the unholy movie review

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

Now streaming on:

Disgraced journalist Gerry Fenn ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ), investigating an incident of "cattle mutilation" in a small Massachusetts town, trips over another bigger story, when a deaf teenage girl sees the Virgin Mary in the trunk of the scariest-looking tree on the planet. Quivering with religious ecstasy, she performs a couple of miracle cures, and when word gets out—thanks to Fenn's stories—her small town turns into a modern-day Lourdes. But is the Virgin Mary who she says she is? Based on James Herbert's 1983 novel Shrine , "The Unholy" is fairly standard religious horror, just in time for Good Friday. It has some excellent jump-scares, but overall there's something rote about the execution, bits that feel sketched-in as opposed to filled out, and a surface-level interest in the main theme of Herbert's novel: what happens when the unholy masks itself as holy? The local priest says, "Wherever God goes, the unholy follows." You got that right. The devil doesn't strut into town cackling with evil glee. The devil is a smooth-talking charmer. "The Unholy" is not designed to be deep, but since glimmers of depth are present, the lack of follow-up makes this a disappointing watch.

Fenn is a mess. Ten years prior, while on staff at a mainstream newspaper, he fabricated a bunch of stories, was found out and banished to his now horrible life of having to travel long distances to interview some delusional farmer who doesn't recognize that it's a Metallica logo on his cow's rear-end. Fenn drinks a lot, has a grizzled cynical charm, and doesn't seem to be a candidate for being wowed by a teenage girl's freaky visions of a whispering glowing Virgin Mary, but he swallows it whole. Alice ( Cricket Brown ), the girl in question, is the niece of the local Catholic priest, Father Hagen ( William Sadler ). Alice has been Deaf since birth, but after her vision, she can hear and speak. It is a miracle. Soon after, crowds start gathering around the terrifying tree, coming to be healed by Alice. Alice and Fenn "develop a friendship" (this is one of the aspects of the film that's not really explored.) The media flocks to the town, but it is Fenn who gets the "exclusive" interview with Alice. This will be his ticket back to the Big Time, he can feel it.

Really? Maybe if he dug up the equivalent of the Pentagon Papers, or uncovered evidence of war crimes, or maybe if he tripped over a long-lost safe deposit box containing Adolf Hitler's teenage diary, maybe these things might warrant a re-entry into the big leagues. But interviewing some crackpot teenager healing people in a field in Massachusetts? I kept thinking: "He goes out of town for weeks, putting himself up at a motel, for an online mag only paying $150 a story. Even if the motel is cheap, the trip would cost way more than $150." Per diem for journalists doesn't really exist anymore like it used to, not to mention salaries, but still, it's a bit much, especially for a cattle mutilation story. Granted, "The Unholy" is not supposed to be a realistic portrayal of today's gig-economy for freelance journalists, but the fact that I was distracted by the la-la-land portrayal of journalism is indicative of the film's inability to hold my interest.

Cinematographer Craig Wrobleski pours on the moodiness, with off-center angles, a wintry palette, and a conception of the town as a scary place, with scary-looking churches, scary-looking woods, scary-looking run-down buildings. The mood itself is frightening. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is always an interesting actor, and here he fills up what is a pretty underwritten role with shades of disappointment and awareness of his many failings. But even he can't single-handedly create a friendship with Alice through one conversation about music. There's supposed to be a big emotional pay-off with this friendship. The payoff doesn't come.

When " The Lady " (as Alice calls the Virgin Mary) starts going after doubters, haters, and skeptics, Alice says, sounding like a tyrant: "Doubt weakens faith. Doubt leads to damnation." Her uncle calls in the church big-wigs, a bishop ( Cary Elwes , with appropriate Boston accent) and a hot scruffy Monsignor ( Diogo Morgado ) to investigate the miracles Alice performs. Meanwhile, her fame grows. She goes "viral." You might even call her an "influencer." There are a couple of shots of girls across the land watching YouTube videos of Alice performing miracles, and these girls are weeping, feeling "seen." If Alice can do it, I can. Alice didn't "fit in" either, and now she's a saint! There's hope for me too! This is the most intriguing aspect of "The Unholy," almost bordering on satire. We see it all the time, "influencers" hocking curated "lifestyles" to the masses, who swallow it whole and then act betrayed when it's discovered the Emperor has no clothes. People are put up on pedestals for a brief shining moment before disillusion comes and the mob arrives, wielding pitchforks for the same person who was idolized the day before.

"The Unholy" misses a lot of opportunities to build out not just this idea, but all of them.

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

Now playing

The Last Stop in Yuma County

Matt zoller seitz.

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Brian Tallerico

The Idea of You

Film Credits

The Unholy (2021)

Rated PG-13 for violent content, terror and some strong language.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Gerry Fenn

Cary Elwes as Bishop Gyles

William Sadler as Father Hagan

Katie Aselton as Dr. Natalie Gates

Christine Adams as Monica Slade

Diogo Morgado as Monsignor Delgarde

Evan Spiliotopoulos

Writer (based on the book Shrine by)

James Herbert

Cinematographer

Craig Wrobleski
Joseph Bishara

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024: Megalopolis, Bird, The Damned, Meeting with Pol Pot

Prime Video's Outer Range Opens Up in a Hole New Way in Season 2

The Ebert Fellows Go to Ebertfest 2024

Cannes 2024 Video #2: The Festival Takes Off

Supported by

‘The Unholy’ Review: ‘There’s Something About Mary’

Miraculous acts or evil deeds? This tame, trite horror movie has a familiar answer.

Share full article

By Jeannette Catsoulis

Satan is at it again in “The Unholy,” the first feature from Evan Spiliotopoulos and what feels like the millionth recurrence of a plot that turns an innocent young woman into the plaything of a soul-sucking demon.

After a brief spasm of 1845 witchery, the movie jumps to present-day New England where the roguish reporter Gerry Fenn (who better than Jeffrey Dean Morgan?) is sniffing out supernatural mischief. Once famous and now disgraced for fabricating stories, Fenn enjoys the odd tipple: It helps alleviate the professional embarrassment of covering livestock mutilations. But when he encounters Alice (Cricket Brown) — a hearing-impaired woman who’s mysteriously cured after conversing with a petrified tree trunk — Fenn smells the kind of story that could resurrect his career.

Unfortunately, that’s not what’s revived as Alice, believing she sees the Virgin Mary, begins to heal the sick and attract a horde of supplicants. Her uncle (William Sadler) is skeptical until she cures his emphysema, and the nearest bishop (an unrecognizable Cary Elwes) is flummoxed by Alice’s apparent miracles. Fenn, meantime, works on an exclusive (as a dissolute nonbeliever, he’s presumed objective) and gets friendly with a nice doctor (Katie Aselton). Even Fenn needs a break from the stress of the supernatural.

Adapted from a 1983 novel by James Herbert, “The Unholy” ( no relation to Camilo Vila’s 1988 dud ) gives us the usual weeping statues and a soundtrack heaving with crackles and whispers. Playing the evil entity with convulsive movements and a killer manicure, the contortionist Marina Mazepa turns in the movie’s most entertaining performance. That’s if you don’t count Morgan looking genuinely baffled as to what he’s doing here at all.

The Unholy Rated PG-13 for a hanged man and half-baked scares. Running time: 1 hour 39 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

“Megalopolis,” the first film from the director Francis Ford Coppola in 13 years, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Here’s what to know .

Why is the “Planet of the Apes” franchise so gripping and effective? Because it doesn’t monkey around, our movie critic writes .

