"The Unholy" (2021) REVIEW 4.5 knives out of 7

Hey there, Peter here. Today's review I’d like to cover an underrated film that was recently released here in the United States. While COVID restrictions are still around, I did manage to see the film and surprisingly I did find something of substance here. Now, let me mention that I am not very religious so my thoughts are based on someone that just saw a horror film for that only reason: horror. Perhaps if you have religious knowledge you may like or dislike this film more than I did, but that is not the point. This is my review based on my experience. With that out of the way, let’s get into what I thought of the movie.

NO SPOILERS THOUGHTS

If I’m being honest, the majority of what I enjoyed came from the acting in the film. All the characters felt genuine and real, especially with one of my favorite actors of all time Jeffery Morgan (known for playing Negan in “The Walking Dead”). He enacted the most emotion in the film and gave enough character that I could watch just his character all day, but we aren’t here for that. How’s the story itself? Well, it disappoints in some ways and is above average in other ways. The length of the film certainly doesn’t help either considering it is less than a mere hour and 40 minutes long, leading to a feeling of the writing being rushed and clearly unfinished. Especially when we get to the actual kills of the film, but I’ll leave that for the spoilers section which will be coming up in a second. What I do wanna say beforehand is that the film does explain a lot of the setup well, but not much else. If you're like me, you're gonna be confused about who the ‘villain’ is. Now, onto the spoilers!

We now hit the spoilers section, skip to my final thoughts and key points if you don’t wish to be spoiled. Otherwise, welcome to the part where I can go in-depth with the review and give my opinion in general of the movie.

STORY AND THOUGHTS

The villain being another ‘angel’ in disguise was pretty disappointing. It seems cliched and revealed way too soon, to the point that it ruined the finale. Had they allowed for at least 2 hours this could have worked, but I suppose not. Anyways, the beginning opens with a nice torture scene to set the tone. You can tell they wanted this to really ‘scare’ you as they of course have the volume rise for every hit that the villain takes. Now you may ask, why am I calling her a villain and not by her name? Well, they never actually specify her name. Of course, I did research and found the name to be Mary. Wait, but I thought the Virgin Mary was good! You are as confused as I am, they very much toy around with the idea of her having a split counterpart who is Satan following behind God. Again, they only gloss over this and don’t properly explain too much. although if you’re religious you will likely have a better understanding than I.

Anyways, after the director is done making a mess we finally get to our main character: a disgraced journalist named Gerry Finn, played as I stated earlier by Jeffery Morgan. He makes jokes and such, lighting up the character and giving some depth. Which I can’t exactly say to the others in the film. He is sent to investigate what we assume is, a cow’s behind. Why this is the case I have no idea but they wasted time on this pointless section so I suppose we will too. Anyways, he and his ‘friend’ are walking around this open field. The cinematography is fantastic here, showing a nice shot of the sun lighting the field perfectly. They nailed it in this part of the film. Now I’m not kidding, right after this the film straight up reveals everything at once with no explanation. Gerry hears voices and comes by a conveniently placed tree, in which he happens to dig up an old doll. This reveals to us what sealed the woman from the beginning of the film, key to the film, and yet seemingly thrown away until they remember in certain parts. After this, we get more exposition. I honestly thought the movie forgot it was trying to scare me, but I was wrong. In the worst way possible. Gotcha! Jumpscares infect this movie, and it hurts because it could’ve done far more with the great cinematography used on Mary that actually scared me compared to these cheap jumpscares. Anyways, long story short a woman enters the street just as Gerry drives by and he crashes. Cliche filled, this beginning is. Afterward, he stumbles upon the girl who is praying to Mary. Gotcha! Another jumpscare, honestly it’s sickeningly predictable. The girl passes out, and Gerry being the kind soul that he is, takes her to safety where a news reporter (who I assume worked with Gerry before he lied) just happens to also know who she is. Conveniences everywhere! As it turns out, Alice is the daughter of Father Hagen. Even better, the church just happens to be the shrine of Mary! Good God, I need to breathe. Alright, now that we got past that awful beginning, allow me to mention that Alice is deaf. I think she was born with it but it seems to me that it’s another child sickness cliche. The movie gives a nice detail of her and the news reporter speaking using sign language, really adding to the realism I mentioned earlier. However, this does not last for long. A few days after this, Alice is seen going to the shrine and just speaks. Just like that, no real reason. The plot finally gets kicked into gear with this though, as now she also gains healing abilities like the virgin Mary. She first uses her healing to make a disabled child abled again. I like this scene, it’s sort of touching seeing this kid believe his way into walking again. This also sets up for the climax, which is more nice attention to detail that helps the movie earn the score that it has from me. After this though, the statue of Mary starts bleeding for some reason. This happens quite often too, perhaps it’s symbolic? As I said, religious folks will have much more insight into this film than most.

