Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Red-Barracuda 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.

Scarecrow-88 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.

Snake-666 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.

zombieX Even more bizarre than Michele Soavi's other films, including "Dellamorte Dellamore" and "the Church". It barely contains a resemblance of a plot, but it's definitely entertaining. Some scenes are very creepy, others are downright laughable. Example: One scene has a woman getting her face torn off by Satanists, another has a rabbit watching television and using the remote control. Why??? Oh well, it doesn't matter, I still love this movie. Not as good as "Dellamorte Dellamore" but far superior to "The Church", and probably "Stage Fright". Check it out if you're in the mood for something really weird.