Luke Newton has been in the sexy Netflix hit “Bridgerton” from the start. But a new season will be his first as co-lead — or chief hunk .

There’s nothing normal about making a “Mad Max” movie, and Anya Taylor-Joy knew that when she signed on to star in “Furiosa,” the newest film in George Miller’s action series.

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

What's the Tomatometer®?
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening this week
Top box office
Coming soon to theaters
Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

Fandango at Home
Netflix streaming
Prime Video
Most popular streaming movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Link to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The Fall Guy Link to The Fall Guy
The Last Stop in Yuma County Link to The Last Stop in Yuma County

New TV Tonight

Interview With the Vampire: Season 2
Bridgerton: Season 3
Outer Range: Season 2
Spacey Unmasked: Season 1
After the Flood: Season 1
The Big Cigar: Season 1
The Killing Kind: Season 1
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Season 11.1
Harry Wild: Season 3
RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars: Season 9

The Unholy Reviews

The Unholy has many good ideas but it's bothersome to see how it all goes to waste in the end. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 28, 2022

It's hard for a movie to maintain any measure of tension when most of its demons look like Ghoulies rejects.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 8, 2021

...one priest's prosaic struggle neither to break his vows nor to exploit sexually a young ward is another's epic, eternal battle between good and evil - and The Unholy tells it both ways...

Full Review | Feb 25, 2019

After a bright and bloody opening, the film settles into a more mystical story before building to an atmospheric, if silly, climax.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb 19, 2019

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 20, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 3, 2005

Indeciperable reilgio-horror hoo-hah.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 2, 2005

There's enough dry ice and tomato sauce laid on to supply a fast-food joint for a couple of years.

Full Review | Aug 30, 2004

an image, when javascript is unavailable

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the unholy’: film review.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays a disgraced journalist who stumbles onto a wave of religious miracles obscuring a malevolent history in the latest from Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

Share this article on Facebook
Share this article on Twitter
Share this article on Flipboard
Share this article on Email
Show additional share options
Share this article on Linkedin
Share this article on Pinit
Share this article on Reddit
Share this article on Tumblr
Share this article on Whatsapp
Share this article on Print
Share this article on Comment

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Katie Aselton in THE UNHOLY

Just in time for Easter, The Unholy offers up satanic counter-programming to sate the appetites of the religious horror faithful. Almost a decade after getting drawn into a dybbuk haunting in The Possession , Jeffrey Dean Morgan reteams with Sam Raimi ‘s Ghost House Pictures, this time switching from Jewish folklore to Catholic demonology in a tale that tills the soil of Massachusetts for its history of charred witches. After an intriguing setup that takes its time building atmosphere and characters, declining to rush the first death, the film becomes progressively overwrought and hokey. It also loads up on derivative tropes that worked better everywhere from Ringu through the Conjuring Universe .

Like much of Ghost House’s output in the years since Raimi himself took the directing reins on the wickedly entertaining Drag Me to Hell in 2009, this is a middling effort stronger on production values than originality. (The taut 2016 home-invasion chiller Don’t Breathe was the chief exception.) The Unholy marks a watchable but undistinguished move into the writer-director’s chair for Evan Spiliotopoulos , whose long list of screenplay credits is dominated by extended Disney properties. At the very least, this first feature represents a departure.

Release date: Apr 02, 2021

Based on the 1983 novel Shrine by English horror writer James Herbert, the film begins with a prologue in which a young woman’s execution in 1845 is shown from her point of view through the eyeholes of a mask, accompanied by her piercing screams as she is burned alive. Cut to her lifeless body hanging from an ancient oak tree in an open field.

In present-day Boston, Gerry Fenn (Morgan) is a jaded photo-reporter specializing in sensationalistic supernatural items for the tabloids. A fame whore with a history of fabricating stories, the disgraced journo chases up a false report of possible Satanism in the sleepy farming community of Banfield. He’s about to write off the trip as a waste of time when he finds a “kern baby” in the base of the same tree seen in the prologue. Learning that the talismanic dolls were used to keep away evil, Gerry does what any heedless jerk would do and smashes open the relic, hoping to spice things up into a salable story.

Driving back that night, he swerves to avoid deaf teenager Alice (Cricket Brown) standing like a ghost in the middle of the road. He follows her to the tree and observes her speaking in an excited whisper despite having been silent since birth. Claiming to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, Alice says “The Lady” has spoken in detail to her, urging her to share the message of faith. Her uncle, Father Hagan (William Sadler), expresses concern about hysteria agitating his flock at the little white New England church that stands next to the field. But when Alice compels a boy with muscular dystrophy to abandon his wheelchair and walk, word instantly spreads that the oak tree is the site of miracles.

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘everybody loves touda’ review: a young mother chooses herself in nabil ayouch’s absorbing drama, cannes: yorgos lanthimos-emma stone reunion ‘kinds of kindness’ premieres to 4-minute standing ovation, ‘kingdom of the planet of the apes’ star kevin durand talks proximus caesar’s future and not viewing him as the bad ape, ‘three kilometers to the end of the world’ review: an overly tidy romanian drama about a homophobic hate crime, “this is the glen powell decade”: actor receives glowing praise from tom cruise, adria arjona, ‘kinds of kindness’ review: emma stone and jesse plemons headline yorgos lanthimos’ insidious and intriguing studies in love and control.

Review: The gothic terror and limited scares of ‘The Unholy’ bog down in tired tropes

A scene full of fire from the movie "The Unholy."

Show more sharing options
Copy Link URL Copied!

Set in an eerie, isolated, present-day New England town, “The Unholy” is a work of gothic terror operating in the religious horror model — a film owing deeply to “The Nun” and “The Exorcist.” A directorial debut for Evan Spiliotopoulos, the dramatically muddled demonic possession narrative inertly smears frights of “fake news,” mass hysteria and faith healing onto a sporadically interesting folkloric landscape — formulating a narrative lacking in the psychological pull necessary to bind these rich elements together. Laboriously paced, the indulgent jolts and bloodless scares, neither deeply rooted nor artfully raised, float as lifelessly as a lily pad on a bog.

Adapted from James Herbert’s 1983 novel “Shrine,” Spiliotopoulos, who previously wrote fantastical tentpoles like “Beauty and the Beast” (2017) and “The Huntsman: Winter’s War,” opens “The Unholy” in 1845. Behind the view of an iron mask, an unknown woman’s cries are muffled; the fleshy explosions emanating from a mallet striking her metal visage fills our ears with the archaic scene. Raised by rope, flames engulfing her sights, a priest holds a puritan porcelain doll taunting the familiar promise of a story involving wrongfully accused witches and judicial skullduggery — an early narrative fakeout.

Fast-forward to present-day Boston, and Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a once-renowned reporter now working a clickbait beat for a pittance, hears of cow mutilations occurring in the quaint Massachusetts town of Banfield, a sleepy uneventful corner of the old-world state. Upon arriving at the simple farm, the unrelentingly charismatic Fenn, a cynical jerk living in a bottle, discovers a non-story.

The setback, however, doesn’t deter him. In several ways, Fenn wouldn’t be where he is if he allowed the facts to stop him. Providence, he believes, gazes upon him when in a trunk of petrified oak he finds a rotting chained kern doll, used by farmers for good luck, marked with an impossible date: Feb. 31, 1845. Fenn mercilessly smashes the doll — thereby breaking the area’s peace.

With credits in “Supernatural” and “The Walking Dead,” Morgan should be the perfect choice to play the morally ambiguous Fenn. But he imbues this shill with too much charm, too heavy of a collective cool beneath the pristine winter beard and beguiling sunglasses to totally encapsulate the myriad contradictions within this character.

