The Church

Toronto International Film Festival Program Guide
1990

The Church
Michele Soavi
Italy, 1989, 90 minutes
Colour/35mm
Production Company: Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica/ADC/Reteitalia
Executive Producer: Mario and Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Producer: Dario Argento
Screenplay: Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, Michele Soavi
Cinematography: Renato Tafuri
Editor: Franco Fraticelli
Art Director: Antonello Geleng
Costume Designer: Maurizio Paiola
Principal Cast: Tomas Arana, Hugh Quarshie, Feodor Chaliapin, Barbara Cupisti, Antonella Vitale, Asia Argento

Last year, Dario Argento’s Opera introduced Toronto to the unique world of Italian horror. Its saturated flavour and uncompromising experimentation were enmeshed within a truly terrifying storyline. Argento has long surrounded himself with promising new talent and The Church proves that his nurturing has produced at least one great success. Heavy with metaphor and concealed terror, director Michele Soavi has created a gothic masterpiece.

With its swirling camera angles and menacing use of colour and light, The Church represents perfectly the unabashed visual elegance which dominates the Italian horror scene. A team of medieval knights discovers a town embroiled in satanic heresies. They slaughter the villagers, bury them in a mass grave and attempt to bury the heresy forever along with the corpses by building a church on the site. The secret is hidden until the ancient cathedral is sent a new librarian, who unravels the puzzle of a tattered scroll. The spirits are let loose while a motley assortment of unsuspecting visitors are gathered in the cathedral. The doors slam shut, bolted for eternity, and the trapped guests mutate into violent embodiments of hate and evil, each gradually turning into vengeful demons of past heresies and crusades. As the stench of evil fills the house of God, physical objects and structures also become agents of past evil acts, until the total destruction of the church becomes the only solution.
—Noah Cowan