The Unholy – R – 1 hr 39 min
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Monday April 19, 2021
AMC Lakewood 12 – Lakewood, Washington
20th new movie seen in theater in 2021
The nude general antagonist from Die Hard 2 and Death from the Bill & Ted movies, grizzly-faced William Sadler, a priest uncle of a deaf girl who becomes the conduit to Mary, mother of Jesus. Or so the people believe. Even the skeptical banished journalist Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), looking for the next great sensational story to get back on top.
Thought this would be another wannabe God vs. Satan cliched horror story, but it tries harder than that. Sure, the familiar tropes are there including Jesus statues bleeding from the eyes, burning crosses, misguided miracles and the like. It’s more of a mystery thriller with some horror undertones, but it’s not scary.
There are a couple of jump scares, but they are well placed and not overdone. The sounds are mostly stock, nothing too original or noteworthy. That’s really the biggest problem of this film: nothing stands out as fresh or new. Right down to the main character which seems ripped off from Jurassic Park’s Malcolm played by the incomparable Jeff Goldblum. Did the filmmakers pattern Gerry Finn after this character? Certainly the portrayal feels very inspired, or for the more negative types: outright ripped off. Did Goldblum turn down this film role, so they told Jeffrey Dean Morgan to play his best Jeff Goldblum for the role?
Just leaving the theater we recorded our non-spoiler review and I felt stronger about this movie than Kara.
In the end, it was entertaining enough most of the time. It wasn’t scary so for those who think they’ll see this and be scared you’re in for a major disappointment. No, we can’t recommend, but we’ve seen several worse films in 2021 so far.
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️⭐️½ (Todd) ⭐️½ (Kara)
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