Dreadful consequences following his reckless actions arise when his car nearly hits a white-gowned Alice (Cricket Brown) in the middle of the road. A deaf-mute teen born with congenital cholesteatoma, Alice wanders away to pray to the oak tree, suddenly gaining the ability to hear and speak from a blindly white apparition. In a serpentine whisper, the seemingly heavenly being claims to be the Virgin Mary. The radiant specter infuses Alice with healing powers, miracles she can perform if the people merely invest full-throated faith in Mary. And in Alice’s newfound abilities, Fenn — one moment a supportive father figure to Alice, the next a skulking opportunist — smells fame.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan studies a chained kern doll in the movie "The Unholy."

The very ‘80s premise, replete with a magical disabled person trope, hampers Spiliotopoulos. For instance: He engineers a healing scene wherein Alice gives a wheelchair user, a boy with muscular dystrophy, the ability to walk again. The gawking lens, further hindered by the uneasy sound of the child’s legs uncrumpling, as though he was grotesque before, offers a cheap trade in body horror.

Spiliotopoulos stultifies “The Unholy” by wrapping the thematic garments of a journalistic thriller, and the pins of religious horror, for a mismatched outfit that unravels when worn. Through a conniving Bishop Gyles (Cary Elwes) and a swaggering Monsignor Delgarde (Diogo Morgado), sent by the Catholic Church to confirm the tree as a holy shrine, Spiliotopoulos critiques trusted institutions, the church and the press, and their status as arbiters of truth. Both the fame-hungry Fenn and the church see Alice as a path to re-win hearts and minds. These narrative interrogations in a post-Trump, clergy child-sex-abuse scandalworld invites profound answers. But Spiliotopoulos holds a firmer gaze on Fenn, while clumsily balancing his character’s heavy exposition with the church’s significant history involving demonic possession.

The film’s rigid frights beat noisily against these oxygen-sucking characters. As word of Alice’s miracles spread, and the world flocks to Banfield, Natalie (Katie Aselton), a doctor Fenn comes to trust; Alice’s protective uncle, Father Hagen (William Sadler); and Fenn himself grow weary of the innocent girl’s growing fame. Nightmares of a neon red-pearl creek and an arachnid walking ghoul in rotting robes haunt Fenn. Outside his hotel room, in the motel sign’s ruby flickering light, he likewise spies a ghastly apparition. The pleasant angelic visage bequeathing powers to Alice reeks of a demonic stench. And with each seemingly holy feat performed, not only does the mass hysteria surrounding the young woman grow, making her a viral sensation, so does the grim figure’s insatiable powers.

But as the scares pick up, rendering “The Unholy” a freakout, the sinister supernatural cuts leave no marks. The stylized way the camera rotates into suspicious canted angles is overused to the point of emotional inertia. The aggressively hostile jump scares elicit few jolts as the attire of practical and graphics-generated effects blink too overtly for notice, only to quickly dissipate once seen. If “The Nun” subtracted the church as a safe space from Satan’s designs, unnerving viewers in the process, then Spiliotopoulos’ attempt to subvert expectations misses the intended aim due to a generic creature design bathed in a murky VFX that visually displaces the ghoul from this story.

Spiliotopoulos never matches the film’s grounded themes with the eerie tone needed to convey old-world superstitions and church rituals for psychological gashes. While the bones of a potent religious horror film exist, “The Unholy” is a few Hail Marys short of a winning formula.

'The Unholy'

Rated: PG-13, for violent content, terror and some strong language Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes Playing: Starts April 2 in general release where theaters are open

Review: ‘Monsters of the American Cinema’ confronts the horror in grief

April 16, 2024

A clawed hand approaches a potential victim.

Review: ‘Blackout,’ a new take on one of horror’s oldest myths, is claws for celebration

April 12, 2024

Two women look skyward at something ominous.

Review: ‘The First Omen’ plays to the faithful, but more nun fun is to be had elsewhere

April 5, 2024

Only good movies

Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

An man in a gray suit stands behind a lectern and in front of a bright blue backdrop

Company Town

New Mexico weighs whether to toss Alec Baldwin criminal charges in ‘Rust’ shooting

Kevin Spacey wearing glasses and in a dark suit, pink dress shirt and red tie standing against a blurred background

Entertainment & Arts

Kevin Spacey says he has ‘so much to offer’ after Hollywood pals demand his comeback

A girl speaks with a large purple creature.

Review: ‘IF,’ a movie about imaginary friends, requires suspension of disbelief — and a few more drafts

May 17, 2024

Francis Ford Coppola teases ‘Godfather’ update, criticizes Hollywood studios at Cannes

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

DVD & Streaming
Drama , Horror

Content Caution

A woman in a white dress stands in front of a tree with many pictures wedged into it.

In Theaters

April 2, 2021
Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Gerry Fenn; Cricket Brown as Alice; Katie Aselton as Natalie Gates; William Sadler as Father Hagan; Diogo Morgado as Monsignor Delgarde; Cary Elwes as Bishop Gyles; Marina Mazepa as Mary Elnor; Christine Adams as Monica Slade

Home Release Date

May 25, 2021
Evan Spiliotopoulos

Distributor

Sony Pictures

Movie Review

Gerry Fenn never met a story he didn’t lie.

That’s no typo. Fenn, a one-time big-city newsman, was drummed out of the business for fabricating stories. For him, staying in the spotlight was more important than telling the truth. But the lies caught up with him, and he lost his spotlight anyway. Now he works for a website of questionable authority, writing stories of dubious importance. And he hasn’t learned his lesson yet.

His latest assignment: cattle mutilations in Banfield! Exciting, right? But when Fenn drives up to this quiet Massachusetts town, he discovers the “cattle” is one solitary cow and the “mutilation” is a Metallica symbol on the bovine’s rump, stuck there by the rancher’s 15-year-old son. Not exactly front-page news.

But Fenn does spot a creepy little doll nestled in a dead tree nearby. Even creepier: The doll’s tied up with a little doll chain that also holds a doll-size plaque bearing a date: Feb. 31, 1845.

The reporter doesn’t contemplate this doll or its impossible date for long. He’s got a story to sensationalize, after all. So he smashes the doll and tells the local rancher to pretend he found it. Fenn can see the headlines now: Doll Unleashes Evil Cattle Mutilations in Banfield! He’ll worry about concocting actual cattle mutilations later.

But over the next few days, Fenn will come across a real story. He’ll meet young Alice along the road that very evening and watch her say a prayer by that dead oak tree— say a prayer, even though she’s been deaf pretty much her whole life. The next morning, he’ll watch her walk to that same tree, turn around and speak to a throng of churchgoers—announcing that she’s been healed by the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And Fenn will eventually have much reason to wonder as to just who this Mary is. Is it truly Mary, the mother of Jesus, who’s using Alice as a conduit for divine miracles? Or might this unseen Mary derive her powers from more diabolical sources?

The cows are just fine, thanks. But did the doll release evil ? Maybe Fenn’s imagined headline is half right.

Positive Elements

Alice is sort of like a Typhoid Mary of evil: She may be a carrier, but she doesn’t intend to be. In fact, she thinks that her own cure, and the miraculous healings she’s able to give others, are truly a gift from God. She’s very sincere about her desire to help people.

We meet a couple of do-gooding priests, too. Father Hagen has served as Alice’s guardian for most of her life, and he’s naturally thrilled when she gets her hearing back. But he’s also wary of the events surrounding that seeming miracle.

