It’s just a tedious waiting game, watching Fenn go through the motions in finding a way to defeat the blasphemous pretender. With all of the central questions answered so quickly right upfront, there’s no driving force here no rooting interest, suspense, or momentum. Fenn offers the requisite skeptic turned reluctant hero, and Katie Aselton is relegated to the scientific leaning ally. They’re your standard archetypical characters, though. William Sadler is also instantly winsome as Alice’s uncle, Father Hagan, and Carey Elwes exudes bravado as a Vatican representative. Brown’s Alice’s emits naïve sweetness, and Morgan’s built a career on imbuing despicable characters with charm.
Spiliotopoulos nestles this morality story within the wrappings of a standard demonic horror movie, one that’s overly reliant on cheap jump scares. How quickly she begins to amass devout followers is meant to serve as a timely cautionary tale.
There’s no pretense that this entity isn’t the benevolent mother she merely uses miracles as a means to an end. Written and directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos, making his directorial debut, The Unholy attempts to connect a familiar narrative to the present with the overarching theme of blind faith. Her heavenly powers attract widespread attention, but Fenn suspects there’s something sinister afoot. Alice regains hearing and a voice she never had and performs miracles through a power granted by the Virgin Mary.
#THE MOVIE THE UNHOLY SERIES#
Fenn realizes it’s a hoax but winds up stumbling upon an even bigger case through a series of events that lead him to deaf, mute teen Alice ( Cricket Brown ). Cut to the present, where disgraced journalist Gerry Fenn ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) ventures into the small town of Banfield, Massachusetts, to investigate a strange case. From the POV of an unseen yet terrified woman, the viewer looks through an iron mask as men surround her, hammer the mask into her flesh, then set her ablaze. The Unholy removes all mystery behind its Virgin Mary-like entity from the opening scene set in 1845 New England. From the opening moments, though, it becomes evident that this latest entry in religious horror commits the cardinal sin of inducing boredom by way of tired tropes. At first glance, The Unholy, an adaptation of James Herbert’s 1983 novel Shrine, teases a new direction thanks to a town inundated by miracles attributed to a malevolent Virgin Mary. Mostly, these films tend to feature a lead character reclaiming their faith through a frightening confrontation with evil of the demonic or biblical variety. Since The Exorcist’s release and subsequent success nearly fifty years ago, religious-based horror hasn’t deviated very often from the formula.
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