When God Builds a Church: Review of The Unholy (2021)
Based on James Herbert’s 1983 novel, “The Shrine”, The Unholy (2021) starts like any generic 19th century-based horror movie: a resident possession, scared locals, a priest performing an exorcism in Latin, and a containment. Of course, just like your average horror movies, evil, unlike lightning, always strikes twice. So it comes as no surprise when disgraced journalist Gerry Fenn ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan), while investigating an incident of “cattle mutilation” in a small Massachusetts town called Banfield, unwittingly releases a 200-year-old evil. This is where the story deepens.
Later that night, deaf, 18-year-old Alice Pagett ( Cricket Brown) sees Mary/The Lady in a tree trunk so bizarre it makes Mother Willow look normal. After that visitation, Alice’s deafness becomes a thing of the past. Alice’s cure is the first of many. Using Alice as a medium and faith as fuel, The Lady cures other faithful of their illnesses including Alice’s uncle, Father Hagan ( William Sadler). It’s just like Lourdes all over again. There is a potent dreariness and listlessness that sits snugly over Banfield. It is only fitting that people there thirst for hope and long for miracles. In no distant time, the tree trunk in Banfield becomes a shrine.
Always a bloodhound for a catchy story, Fenn gets exclusive rights to write about Alice and The Lady’s visitations. Apparently, miracles do not discriminate nor care about shady journalistic histories. The Bishop ( Cary Elwes) is naturally ecstatic about the miracles and the comparisons made between Banfield and Lourdes. The Vatican sends down hot, broody and way-too-young Monsignor Delgarde (Diogo Morgado) to investigate the miracles. Asides from the indifferent Fenn, Monsignor Delgarde and Father Hagan doubt the miracles for different reasons.
Whether it is a natural, fatherly protectiveness, or spiritual conscientiousness, Fr. Hagan feels the need to be prudent with the miracles. Quoting Martin Luther, Father Hagan says, “When God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel next door.” Unfortunately, “The Lady” does not spare the faithless.
