(1989) ***I feel compelled to rate this lower in comparison to Michele Soavi's top notch work in Cemetery Man, although I have to say I did enjoy The Church. The film starts off in the time of the crusades where a village has been condemned as evil. All the villagers are killed and buried in a mass grave sealed by a giant cross. They build a massive cathedral on the site to prevent the evil from coming back(you know it's not going to work). We then jump to a modern 1989 where renovations are being done in the church. Evan, a scholar working in the church library, decides to meddle with the seal and lets all the bad stuff loose. Once Evan opens up the proverbial can o' worms he starts to transform into a man-goat-lizard demonic creature thing. Evilness ensues, a young girl(Asia Argento) trapped within the cathedral must escape before it's too late.
There are a lot of sub plots in this film but still it flows along quite nicely. This film was originally billed as the third installment of Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava's Demons series, it really has little connection to the previous films. The demons never seem to finish the transformation. Still it has some redeeming qualities and even a bit of intentional humor, not often seen in these Italian flicks. Worth watching, if for nothing else the final climactic moments are a good payoff.
