An old Gothic cathedral built over a mass grave develops strange powers that trap a number of people inside with ghosts from a 12th Century massacre seeking to resurrect an ancient demon fro... Read allAn old Gothic cathedral built over a mass grave develops strange powers that trap a number of people inside with ghosts from a 12th Century massacre seeking to resurrect an ancient demon from the bowels of the Earth.An old Gothic cathedral built over a mass grave develops strange powers that trap a number of people inside with ghosts from a 12th Century massacre seeking to resurrect an ancient demon from the bowels of the Earth.
- The Bishop
- (as Feodor Chaliapin)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginally, Soavi and Argento wanted to shoot the movie in the Lorenzkirche of Nuremberg (Germany), and even did some test shots there. However, it was abandoned because the town of Nuremberg didn't want a horror movie to be shot there.
- GoofsAt the end of the movie, when Gus grabs the thing from architect's mouth, he is holding it and looks away and a different shot of him is shown, but he is not holding the thing. In the next shot, he is holding it again.
- Quotes
Hermann, the Sacristan: [to Lottie] Filthy liar! Here we'll wash your mouth out with soap, here!
Lottie's Mother: Don't make me wait for those onions Hermann
- Alternate versionsAll videos for The Church in the USA come in two formats: R Rated or Unrated/Uncut. There are mistakes on all boxes and tapes about the running times: All videotapes and boxes say 110 minute running time on the back cover and 102 minute running time on the cassette no matter if its the rated R version or the 110 minute unrated version. It will correctly state on the box & tape that it is rated or uncut/unrated.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Dario Argento: Master of Horror (1993)
Creepy and scary film with a lot of amazing and horrifying scenes including lots of blood and gore . The film is acceptable but regularly paced with several images with no much sense. The picture mingles Teutonic knights , Ghotic Cathedral , self-sacrifices, supernatural events, Witchcraft, necromancy, ghastly transformations , and terrible monsters .The film displays dozens of gory scenes including slashing , heart ripped out , slitting, punched in the face , stabbing in the chest, decapitation and many others . The picture is also known as Demons 3 , similar to The Sect titled Demons 4 , though its script have nothing to do with Demons saga by Lamberto Bava who is son of the Italian thrill-meister Mario Bava.
It displays a colorful an evocative cinematography by Renato Tafuri. As well as sinister and punching musical score from Philip Glass , Keith Emerson and Goblin . This ecclesiastical gore-feast picture was professionally directed by Michael Soavi , though it has a great number of flaws and gaps. Soavi is a good craftsman who began as a director assistant to important filmmakers as Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento . As he collaborated as first director assistant in A Blade in the Dark , Demons , Tenebre , Phenomena , among others . With new skills Soavi returned to Argento as a supervisor for special effects in Opera , where Argento offered him to direct another film , the horror film La Chiesa , or The Church. With his first big film project, a budget 3 or 4 times the budget of Statefright or Aquarius , with Argento as the producer and shot in Hungary . In the Eighties he made various decent terror movies as Aquarius , The Sect , and the classical Dellamore Dellamore or Zombie Graveyard with Rupert Everett and Anna Falchi.
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $3,500,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 42 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.66 : 1