Good start, but then it gets ruined

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Given the responsibility of his own parish, an overly rational priest gradually learns that he has been selected for the specific purpose of warding off a demon who has a history with the parish in this theologically themed horror movie. 'The Unholy' does not have the best of reputations and has slid into near obscurity over the years, written off by many as just another 'Exorcist'/'Omen' variant, but it is a far more accomplished motion picture than that. The film begins on a very strong note with a grisly parish priest murder and the scene in which protagonist Ben Cross falls out of a window is undeniably intense. The film mounts quite a few genuine shocks from rapid fire editing of bizarre images too. The central dynamic is also very decent as Cross gradually learns to believe in all the stuff the that fire and brimstone preachers say, "telling people they are going to fry in hell", and as one character puts it, it is ironic how unwilling Cross is to suspend disbelief despite damnation being such a key part of his religion. All of this initial promise is almost whittled away with a dialogue-heavy mid-section, and indeed the ratio between talk and scares seems to be a common complaint with the film. Never to mind, things come together very well in the final fifteen minutes with some genuinely creepy monster effects - and awesome special effects in general. The rapid fire editing also continues to the serve the film well as Cross eventually gets torn between seeing the demon for what it is and what it pretends to be, and the film certainly ends on a powerful note.

The premise of this film is that a demon known as 'the Unholy" comes out every Easter Weekend and tempts a priest that he subsequently kills. And of course, our hero, a young priest must battle this demon with it's power of cheesy 1980's special effects.The editing indicates that this was a made for TV movie, but the copious amounts of female nudity indicates otherwise.Worse, though, was the unbelievability of the characters. The protagonist encounters an event that has no rational explanation, but Still insists that demons are metaphorical and not real to older priests.Also, Ned Beatty, who was in this film for no good reason. His character was totally unnecessary and I can only assume this was a "Working for Booze Money" phase.

This movie was very entertaining and had some really cool 80's special effects(my favorite). I also watched this on Fear.net for the first time(as a poster stated). I was really wrapped up in the story but when the demon midget exploded I almost wet myself. I don't know why but it caught me off guard. I still chuckle when I think of the scene but it didn't ruin the movie for me. I didn't watch this movie as a kid like most of my favorite horror movies from the 80's but I really enjoyed it. I guess I somehow missed this movie as kid, as I have no memory of it. I don't even remember it on the shelf at my local video store and Southtown Video had a ton of horror movies. Oh well, I guess it was a small town video store after all. I recommend it to any horror fan and especially to 80's horror fans.

New Orleans church St Agnes has become the grounds of an evil entity, which has tempted the first two priests to their unholy deaths. Soon the head of the church gets Father Cross, who they believed is spiritually blessed to take over the church. The evil is in the form of a ravishing beauty, whom does its best to seduce Cross and make him commit the ultimate sin, which will see him, end up in hell.Looking at the tag line "Seduction. Submission. Murder. Tonight… evil goes over the edge." Well this doesn't really happen until the last 10 minutes, because the lead up to the hysterically bold and bloody climax with ridiculous rubber demons is damaged by a flat script and woodenly uninterested performances. The main problem I found was that it seems to coast along, with very little happening and the talky script was less than engaging with its uneven context covering religion and sexual repression. Not helping was that the straight-faced premise is the same-old, same-old for those familiar with the sub-genre, and succumbs to trashy silliness. One or two decent set-pieces (like an ominous sounding phone call) slowly creep up onto the viewer, and Camilo Vila's smoothly sterile direction drips with moody brushes, sexual allurement and dreary lighting that creates a visually smoky atmosphere. The music score had that oddly uncanny vibe, which can come across quite bloated. The special effects were pretty much a misfire, though I didn't think that they were the complete pits. Now what really caught my eye was the curious support cast featuring Ned Betty, Hal Halbrook, Trevor Howard and William Russ. Jill Carroll turned out okay and Russ was great, but the former did little to nothing. Ben Cross' sombre performance in the lead role is ploddingly lacking. The irresistible Nicole Fortier as the demonic entity, "The Unholy" glows with seductive temptation and can keep you glued. At least she's turned on for the occasion.Been down this both before, and what's served up here is cheap, and mostly uninspired. Not awful, though.