Monsignor Delgarde is equally suspicious. It’s his job. As one of the Catholic church’s modern-day inquisitors, he’s sent to Banfield to investigate these happenings and do his best to debunk them: He’s after the truth, not some fabricated miracle, and that’s a good thing. And when Delgarde finds something that is neither fraud nor miraculous, he shows considerable courage in facing the evil he discovers.

In contrast, Fenn is not a particularly great person. But he gets better as the movie goes along. And you could make the case that he winds up making a sacrificial act to save many, many others.

Spiritual Elements

[ Note: Spoilers are contained in this entire section .] The movie kicks off with an apparent miracle and ends with a Bible verse (Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves”). And in between, you’ll find more spiritual content than in many a Christian movie. However, the results are a bit mixed.

The evil we find here definitely draws its power from a diabolical source: The “Mary” we meet was not the Mother Mary, but an 18 th -century witch who was granted the power by the devil to grant apparent miracles. (She says as much while literally in a confessional booth.) She masquerades as the other, better Mary to lead people astray and claim their souls for hell. This, by the way, is pretty interesting: Not many secular films today concern themselves with the state of one’s soul in the next life. But this one does.

The story also talks about how faith and religion can be corrupted in this life, too: Alice heals a few people and quickly becomes a celebrity—complete with merchandise that includes the cringeworthy hashtag #AliceSaves. One Catholic leader is all too willing to accept Alice’s miracles for the sake of re-energizing the Church, too—covering up more problematic aspects of the story and pushing forward a secretly unholy service that, if Mary has her way, will damn plenty of people.

These spiritual messages come freighted with some other bad theology, too, especially the idea that this infernal lie can be combatted with a lie of its own. (We don’t have a lot of space to unpack that statement here, but I talk about that more in-depth elsewhere .)

And that’s not the only disturbing element we see. Statues of Mary and other saints weep blood. A massive crucifix bursts into flames (along with many, many smaller ones, too). Words appear to melt off the pages of a Bible. A priest discovers something that looks to a notebook filled with pictures of demonic-looking entities, one of which seems to be performing some sort of priestly role. “Miracles” with an unholy source are performed and officially sanctified. In a flashback, we see someone pray/curse Mary before her execution, and they permanently stick an image of the mother Mary over her face.

Elsewhere, a priest quotes Martin Luther: “When God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel (next door).” We hear variations of that quote throughout. References are made to some other miraculous locals, including Lourdes and Fatima—with the priest noting how many people originally involved suffered afterward. (He’s suggesting that, while the miracles were real, some of those involved were subject to spiritual warfare.) A doctor tells Fenn, “Science and God are not mutually exclusive.” We see plenty of religious services and outsized devotion to Alice and “Mary of Banfield.”

Someone seems to undergo a sincere religious conversation. The role of confession in redemption is discussed. A prayer to God is answered miraculously. An old associate of Fenn’s tells him that he’d “sell his soul for a story.” (Later, Fenn confesses that that seems to be more true than you’d think.) Fenn finds a “kern doll” near the beginning of the film, dolls which are typically good luck charms. But we’re told that they’re sometimes thought to act as spiritual vacuum cleaners, sucking up bad presences and holding them.

Sexual Content

Before she was executed, the bad Mary gave birth to a child—presumably out of wedlock. Someone references “unholy orgies,” but more as an unfounded rumor.

Violent Content

Someone dies by suicide; we see the body hanging from a rope. Others die via incredible heat—with one person apparently being crushed underneath a flaming crucifix. (The other two times, someone’s touched by an overheated, supernatural hand.) A supernatural event triggers a human stampede, and a boy is nearly crushed by those rushing to get out. Fenn crashes his vehicle into a tree (but luckily doesn’t hit someone walking in the middle of the road). We hear that Alice’s parents died.

Mary was subjected to some rough treatment when her service to Satan was discovered. First, they submerged her in an icy stream to extract a confession. Then a mask of the Virgin Mary was nailed to her face before she was hung. Later, her body was burned. We see evidence of all these indelicacies: A noose is still wrapped around the specter’s neck, and when her deceptively virtuous mask is finally removed, the face underneath is devoid of skin.

Crude or Profane Language

One f-word, two s-words and a spatter of other profanities, including “a–,” “b–tard,” “crap,” “d–n,” “h—,” “p-ss” and “p-ssy.” God’s and Jesus’ names are both misused once.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Fenn is your stereotypical washed-up, hard-drinking journalist. We see him pour something from a flask into his coffee, and he struggles to grab a bottle of liquor from the car floor before nearly crashing into someone. Catholic Mass makes use of communion wine, and we see a chalice of wine in the background in a scene or two. Fame is compared to a “drug.”

Other Negative Elements

Lies—sometimes big lies—are told.

Father Hagen tells Fenn, “There’s nothing that Satan likes more than to corrupt our faith.” That’s probably true. And that’s probably why walking in faith can be so difficult at times. Satan, after all, is an expert deceiver.

It’s here—in its examination of that deception—where The Unholy is at its strongest. For much of the movie, it warns us both about blind faith (as seen by Alice’s growing horde of believers) and the temptation to use faith as a means to an end (as shown by a corrupt cleric). The film accepts God as fact, but it insists that our fealty to Him should be based on a blend of mind and soul. And if you stretched things a bit, you could even read The Unholy as a warning to believers today, given that false prophets don’t always visit us as matinee monsters.

But perhaps that’s giving the film too much credit. Because, let’s face it, the monster’s the main attraction here—and for many, that’s no attraction at all.

Though not wildly gory, the film contains plenty of disturbing and, to a point, even blasphemous images (a burning crucifix pops into mind). The story tells us that evil sometimes gets the better of good people. And it seems to lose its own train of thought, undercutting positive messages with others that contradict them, mashing the messages here into a major spiritual muddle.

Th e Unholy , released on Good Friday of 2021, might be one of the year’s most spiritual movies. But let’s be honest: Just like the demonic entity we see here, that’s not altogether a good thing.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Latest Reviews

The Strangers: Chapter 1

Thelma the Unicorn

I Saw the TV Glow

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

Become a Critical Movie Critic
Movie Review Archives

Movie Review: The Unholy (2021)

Movie Reviews
--> April 11, 2021

In 1845, a crowd gathers in a field as a young girl is hooded and hoisted into the air by a rope tied to an old oak tree. The men surrounding the base of the tree light a fire, and a priest prays aloud, holding a doll in his hands. The crowd does nothing to help the girl as she is burned alive. The stage is set for The Unholy .

Almost two centuries later, Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, “ Rampage ”) buys coffee from a truck in the early morning before he gets a call to head out to small town Banfield, MA — “A little piece of God’s county.” A farmer relays a story about his cows being mysteriously mutilated, and is astonished when Gerry inquires about the farmer’s teenage son who, according to the benign spray-painted marking left on the cow, is probably a Metallica fan. The two men wander over to a twisted oak tree in the field as Gerry’s attention is drawn to an object catching the sunlight; he discovers a small doll in a hollow at the base of the tree. The doll is bound by chains and a small engraved plate that reads February 31, 1845 — an impossible date. Annoyed because his time was wasted and driven by the desire to get a story somehow, Gerry stomps on the doll and asks the farmer to pose next to it, fabricating a story about mutilated cows and a mysterious talisman found in a nearby tree.