Now once Alice starts healing, Gerry concludes that most people would: start using her worldwide. Not as a worker, of course not, but as a healer available at any time in media or publicly. Her father disagrees, though for a much different reason, stating it can’t be good for her. He shows much doubt in the healings and of course, Gerry is confused based on the sightings how he could doubt at all. This was the end of Hagan before anyone knew it. As I said, this film builds up to the end which is appreciated and makes the short hour and a half worth going through the pitiful prologue. Hagan also states a quote that once again, tells us how the movie ends: “Where God goes, Satan follows”. Couldn’t have told the characters that before Mary got her followers huh? Anyways, after this Alice is singing in the shrine with her father while Gerry and the news reporter watched in awe. Gerry tries to inquire Hagan more but all of a sudden, he has a cough attack and is on death's door. Now, Alice of course wants to heal him. She asks him if he believes and he says yes. He says yes, to save himself. Once done, he survives and is perfectly fine. However, Hagan had a smoking habit out of doubt, leading to his downfall. Hours pass and Hagan is relaxing at his home, smoking in peace while having a smug look. This is when the biggest problem of the film happens: the editing. You can see the editing in action and that’s not a good thing. As Hagan looks around, he hears and then sees Mary standing above him. She physically disappears like deleting a picture from a stock image, it’s cringe to see and takes away otherwise a really good kill here. Mary hangs his corpse and convinces everyone it was a suicide. Everyone of course, besides Gerry and the news reporter. For some reason, they are the only ones who use common sense and figure out that suicide is a huge no-no in Christianity. Whatever I can believe that considering the following stupidity that follows once one of the priests helps Gerry. He comes out of essentially nowhere and only exists to get killed and help the movie end with a non-forced conclusion that feels like a forced conclusion. Anyways, they go towards the house of Father Hagan and discover the true reason for his death. Not only that however, they figure out why Mary is doing this and the true purpose of the dolls (which Gerry may have destroyed and they just casually mention this). Mary is very angry about their discovery of course and thus starts the final consumption plan, where Alice is to have everyone cast their soul to Mary and she takes their souls to hell. Sounds fantastic how could this go wrong? I know, forced jumpscares! Another jumpscare and a fire starts for some reason. The priest tells the others to run but he stays still for whatever reason and ironically takes a stab to the chest before burning to death on the cross. Probably my favorite kill in the film but there are barely any kills in the movie anyway, at least compared to general horror films. The others run, leading towards the last scene and I really want to point out how beautifully shot this last scene is. It shows all the believers together in a great single shot once again having beautiful cinematography. Alice hears voices and the plan is ready to go into action. Before the others go in, Gerry is offered an opportunity that would save his whole career: executive office at the journalist office in New York. Gerry declines and starts attempting to alert the others he was wrong and fabricated the whole thing, in order to save their souls from being damned as Hagan was. Of course, they don’t believe him and for some reason, the pacing goes down the toilet here; everything feels like it’s moving at one frame a second. When the camera finally gets to Alice she tries to deny it in fear of losing her speaking once again. Gerry doesn’t allow this and breaks into Alice’s mind, which causes Mary to summon herself into the church in a mindblowing scene of awe. Another fire starts, which is fine because we need a final ‘fight’ to complete the cliche that is this movie. One thing I find interesting here is all the healing Alice did now is undone, she loses her speaking and the child she heals loses the ability to walk while trying to run away. I like how this is done as it leads to more chaos and a feeling of terror, though it feels more like thriller than horror. As Alice is knocked out, Gerry realises one thing: Mary and Alice are part of the same lineage. Meaning, if Alice dies Mary cannot exist. Alice wakes up and realizes the same thing, but as she does Mary stabs Gerry in the leg. Although there’s no blood and he also doesn’t instantly disappear like the others Mary killed, which leads me to believe God truly chose him to defeat Mary. Just as Mary leads to the final blow, Alice comes in front and takes the hit. She is killed, but as she fell so did Mary. Gerry shows great development here as he looks down at Alice and begs to God, a person he hadn’t talked to once the whole film, and begs for Alice to survive. Alice then wakes up once again, which brings us to a “happy ending”. They forgot one thing however, with the lineage surviving Mary is awoken once again. They may or may not want to make a sequel, but considering how poorly this did at the box office I highly doubt it’ll happen.

Ah, finally done! Now, there will be no spoilers. This is my final thoughts and key points section!

EVALUATION

The film does enough to make it worth watching once but doesn’t impress in the slightest. It clearly panders towards younger versions of horror and it shows. I feel this film should have been a thriller as that is what I felt, not horrified or scared. The less than 2-hour mark hurts the film as it is not enough to set up the story for a satisfying beginning, middle and end. The lacking kills and poor editing also doesn’t lend this film any favors.

Points I want to mention:

This film is a good watch once but does not warrant a second rerun.

The amount of kills is lacking which lowers again what horror really means and if this movie truly deserved that rating or not.

It has the gull to be less than 2 hours and this is what we get as a result? The acting is the best thing in the movie by far and is entertaining besides the lower points during the night sections of the film.

I think “The Unholy” could have gotten a 5/7 knifes from me due to the amazing cinematography and acting, but that would be generous. The lack of kills, predictable jump scares, and lackluster horror overall leads to a film that barely earns a 4.5/7 for me. This very much varies if you know religion in-depth or not, but coming from a reviewing audience member like myself I cannot in good faith give this film more credit than it deserves. It has many good aspects, but the bad aspects really drag down the film and honestly, I’d wait to see this film at home, maybe with a drink or two to pass those low moments.