#THE UNHOLY REVIEWS MOVIE#
#THE UNHOLY REVIEWS PROFESSIONAL#

#THE UNHOLY REVIEWS MOVIE#

But as tragedy strikes, the Lady’s appearances become less benevolent and Gerry starts to untangle the distinction between divine and sinister forces, the movie devolves into cheap tricks and borderline silliness. There are effective elements in Felicity Abbott’s production design, too, such as the run-down motel where Gerry shacks up, with its flickering red neon. The balance of investigative thriller with supernatural horror works up to a point, bolstered by the eerie, quasi-ecclesiastical sounds of Joseph Bishara’s score.

While nobody, including the priest, appears to have noticed the religious statues suddenly weeping blood, Father Hagan finds an old notebook in the brickwork written in Latin that reveals alarming information about another Mary from the past. The character most obviously set up to meet a hellish fate is Father Hagan, and not just because of the late-stage emphysema that overcomes him while Alice is singing “Ave Maria.” “When God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel next door,” he tells Gerry, pointing out that strong acts of faith are fertile ground for Satan’s corruption. And the Vatican inquisitor sent to authenticate the claim of a visitation from the Virgin Mary, Monsignor Delgarde ( Diogo Morgado, the hot Jesus from the History Channel miniseries The Bible), seems intent on disproving it. Bishop Gyles ( Cary Elwes) is a crafty power player, calculating what a Banfield shrine could do to boost the flagging numbers of the faithful, as well as his own stature within the archdiocese. He finds a friendly ally in local doctor Natalie ( Katie Aselton) but runs into conflict with the clergy.

#THE UNHOLY REVIEWS PROFESSIONAL#

Jeffrey Dean Morgan to Host Weekly From-Home Talk Show on AMCĮven hard-bitten skeptic Gerry seems convinced, and with Alice agreeing to speak only to him, he has lucked into a legitimate phenomenon that could salvage his professional reputation.

But when Alice compels a boy with muscular dystrophy to abandon his wheelchair and walk, word instantly spreads that the oak tree is the site of miracles. Her uncle, Father Hagan (William Sadler), expresses concern about hysteria agitating his flock at the little white New England church that stands next to the field. Claiming to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, Alice says “The Lady” has spoken in detail to her, urging her to share the message of faith. He follows her to the tree and observes her speaking in an excited whisper despite having been silent since birth. Learning that the talismanic dolls were used to keep away evil, Gerry does what any heedless jerk would do and smashes open the relic, hoping to spice things up into a salable story.ĭriving back that night, he swerves to avoid deaf teenager Alice (Cricket Brown) standing like a ghost in the middle of the road. He’s about to write off the trip as a waste of time when he finds a “kern baby” in the base of the same tree seen in the prologue. A fame whore with a history of fabricating stories, the disgraced journo chases up a false report of possible Satanism in the sleepy farming community of Banfield. In present-day Boston, Gerry Fenn (Morgan) is a jaded photo-reporter specializing in sensationalistic supernatural items for the tabloids. Cut to her lifeless body hanging from an ancient oak tree in an open field. Based on the 1983 novel Shrine by English horror writer James Herbert, the film begins with a prologue in which a young woman’s execution in 1845 is shown from her point of view through the eyeholes of a mask, accompanied by her piercing screams as she is burned alive.

The unholy reviews