Later that night, Gerry drives through the dark, winding roads on his way out of Banfield. He swerves to avoid hitting a girl standing in the middle of the road and crashes into a tree. Emerging from his car, Gerry follows the barefoot, white-nightgown clad girl back to the twisted oak where she drops to her knees and passes out. Bringing her to the nearby church, Gerry discovers she’s Alice (Cricket Brown, “Dukeland”), the orphaned niece of Father Hagan (William Sadler, “ Bill & Ted Face the Music ”). At mass the next day, Alice rises from her seat in the front of the church, and leaves the church with young girls trailing behind her; she walks directly to the oak, and laying her hands on its trunk, speaks to the astonished crowd behind her. She has seen a vision of a woman bathed in white light, and she tells them she has seen Mary. Within days, people gather around the church asking for Alice to heal their ailments, and the Boston Diocese sends representatives to investigate. As Alice continues to hear from Mary, her fame grows, and her miraculous gifts garner more and more attention to the small town. But Gerry, on the other hand, starts having visions himself — visions of a dark hooded figure with skeletal hands, and he begins to wonder if these miracles are a different type of fabricated story, one that will have dire consequences for the townspeople . . .

Based on James Herbert’s novel The Shrine , writer/director Evan Spiliotopoulos’s The Unholy is a tale about how a young girl’s religious faith is manipulated by an evil entity, and how the adults around her desperately yearn for something good in the world, oftentimes causing them to disregard signs of trouble. Cricket Brown plays sweet devout Alice with wide-eyed wonder, and her charm shines through as the type of girl any community would immediately support as a young prophet. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is well-cast (arguably typecast) as the gruff and scruffy Gerry, a washed-up journalist who ruined his career by fabricating news stories for fame and recognition; his skepticism plays at center stage when he deals with Diocese representatives Bishop Gyles (Cary Elwes, “ No Strings Attached ”) and Monsignor Delgarde (Diogo Morgado, “The Killer”). They grant him exclusive access to Alice, and he plays well back and forth between the kind yet past-his-due disbeliever and shady storyteller looking to cash his way back into the business.

Brown and Morgan are skillfully supported by Sadler and Katie Aselton (“ Black Rock ”) who plays Dr. Natalie Gates, a woman fiercely protective of Alice. They are very believable as the adults who most care for Alice’s well-being and play wonderful contrasts to Elwes’ smarmy Bishop. When Elwes appears on screen, you are most reminded of watching “Law & Order” episodes; when a bigger name cameos, you know they’re likely to be playing the bad guy, and Elwes’s caricature-ish Massachusetts accent doesn’t help his believability. There are some bright lights in Alice’s supporters, most notably Madison LaPlante as a teenage girl who desperately needs to believe in Alice’s miracles, and Sonny and Danny Corbo who play Toby Walsh, the wheelchair-bound teenager whose sweet and shaky first steps are among Alice’s first miracles. Seeing the Corbo boys on-screen brings a special smile to my face because they’re local actors from my home state — shout-out to Little Rhody!

As a whole, The Unholy works as your standard PG-13 horror fare; there are plenty of jump scares (many of the ineffective variety) and the story unravels in the expected ways. Characters investigate the local history in cobwebbed storage areas and shadowy archive libraries, and there’s little ambiguity behind the character arcs. Each character plays out exactly as you expect them to, and the convenient revelations appear just in time to move along the story. Adult horror fans have already seen (and seen and seen) the tropes found in this film, but young teenagers will enjoy it as an early entrance into religious horror. It’s not a bad or boring film by any stretch, but it’s not something that will have much staying power in the long run.

Tagged: miracle , novel adaptation , religion , reporter , supernatural

School teacher by day. Horror aficionado by night.

Movie Review: Little Fish (2020) Movie Review: The Mark of the Bell Witch (2020) Movie Review: Chop Chop (2020) Movie Review: Coven of Evil (2020) Movie Review: Mara (2018) Movie Review: The First Purge (2018) Movie Review: Truth or Dare (2018)

| Log in

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

For Parents
For Educators
Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

Get the app
Movie Reviews
Best Movie Lists
Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best TV Lists
Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
Common Sense Selections for TV
Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

Book Reviews
Best Book Lists
Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Game Reviews
Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Podcast Reviews
Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

App Reviews
Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

YouTube Channel Reviews
YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Family Tech Planners
Digital Skills
All Articles
Latino Culture
Black Voices
Asian Stories
Native Narratives
LGBTQ+ Pride
Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Disappointing horror movie is boring despite jump scares.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Movie closes with lines "Beware of false prophets,

Gerry Fenn evolves from someone who made up storie

In flashback sequence from victim's POV, a mask is

Mention of "unholy orgies."

A use of "f--k," a few uses of "s--t" or "bulls--t

Main character shown hung over, pouring alcohol in

Positive Messages

Movie closes with lines "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves," which warns against trusting people who seem too good to be true. It's a safe assessment, and one that's designed to protect, but it's also a fairly cynical one, as sometimes people are truly good.

Positive Role Models

Gerry Fenn evolves from someone who made up stories as a journalist, was "high" on his own fame, and drank too much to someone who cares more about others than he does his own career (and he seems to stop drinking). It's a positive move, but it happens quickly and doesn't feel genuine. Other characters don't really have much of an arc at all.

Violence & Scariness

In flashback sequence from victim's POV, a mask is nailed to a woman's face, and she's hung in a tree and burned (banging sounds, lots of screaming). Sizzling corpse shown. Jump scares. Scary monster that twitches and jumps at the camera. Character hanged by rope. A large cross catches fire, falls on top of a character, kills him. A tent full of people catches fire, causing panic. Vehicle crashes into tree. Statues weep blood. Some creepy imagery -- e.g., "kern" dolls. Violent dialogue ("ripped open their windpipes," etc.).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

A use of "f--k," a few uses of "s--t" or "bulls--t," and occasional uses of "bastard," "son of a bitch," "damn," "ass," "hell," "crap," "idiot," and "pissed off."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Main character shown hung over, pouring alcohol into coffee from a flask. Alcohol bottle rolls around in front seat of truck. Mention of character's blood alcohol level. A priest smokes cigarettes. Brief social drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Unholy is a horror movie about a young woman who's hard of hearing who suddenly starts hearing and speaking, thanks to a potential miracle. Violence includes a somewhat intense flashback, shown from the victim's point of view, of a mask being nailed to a woman's face. She's then hung in a tree and burned, a scene that's accompanied by banging sounds and screaming. Her sizzling corpse is also briefly shown. A scary monster lurches at the camera, and there are jump scares, deaths, a character hanged by a rope, a character crushed by a burning cross, statues weeping blood, and more. Language isn't frequent but includes a use of "f--k," plus "s--t," "son of a bitch," etc., as well as the phrase "unholy orgies." A main character is shown hung over and drinking from a flask, and cigarette smoking is shown. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

Parents say (1)
Kids say (5)

Based on 1 parent review

What's the Story?

THE UNHOLY takes viewers to the small community of Banfield, Massachusetts, where disgraced reporter Gerry Fenn ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) arrives to do the kind of story he's been relegated to: investigating a local man's "mutilated" cow. Instead, Fenn finds a strange doll -- a "kern doll" -- with a strange date on it, under a nearby tree. He breaks it so that he can make up a story to go with the cow. Not long after, Alice (Cricket Brown), a young woman who is hard of hearing, makes her way to the tree and is suddenly healed: She can hear and speak. She has seemingly been healed by the Virgin Mary, and she implores others to believe. Fenn starts covering the story, and, as more miracles happen, he begins returning to his former glory. But Alice's uncle, Father Hagan ( William Sadler ), warns that, where miracles are present, the devil cannot be far behind.

