Watch The Church For Free

Waste of time

Best movie ever!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

I don't get the love. Argento is an horrible writer. Characters disappear, reappear. Things happen that make no sense. Pointless, boring, drivel.

Michele Soavi doesn't disappoint again. Stage Fright was a great closed- set slasher flick and Cemetery Man a great oddball zombie flick. The Church hews closer to a slasher, but owing to its demons and sorcery its much more surreal than I was expecting.There are some great, weird, trippy, gorgeously realized shots in this film. Crosses bottoming out of floors into slowly rising blue mist, beating hearts dripping in dark ephemera raised to the sky in dark tribunal, the echoing thuds of a galloping horse always close behind. Characters see their darkest fears, are driven crazy by it. Philip Glass plays on the soundtrack, an electronic score at disharmony with the proceedings, hinting at the gleeful perversion at the heart of this church.The Church requires a full mind-meld with it; not questioning of plot purity or scene to scene accuracy, just acceptance of the hallucinations of terrible dread playing out on your TV (really wish I could see this on film on the big screen, the purest form of mass hypnosis).

A church built on the site of a medieval massacre is being restored. The Teutonic Knights had killed all the villagers for mere suggestions of demonic spirits. New librarian Evan and Lisa uncover a piece of parchment. As Evan digs, he gets possessed by something buried underneath. Lotte is a young girl interested in their work with the catacombs. Her father Hermann also gets possessed. An ancient alarm is activated and the doors to the church are locked trapping a tour group of children and a wedding photo shoot.There are lots of interesting visual concepts. The plot is a mess. It meanders without tension. There is nothing scary about this horror but it is compelling visually. Someone should work out simple expositions to explain the story. I am willing to excuse some of it as translation problems.

"The Church" is a film that could have been much better. However, too often it took the cheap gore route instead of genuine terror. Additionally, some of the dialog is pretty stupid. When the film begins, the Knights Templar are beating up poor folks in the name of God when they discover one of their victims is a Devil worshiper. So, they do what anyone would do...kill everyone in the town and bury them all...including a few who might just still be alive. Then, they built a church over it. Centuries pass and now the demons are apparently ready to party. So, they come out and begin destroying and taking possession of folks in the church. Some of the deaths are interesting and fitting (such as the lady who is vain and needs to see herself in the mirror) but most are just cheap gore or nudity meant to titillate. And unlike earlier Dario Argento-produced films, the mood seems far less important than cheap thrills. Some of these problems might stem from the film having 8 writers...a sure sign that a production is in trouble. Regardless, it wasn't my cup of tea and lacked the subtlety of better horror films, such as "Suspiria".