The Unholy

The Unholy
Staring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cricket Brown, William Sadler, Katie Aselton
Directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos

In Catholicism, the Virgin Mary is deemed as a saint, a masterwork of God and the start of God bringing mankind into communion with Jesus. There's been countless apparitions of the Virgin Mary throughout history (mostly in Europe), with the same general events occurring - some poor soul has a vision, she speaks about hope, love, and grace, and millions of believers flock to the area to be healed of their ailments. Some of the most famous sightings in history occurred in Fatima, Portugal and Lourdes, France, but there hasn't been many well-known sightings in the United States. The concept that this vision can bring about healing and faith is a well-documented event, but one must wonder: if the good is true, can't the opposite be as well? Couldn't there be a demon that disguises itself as the Virgin Mary to trick believers into following it and pledging their souls to it in exchange for healing and a false hope? "The Unholy" looks at that issue which could've proven to be thought-provoking and powerful, but ended up hilariously cliched and hackneyed. 

Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a disgraced journalist, having been knocked off his high horse after having been found out to fabricating stories for his own fame and success, and is now relegated to silly stories like investigating cow mutilations in small-town Banfield, Massachusetts. He finds a strange doll under a creepy tree that holds the evil spirit of a woman that was hung for being a witch back in 1845, and unknowingly released it from its bodily captivity. That night he almost runs into Alice (Cricket Brown), who's sleepwalking to the same tree. Gerry finds her kneeling at the tree and speaking, before she passes out.  He takes her to Father Hagan (William Sadler), who's also Alice's uncle, and learns from town doctor Natalie Gates (Katie Aselton) that Alice is deaf and mute, despite Gerry's insistence that she spoke.

Soon Alice starts speaking in front of everyone, to the surprise of the entire congregation, as she leads them out to the tree where she sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. She then heals a young boy who was crippled, and news spreads like wildfire thanks to Gerry, turning Banfield into America's Fatima. Gerry is granted exclusive access to Alice, who takes a liking to him because she feels he's the one who can spread the word of the Virgin Mary to the world, while he just sees it as an opportunity to get back on top. Soon, however, strange events begin to unfold, leading Gerry to believe that this apparition may not be who she claims she is, and could usher in a new era of damnation and carnage on an unsuspecting community.

The famed German theologian and reformer Martin Luther once said, "for where God built a church, that the devil would also build a chapel," and this is a very apt statement for a film like "The Unholy." The cursed three where the witch was hung is literally right next to the town's seemingly only church, where good and evil literally live side-by-side. It's a parallel that exists throughout the movie, and one that should've lent itself to an intriguing premise, one that hasn't been done before - can the devil perform the same miracles as God, and what happens with the general populous when that happens?

While this is touched upon, the film is really a parody of itself, one that I couldn't take seriously for a minute due to the numerous jump scares that come about every thirty seconds and with some incredibly shoddy CGI that makes this demonic Mary look like one of the Nazgul from "The Lord of the Rings" (my friend and I were the only ones in the theater, and when I first saw the demon I yelled, "hurry Fordo, get the ring to Mordor!"). When Gerry stares into a pool of water for about twenty minutes, all is calm until the strings sound and the demon Ringwraith wannabe emerges. In the dank, dark basement, there's shrouded human-looking statues all around, so of course one of them will be the demonic Mary in disguise, waiting to leap out and attack.

The only thing standing in the way is Gerry Fenn, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who is easily one of the most charismatic, charming, and captivating actors of our time. He could sell ice to Eskimos and fire to people in hell, but not even he could save such a disastrous film. He goes through the generic "come to Jesus" moment as he starts off the film as a self-seeking journalist hoping to get back on top, but after finding the truth behind these "miracles," have a change of heart and wants to do the right thing at the detriment of his own career. Thanks to Morgan's performance, though, you're settled for the ride and don't mind the cliched ending because, well, it's Jeffrey Dean Morgan for goodness sake!

Newcomer Cricket Brown performs Alice extremely well, a young vessel who has no real clue that she's the voice for the demonic, but really thinks she's speaking for the Virgin Mary (in another humorous moment, she says "Mary" has spoken to her, and everyone immediately believes it's the Virgin Mary - like the Virgin Mary is the only being named Mary). She's an actress who you'd believe would be a girl who saw the Virgin Mary - a deaf mute in a small town, sheltered, not corrupted by the evil ways of the world. She does a great job, even if my friend didn't like her because she reminded her of Joey King (I thought she looked more like Zoey Deutch, but whatever).

The writing of the film is incredibly off-balance and simplistic, lending itself to countless other religious-based horror films that did it extremely better, which is a shame because, as I said earlier, this is a unique concept that could've been elevated to heights like "The Exorcist," but instead relegates itself to the likes of "The Exorcist III." It's almost funny when Alice begins to spread the "Virgin Mary's" message of hope and faith, as this is exactly what would happen in today's "influencer" age: she goes viral, leading to several shots of girls all over the country crying and saying they believe in Alice because she, like them, were stuck in silence but are now being heard (which me and my friend both cracked up at). Shirts claiming "Alice saves" and even a hashtag of the same statement filled the screen as the absurdity of it all turned what was supposed to be true horror into true unintentional comedy. What makes it even funnier is the fact that this isn't too far out of the realm of reality: people - especially religious people - will follow blindly anyone who claims they're a messenger from God (and even those who don't claim to be God's messengers but some wacky Christians think they are - you know who I'm referring to) and do so without question and with absolute religious devotion. This allows the evil Mary to gather her own cult who could pledge their souls to her which will give her the power she needs to really wreak havoc.

In what could've been a unique religious horror film, "The Unholy" squanders its source material and actors by providing a cookie-cutter script, bland CGI, cheap jump scares, and unintentional comedy.

The Score: D+