Is It Any Good?

This atmospheric horror movie starts off well, with plenty of intriguing imagery and history, but it eventually drifts into autopilot, falling back on routine scares, lazy dialogue, and shortcuts. The Unholy is set in a small town where faith plays a key role, which means old churches and plenty of statues and candles, stained-glass windows, and other symbols -- and even a creaky church basement and a musty old book. There's whispered dialogue about the ancient mechanisms of good and evil and God and the devil. But once the story is underway and the mysteries are revealed, the mood is undone.

Morgan is terrific at this kind of thing, grizzled and sturdy but with an undeniable warmth. Yet his character changes rather rapidly from a self-obsessed, hard-drinking wreck into a man who cares deeply about others. (Other characters barely develop at all.) The plot twists happen too quickly, and mainly on the surface. The scary stuff is perhaps most disappointing, relegated to jump scares, buzzing or flickering lights, and a stale old digital monster that twitches and contorts and lurches ahead in fast-motion. All in all, The Unholy should say three "Hail Marys" for the sin of being boring.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Unholy' s violence . Does the lack of blood and gore make it feel any less intense?

What's the appeal of horror movies ? Why do people sometimes like being scared?

How is alcohol portrayed? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

Do you believe that miracles can really happen? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : April 2, 2021
On DVD or streaming : May 25, 2021
Cast : Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Cricket Brown , Katie Aselton
Director : Evan Spiliotopoulos
Studio : Screen Gems
Genre : Horror
Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Run time : 99 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : violent content, terror and some strong language
Last updated : April 7, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Possession

Want personalized picks for your kids' age and interests?

The Omen (1976)

The Sacrament

The Exorcist

Best horror movies, scary movies for kids, related topics.

Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

The Unholy. If the devil did exist then surely he’d have the power to destroy films as dull as this.

The Unholy review – Satan continues to inspire the very worst films

A poorly made horror takes an interesting concept, from a James Herbert novel, and squanders it with ineffective visuals and a dearth of scares

A s histrionic homophobes continue to lose their simple little minds over the “satanic” new video for Lil Nas X’s catchy queer hook-up anthem Montero , perhaps they should be a little bit more concerned about supernatural Sony horror The Unholy. Like many genre films about the fight between god and the devil, it’s an affirmative story for Christians (good and evil do exist in strict binary terms) but like many of them as well, it’s also a woefully ineffective one, turning what should be an easy piece of jolting propaganda into something so incompetent that even believers will struggle to care who wins. If the devil did exist then surely he’d have the power to destroy films as dull as this.

It has the cursed aura of something shot three years ago, shelved and then dumped, a doomed hobble to the screen that’s become more commonplace in the last year as studios have understandably used the opportunity to offload their damaged wares. But surprisingly here that isn’t the case and instead, The Unholy was actually in production as the pandemic struck, becoming one of the first films to grapple with the complexities of having to film around a deadly virus. Plaudits are then earned for this but precious little else, writer-director Evan Spiliotopoulos taking an intriguing concept and doing the very least with it, disappointment soon turning to disinterest.

Based on James Herbert’s 1983 novel Shrine, the plot follows disgraced journalist Gerry (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as he tries to find a story worth getting paid for. His search takes him to a small New England town and Alice (newcomer Cricket Brown), a local hearing-impaired girl who claims she can now hear and speak because of a holy visitation. Her miracles start to spread throughout the community but they rely on ultimate, unwavering belief in Alice’s new friend “Mary”, and when that is tested, all hell, or at least the most boring part of it, will break loose.

It’s exhaustively well-worn territory but the premise does initially offer up the vague hope of an interesting spin, exploring the danger of automatic, unquestioning faith and a clear, juicy example of the Martin Luther quote “For where god built a church, there the devil would also build a chapel”. But Spiliotopoulos, best known for having a hand in workmanlike blockbuster scripts like Beauty and the Beast, Hercules and Charlie’s Angels, is a disastrously unsure hand behind the camera, never quite managing to conjure up even the slightest ounce of menace with dated, cheap-looking visuals and a distinct dearth of dread. The creature that acts as a servant of Satan, killed back in the 1900s in human form and returning through Alice, is all jagged movements, crunching bones and extended claws, a cribbed, indistinct design that’s too lacklustre to evoke any real scares. The jumps employed by Spiliotopoulos are equally unsuccessful, as overused as they are over-emphasised, that familiar orchestral crash doing all the work over and over and over again.

Morgan does his grizzled B-movie best, slightly better served by what he has to play with than his co-stars: a confusingly accented Cary Elwes as a local bishop and a stranded Katie Aselton as the town doctor who is somehow remarkably an expert in every single medical field. The script’s many many shortcomings would perhaps be easier to forgive if the visuals were a little less shoddy, something that stings even more when one glances to the credits and sees producer Sam Raimi’s name. Raimi dragged us to hell back in 2009, but now his vision of hell is just a drag. The scariest thing about The Unholy is that he hasn’t disowned it.

The Unholy is released in the US on 2 April and on digital platforms in the UK on 2 August.

Horror films

Most viewed

The Best Chris Redfield Quotes From Resident Evil, Ranked

Chris Redfield has been a big player in the Resident Evil series ever since the very first game when he became tangled up in a zombie-infested mansion alongside his S.T.A.R.S colleagues. Since then, he's become one of the franchise's main protagonists who has experienced his fair share of horrific adventures, but while Chris is mostly well-known for his combat capabilities, he also has a pretty clever way with words.

Best Handheld Resident Evil Games, Ranked

Resident Evil might have debuted on consoles, but there's since been plenty of incredible entires released across handheld systems too.

Sometimes, these small lines can come as a result of Chris trying to share his wisdom with those around him, but it can also be a quote that expands upon Chris' character or even just a funny quip that he's randomly let out at some point or another. Either way, this ranking is going to cover some of the most memorable and iconic quotes that have ever been spoken by the immensely popular Resident Evil protagonist, Chris Redfield.

"Come On You Test Tube Freak"

Resident evil remake, resident evil (2002).

Platform(s) Wii, GameCube

Released April 30, 2002

Developer(s) Capcom Production Studio 4

Genre(s) Survival Horror

Though the Resident Evil series has become renowned for its tongue-in-cheek humor, the first game feels a lot darker and serious due to its environment, atmosphere, and music, compared to some future titles. Thankfully though, there are still a few funny lines sprinkled throughout the plot which help to break the tension, with one of the most iconic being this hilarious comment Chris makes after encountering the Tyrant.

By this point in the story, Chris will have faced down numerous zombies and B.O.Ws , including a giant shark, an invisible snake, and more than a few bloodthirsty Hunters. It therefore doesn't seem too out of place for Chris to be saying this, considering he would probably fancy his chances of survival a lot more than when he first stepped foot into the mansion, making for a comical quote that proved Chris still has a goofy side underneath that stoic exterior.

"Trust Is Built Through Actions, Not Words"

Resident evil revelations, resident evil: revelations.

Platform(s) PS3, Wii U, Switch, PS4, Xbox 360, PC, 3DS, Xbox One

Released January 26, 2012

Developer(s) Capcom

Chris is known for being someone who dearly values trust and loyalty in his companions, which is something he only came to acknowledge after his many escapades with his old partner, Jill Valentine . Not only does he want his comrades to know that they can count on him for support, but Chris also ensures he's always there for his friends when they need him most, something which he has proved time and time again through his actions.

5 Resident Evil Characters Who Have Been Through The Worst Hells

The Resident Evil franchise has some gruesome horrors, and unfortunately several characters have faced and suffered through them.

