Title: The Unholy (2021)
Director: Evan Spiliotopoulos
Release Date: April 2nd, 2021
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 99 min
Studio: Screen Gems / Ghost House Pictures
[*SPOILER ALERT*]
“The Unholy” Beginning
We start our journey in the shoes of the now-defamed journalist Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as he is called to report on a joke-of-a-case: a supposed “cattle mutilation” in a minuscule Massachusetts town. Shortly after our small-town arrival, we quickly make our departure from the laughable into the world of the demonic as Fenn stumbles over a super creepy china doll, tucked in the super creepy hollow of a super creepy tree. Based on James Herbert’s 1983 novel, Shrine, Evan Spiliotopoulos’ “The Unholy” is a devil-in-sheeps-clothing piece of religious horror, filled with effective jump scares, intriguing themes of ancient and modern Catholicism, and some really compelling, reverent acting on the part of Cricket Brown as Alice.
Though we don’t get many details, the audience can all agree early on that Fenn’s life is the worst. He did some shady stuff while working with a major publication, was fired, and now travels out of desperation to write stories for little more than a hundred bucks—stories on cow a**es, no less. Rough, buddy. While a little slap-sticky for a serious horror film, it does allow us to spend some time in a state of lightheartedness until things get really… real.
The Devil May Care
Enter local teen, Alice, the niece of the town’s Catholic priest, Father Hagen (William Sadler), who suffers from congenital deafness. As Fenn heads back to the world’s spookiest Motel to spend another night of self-loathing fueled alcoholism, a near-accident leads him to encounter Alice as she is overcome by her initial vision of “The Lady” (referring to the Virgin Mary), allowing her to both see and speak for the first time in her life. A miracle! Fenn thinks. And, as any down-on-his-luck journalist would, he ultimately cares more about his own prospects as a reporter than the well-being of the person behind the lens.
As we move forward, this justification proves pretty far-fetched. Fenn approaches the whole “series-of-impossible-miracles” thing with a little too much nonchalance. But, as Spiliotopoulos paints him riding the high of landing a story sure to launch him back into favor with the Gods of Journalism, we have no other choice but to ride right along with him. Shortly after her first miracle, Alice performs another, and crowds far and wide (including the metaphysical “crowds” of YouTube) congregate to worship Alice in ways reminiscent of modern-day televangelism.
Though the plot starts to thin out in places, Cricket Brown’s performance as Alice remains solid as ever. Her likability, sweetness, and genuine portrayal of faith nearly makes me want to get out of my theater seat and down on my knees, even after her pupils do the classically freaky dilate-to-all-black thing. She is the picture of goodness, and you can almost forgive the immediate cult worship from her fans.
For some reason, in the midst of her rapidly developing fame, Fenn becomes her exclusive confidant, and they develop a friendship that is unfortunately far less genuine than Alice’s faith. It is unfortunate because their relationship could have made for a very touching bond, particularly at the conclusion of the story, but a single episode of light-hearted music-listening did not cut the mustard as far as selling us on their apparent connection. Regardless, Fenn, likely an atheist, is pretty accepting of the fact that this young girl he has befriended is in actuality performing miracles, and is even ready to go to bat for the authenticity of the Virgin Mary herself when we encounter a bishop (Cary Elwes) and an easy-on-the-eyes Monsignor (Diogo Morgado) with the intent to prove or disprove the authenticity of Alice’s/”Virgin Mary’s” miracles, and ultimately decide whether or not to make the horrifically gnarled piece of wood a Holy Shrine.
All “The Unholy” Hell Breaks Loose
Without spoiling too much, metaphorical sh*t starts hitting the metaphorical fan when statues start crying blood-tears (never a good sign, guys), “The Unholy” Mary starts popping out of all kinds of undesirable places and scaring the bejesus out of us, and the town’s hot doctor, Dr. Natalie Gates (Katie Aselton), teams up with journalist Fenn and tries to figure out what the Hell is going on.
VERDICT: Overall, “The Unholy” was an entertaining piece of gothic horror. Though there were themes that asked to be expounded upon—such as the fate of modern-day Catholicism in the times of “influencer” culture— Spiliotopoulos’ story-telling does not leave us entirely hollow. Leaving the theater, viewers are left with a sense of hope for the net goodness of the world, and urged to take caution—look out for Evil masquerading as Good in the real world. However, as the title of this review suggests, the devil is ultimately in the details. If there had been a few more choice details to strengthen character relationships and peripheral plot threads, Spiliotopoulos’ film might have made the leap from good to great.
Nerdy Nugget: According to IMDb, the Spanish rendition of “The Unholy” was alternatively titled “Ruega por nosotros” (Pray for us), pulling from the Ave María (or Hail Mary), a Christian prayer about the Holy Mary.
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