cop-out ending as just another treatment of evil immortality themes in horror cinema. An intentionally awkward confrontational scene between Holbrook’s pious clergyman and Beatty’s worried sleuth forms the heart of this story’s balancing act of humanist concerns versus complacent faith. 

The director’s attention seems focused upon making certain the imposing visuals are fully supported by an effectively moody atmosphere on the key sets, and The Unholy is worth catching for bewitchingly rendered imagery that’s sustained by strong cameos. Although, obviously, it lacks the contemporary genre impact of Alan Parker’s superbly chilling Angel Heart (1987), the bloody shocks of Clive Barker’s compelling debut Hellraiser (1987), or the unsettling weirdness of John Carpenter’s uncanny and apocalyptic Prince Of Darkness (1987), The Unholy still deserves another chance to impress horror fans, especially with its amusingly esoteric climax of godforsaken monsters, and stylised mayhem that's happily uncut in this HD version.

A fine package of extras, including three featurettes, a director’s commentary track, good interviews, and promotional material, adds plenty of merits to this welcome re-release.