By far the biggest example of this though came from Jill herself who, in an attempt to save Chris from being killed, threw herself out of a window while grabbing Wesker, and though this didn't end up killing him, it was still a heroic act which proved just how close Jill and Chris really are. This event clearly had a big impact on Chris, and when he meets his new companion Jessica in Revelations , he makes sure to echo this sentiment, which means so much to him.

"As A Surviving Member Of S.T.A.R.S, I Have To Do This"

Resident evil: code veronica, resident evil code:veronica.

Platform(s) Dreamcast, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, GameCube

Released February 29, 2000

Even though Wesker betrayed all of his S.T.A.R.S allies in the original Resident Evil , the one survivor who took it to heart the most was Chris, and as a result, it forged an epic rivalry between the two which would become reignited in Code Veronica . During the two's final face-off in the game, Wesker tries to mock and belittle Chris, seeing him as nothing more than an irritable thorn in his side.

Chris however is quick to remind Wesker about his past sins by referencing how not every S.T.A.R.S member made it out of the whole Spencer Mansion fiasco in one piece. It also shows just how deeply Chris cares about taking down Wesker, while also implying that the reason he feels so dedicated to this personal vendetta is in order to avenge his fallen comrades.

"No One Gets Left Behind. Not On My Watch"

Resident evil 6.

Platform(s) PS3, Switch, PS4, Xbox 360, PC, Xbox One

Released October 2, 2012

Genre(s) Third-Person Shooter

A huge component of Chris' character arc throughout the games has been how he comes to accept loss, especially the deaths of those whom he fails to protect. This has happened several times, but after Piers manages to snap Chris out of his depression at the beginning of Resident Evil 6 , it feels as though the once legendary S.T.A.R.S. and BSAA member was finally back on his feet. Chris says this quote to his new team during the operation in Edonia, and while it seems simple on the surface, it's a subtle form of foreshadowing, since it's not long after this that Chris loses nearly his entire team to the new C-virus .

10 Resident Evil Characters Who Don't Get Enough Love In The Franchise

There are a lot of amazing characters in the Resident Evil franchise that don't get enough love. Here are some prime examples.

In relation to the wider context of Chris as a character, this quote is a haunting reminder that no matter how hard he tries, it's not always possible for Chris to save everyone he cares about, as much as he would like to. Thankfully, he has seemed to have a little more success in Resident Evil Village with his brand new Wolf Squad, but it wouldn't be much of a surprise if these new teammates also meet their ends at some point in the future while under Chris' command.

"Either Way, I'm Not Gonna Stop Until I'm Dead"

Resident evil 5.

Released March 5, 2009

Just like any human being, Chris has a lot of faults as a person. He's brash, hot-headed, and sometimes a little too stubborn for his own good, but beneath it all, is a man who genuinely cares about protecting the world from bio-terror and cleaning up the remnants of what Umbrella left behind. He doesn't actually express these underlying feelings very often, but one quote that demonstrates how far Chris is willing to go is one said when he comes face to face with Wesker at the end of Resident Evil 5.

At this point in the plot, Wesker had become hell-bent on causing mass genocide in order to create a world where only the "strong" could survive. Despite Wesker's superhuman powers and abilities, Chris shows no fear when confronting him, and even admits to himself the only time he will stop pursuing Wesker and intercepting his evil schemes will be when he's no longer alive and kicking.

"Goddamit, When Does It End?"

Resident evil village.

Platform(s) Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5, PS4, PC, Stadia, Xbox One

Released May 7, 2021

Genre(s) Survival (dupe), Horror

This is a pretty clever quote that was inserted during the Wolf Squad Raid mission near the end of Village . During a rare moment of reflection, Chris asks a simple question to one of his colleagues, "When does it end?". Right after, he claims he's referring specifically to the missions regarding the Mold and Mother Miranda, but it also subtly hints at the fact that Chris has been fighting these sorts of monsters for much of his adult life.

It's clear the constant fighting is starting to tire him out, yet he's still fully aware that he's one of the only people on the planet with enough knowledge and experience to deal with these sorts of bio-terror threats whenever they pop up, which tends to be very often in this dangerous game universe . It could even be taken as a line that attempts to break the fourth wall, almost as if Chris is speaking directly to his creators at Capcom and asking how much more torment they can realistically put him through.

6 Resident Evil Games With The Best Music

The Resident Evil series is well-known for its haunting soundtracks, but these entries represent the very best of the franchise's OSTs.

The Best Chris Redfield Quotes From Resident Evil, Ranked

Skip to main content
Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Movie Reviews

LISTEN & FOLLOW
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

'Evil Does Not Exist' — or does it? — in this mysterious Japanese eco-drama

Justin Chang

Ryô Nishikawa plays Hana in Evil Does Not Exist. via Janus Films hide caption

Ryô Nishikawa plays Hana in Evil Does Not Exist.

What do you do after you've directed a talky, three-hour Japanese drama that became a critics' darling and major arthouse hit and received four Oscar nominations, winning one for best international feature?

If you're Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the gifted 45-year-old filmmaker behind Drive My Car , you step back and go for a long walk in the woods, in search of fresh air and new ideas.

The result is a mesmerizing new movie, Evil Does Not Exist , that leaves behind the mostly urban settings of Hamaguchi's earlier films like Happy Hour and Asako I & II . It takes place in a rural village within driving distance of Tokyo, that's home to a close-knit community of about 6,000 people.

'Drive My Car' may be the most absorbing ride you take all year

The first two characters we meet are a young girl named Hana and her single dad, Takumi, a woodcutter who knows the surrounding forest better than most. The movie sets a gently pastoral rhythm, following father and daughter as they walk through the woods, identifying trees and other plants and stumbling on the occasional dead deer.

Takumi, wonderfully played by Hitoshi Omika, knows that their presence here is disruptive, but he and his fellow residents do strive to be good, responsible stewards of the land. And so they're incensed when they learn that a company is planning to build a glamping resort in the area, with potentially disastrous environmental consequences.

And so Evil Does Not Exist begins as a kind of ecological parable, pitting townsfolk against corporate developers. The centerpiece is a brilliantly written and acted sequence in which the company reps meet with the locals, promising that the campsite will bring tourists and boost their economy.

But the locals aren't fools, and one by one, they raise issues, from the risk of wildfires from BBQ pits to the septic tank that will pollute the town's water supply. The sequence has some of the texture of a Frederick Wiseman documentary , and it's similarly skilled at turning a slideshow presentation in a community center into the stuff of engrossing drama.

There's a turning point in the story when one of the company reps — Takahashi, played by the actor Ryûji Kosaka — seems to fall under the spell of this wooded region and even fantasizes about moving here. For a while it looks like the movie might be the story of a city mouse turning country mouse.

But nothing about Evil Does Not Exist turns out to be predictable. As he's done before, Hamaguchi gives us characters who are too complicated and richly drawn to be reduced to any one type. Yet that doesn't explain how hauntingly different this movie feels from his other work.

It's more sparsely written and more unsettling in tone. The musical score, composed by Eiko Ishibashi, is both lush and ominous, and it often cuts off abruptly, to disorienting effect. The outdoor scenery is shot with a crystalline beauty, but the longer you watch, the more sinister the imagery becomes. At times Hamaguchi positions the camera at ground level looking up, as if to show us the perspective of the earth itself. In these moments, the human characters suddenly look strangely alien, like the interlopers they are.

