Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

dungeonbrownies For fans of The Witch, this will be another fantastic piece. While there are slight issues with continuity and motivation of some parts of the plot, this film offers mystery, action gore (even if a bit outdated), and wonderful composition, all while developing a narrative that pulls you in and invests in the well earned climax.The artistry is absolutely the best when it comes to the beauty of the shots and the musical score which lends heavily to the mood.The subplots seem to be disjointed and I can't honestly say they all finally join in a way that'll satisfy everyone, but they definitely add up in an overall world building/background developing kind of way, especially with some of the more subversive undertones for those who appreciate the slightly deeper meaning to some of the parts.A few of the characters are one note, and you kind of wonder if you'd be better than them in the same situation, but it doesn't hamper the film and they work together relatively well.Bottom line? Not a scary film, but somewhat creepy and blossoming with macabre beauty.

LeonLouisRicci Coming from the World of Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and other Italian Filmmakers, Director Michele Soavi has a Minor Following and after Seeing this, one can See Why. Visual Flares are Forever Impressing the Viewer to keep the Confusing and Plodding Plot from becoming a Deadening Distraction.The Camera work is as Stunning as the Sets and its Gothic, Demon Possessed Template is Haunting and Captivates. The Film is Stretched somewhat and Feels a little Long, but the Atmosphere and Odd Feel of the Film Continues right up to the Final Shot.Muddled as the Story may be, there is Enough here to Interest Horror Movie Fans, Especially ones Drawn to the Italian Horror Renaissance of the 1960-1990 Period from Mario Bava, Argento, Lamberto Bava and Others. The European Flavor and Baroque, Beautiful Style that these Movies are well Known is Evident as the Film is Rich and Lush with Grotesque Architecture and Bloody Brutality.The Characterizations may be Thin and the Story Hard to Follow at times, the Movie is Never Visually Boring or Lacking in Stylized Hauntings and Killings. A Young and Lolita Like Asia Argento has a Strong Leading Role and the Score is Fiddled About by Goblin, Keith Emerson, and Philip Glass. Some of the Make-Up and Creatures are Hypnotic and Horrific.Overall, Could be Considered Slow to Start after the Ancient Flashback, but not really, a Must Watch for Fangoria Types and Anyone Interested in Foreign Horror. This Odd and at times Fascinating Film is Superbly Stylistic and Deep in Religious (especially Catholic) Symbolism and Lore.

Bezenby This late-era Italian horror shows it's bigger budget by giving us a lengthy flashback involving a bunch of knights tracking down devil worshippers, wiping them out, burying them in a pit and then building a church on top of the corpses. They even kill a duck and chuck that in too, probably because they caught it listening to Slayer or something. And thus begins Michelle Soavi's The Church, starring that guy from the Phantom Menace, John "Giovanni" Morghen "Radice", and (sigh) Asia bloody Argento.In the present, the Church still stands, and some librarian guy who looks like David Cronenberg turns up there to begin his new job. He meets a restoration chick (and they hit it off), the wizened old priest guarding the secret in the basement (they hit it off too, or at least in the version in my brain), and (sigh) teenage weirdo Asia Argento, who in this stage of her career is already exhibiting the acting range of a sack of potatoes dunked in a bath full of mango jelly. She's the daughter of the caretaker, if you need to know why she's here at all. Also, Phantom Menace guy and John Morghen are also priests here. Judas Priests, breaking the law! Well, not really.Once some builders accidentally punch a hole through to the pit where those devil worshippers were buried, things start getting weird. People start hearing ghost horses. The librarian guy starts acting all possessed and in turn causes the caretaker to go insane and impale himself on a pneumatic drill. After about an hour of this Soavi introduces about a million new characters and then traps everyone in the church, which I thought would build up to a Demons style massacre, but I was wrong.What you get instead is various characters meeting their demise in certain surreal ways. A bride to be sees herself as an old woman and tears her face to bits. Two photographers try and find a way out by spelunking (just like Alien 2!) only to end up meeting a subway train face on. The restoration lady finds herself up for a sacrifice and Phantom Menace guy is left to try and reverse all the demonic action. Also, there's a great scene of bodies rising from the ground all twisted together to resemble a huge demon head.But I've kind of got a problem with this film, and I don't know what it is. I think it may be because there's no huge pay off at the end, perhaps because there's so many characters to keep track of, or it might be because Soavi is a very talented and competent director and therefore there's a distinct lack of cheese and randomness that say, Bruno Mattei or even Fulci would have in their films, but I found the Church to be a bit unsatisfying. In fact, I think the problem might be that Soavi was aiming too high and kind of stopped short from getting there, when I compare it to the last two Italian films I watched (Deodato's haunted phone film Dial Help and Fulci's slasher/mong movie Touch of Death – now there's aiming low).You might like it though. Visually, it's a blast. It's all personal opinion, innit? I liked Dellamorte Dellamore and even Stagefright, so I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

HorrorQueen17 I went into watching this film because I was on an Argento kick and was trying to devour as much of his work as possible. After watching this, myself and a friend of mine decided we weren't classing this as Argento anymore. It is directed by Michele Soavi, who directed Dellamorte Dellamore, a film I love and so I figured that the combination of two great directors would produce something special. It didn't work for me.Watching this in the middle of my Argento-a-thon, it just didn't fit. Far from the Giallo style Argento is so amazing at, this is tale of a big Gothic cathedral, built over a mass gravesite, which is developing powers to trap people inside it. It's a fairly bizarre concept and filmed in such a way that I just couldn't get in to it. For starters the pacing was all off; it would cut from action scenes to bizarre, seemingly unrelated scenes for quite some time, then back in for some more of the people trapped in a church. It was jarring and felt confused, and I just didn't take to it at all.The location of the cathedral and the architecture were brilliant and really lent an added depth to the film, likewise the cinematography and score were both good. The acting was hit and miss and the overall storyline left a lot to be desired, for me. It all boils down to personal taste really, and I tend to prefer a more real threat in my movies - a homicidal maniac, a black-gloved killer or a chainsaw-wielding nut are much more up my street than demons are, and so it takes something a little more special than The Church to get me to really love a demon-based horror. It's not a terrible movie, but it's really nothing special, and having seen it, I wouldn't bother to watch it again.