I've seen Evil Does Not Exist a few times now, and each time it's held me rapt, only to leave me feeling profoundly unnerved. Much of that has to do with the ending, which is confounding in ways that have already generated a lot of debate. I'm still wrestling with the ending myself and what it says about the human compulsion to dominate one's environment. I'm also still getting a handle on the title. It's as if Hamaguchi is trying to get us to look at the natural world, human beings included, beyond the comforting framework of good vs. evil.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the character of Takumi, whom Omika plays with an inscrutability that both frightens you and draws you in. He may be a loving father and caretaker of the land, but Takahashi misreads him at his own peril. It's the two lead actors' performances that keep you watching through the shattering final moments. Whether or not evil exists, I'm glad a movie this mysterious and powerful does.

‘Evil Does Not Exist’ — or does it?

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s eco-drama is masterfully ambiguous.

Japan’s Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has emerged over the past decade as one of the world’s finest working directors, but his movies can be frustratingly hard to encapsulate. They deal in the mysteries of human interaction, the baggage we carry and struggle to cast off, sins both personal and societal. They may not seem like much when you watch them, but they have the grace to linger and haunt. “Evil Does Not Exist” may be his most haunting film yet.

At 106 minutes, it’s also one of his shortest, at least compared with 2021’s Oscar-winning “ Drive My Car ” (three hours of grief, guilt and “Uncle Vanya”) or the five-hour-plus “Happy Hour” (2015), about the shifting friendships of four middle-aged women. “Evil Does Not Exist” takes place in a rural village outside Nagano, to the north of Tokyo, and in its deceptively unfocused fashion, it frets about the encroachment of city life on the last outposts of wilderness. The film’s central figure and understated hero is Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a widower who lives with his young daughter Hana (Ryô Nishikawa) and gets by on odd jobs. He’s Hamaguchi’s version of Thoreau’s Natural Man, existing in harmony with the trees he fells for firewood, the mountain streams he drinks from, and the wild wasabi and Siberian ginseng he plucks from the ground.

The arrival of two PR flacks for a developer who wants to build a glamping site outside of town rings alarm bells among the locals, leading to a long and amusingly satisfying town meeting in which the reps present their plan to what they assume will be docile country folk, only to have it methodically and thoroughly picked to pieces. In particular, the site’s waste facilities would threaten the village water supply, a clear danger that is waved away by the outsiders and their boss in Tokyo. For non-Japanese audiences, the scene is remarkable for showing how a culture of subservient politeness can serve as a front for corporate steamrolling — “your valuable input will be considered,” the villagers are blandly told — and also how direct confrontation can bring that steamroller clanking to a halt.

With almost any other filmmaker, the flacks, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), would be clear-cut villains. Hamaguchi, though, deals not in black and white, but in a full palette of shades, and the movie’s title is more provocation than a statement to be taken at face value. In relatively quick fashion, Takahashi and Mayuzumi, both of them disconnected and discontented urbanites, find themselves drawn to the seeming simplicity of Takumi’s lifestyle and tempted to chuck everything and go country. “Evil Does Not Exist” plays this for perceptive and biting human comedy; Takahashi’s clumsy but proud attempts to split logs for the first time are very near to slapstick.

For all that, an undercurrent of foreboding ripples beneath this film. It edges toward outright unease late in the game and explodes in the final scene with what seems an inexplicable act of violence. The ending of “Evil Does Not Exist” created much debate among international festivalgoers last fall, and it presents a challenge to general audiences who prefer their stories wrapped up neatly rather than detonating in their faces. Having seen the movie twice now, it’s clear to me that Hamaguchi is taking a leap into poetic metaphor for which his characters have been poised the entire running time and which viewers are meant to carry home like a pebble in their shoe.

Visually, sonically and thematically, “Evil Does Not Exist” is a rich and subtle experience. Yoshio Kitagawa’s cinematography frames humans as small elements in a wide canvas of forest and field, the bright colors of their jackets like points of unnatural light seen through the tangles of branches. A gorgeous string score by Eiko Ishibashi — written before the movie and serving as the director’s first inspiration — lets dissonance creep in like a jungle reclaiming a clearing. In his calm and openhearted way, Hamaguchi has given us a horror story about a slowly vanishing wilderness and its way of life. He knows that in a world where everyone has their reasons, pushing back may be a necessary act of madness.

Unrated. At Angelika Film Center Mosaic, Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema and Landmark E Street Cinema. Contains some violence. In Japanese, with subtitles. 106 minutes.

Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List at tyburrswatchlist.com .

Cast & crew

Speak No Evil

A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare.

James Watkins
Christian Tafdrup
Mads Tafdrup
James McAvoy
Mackenzie Davis
Scoot McNairy
1 Critic review

Louise Dalton

Agnes Dalton

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia A remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name.
Connections Referenced in All About: All About Horror in 2024 (2023)

Technical specs

Dolby Digital

More to explore

‘Never Let Go’ Trailer: Halle Berry Battles an Evil Spirit to Survive in New Horror Film Directed by Alexandre Aja

By Michaela Zee

Michaela Zee

Judi Dench Criticizes Trigger Warnings in Theater: ‘If You’re That Sensitive, Don’t Go’ 2 days ago
Netflix’s ‘Terminator Zero’ Anime Reveals August Release Date and First Look Photos 2 days ago
‘You’re Cordially Invited’ Trailer: Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell Wage Wedding Warfare in Prime Video’s R-Rated Comedy 3 days ago

Lionsgate has released the trailer for the Alexandre Aja-directed horror film “Never Let Go,” starring Halle Berry .

“Never Let Go” follows a mother (Berry) and her fraternal twin sons (Anthony B. Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV), who have protected themselves from a malicious spirit for years under their family’s protective bond. However, when one of the boys begins to question the existence of the evil, the bond is broken, leading to a terrifying fight for survival.

Jenkins, Daggs, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Christin Park and Stephanie Lavigne round out the cast.

Popular on Variety

“With this movie, it reminded me how I would protect my children with my life,” Berry added. “We often say, ‘I would take a bullet for my kids.’ Would you take a knife for your kids?”

“Never Let Go” premieres in theaters on Sept. 27. Watch the full trailer below.

More From Our Brands

Here’s how to watch ‘snl’ this weekend without cable, isa unveils a trio of sleek new superyachts, sportico transactions: moves and mergers roundup for may 17, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, get starz semi-annual plan for just $20 — binge bmf, outlander, mary & george and more, verify it's you, please log in.

Review: Vin Diesel's chaotic 'Fast X' stalls out, even with an enjoyably evil Jason Momoa

Not too long ago, one could reasonably expect that when a new “Fast and Furious” film rolled off the assembly line, there’d be some fresh upgrades: a submarine chasing a Dodge Charger on ice, for example, or a Pontiac Fiero rocketing into space.

“ Fast X ,” however, is mostly the same old vehicle with familiar features and accouterments, with one key (and extremely welcome) exception: Jason Momoa gleefully drenches this ride in neon and finger-paints flames on the side.

Directed by Louis Leterrier, the 10th installment (★★½ out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters now) is another globetrotting affair putting ex-street racer Dominic Toretto ( Vin Diesel ) and his merry gang of world-saving hackers, gearheads and antiheroes through explosive situations, all-out brawls and, yes, some nitrous-fueled vroom-vrooming. While the “Furious” franchise is beginning to feel bloated with characters and subplots, “X” at least delivers a proper cliffhanger for its “Empire Strikes Back”-esque, heroes-in-deep-trouble chapter.

Ranked: Every 'Fast and Furious' film, from worst to best

After nine movies of grand theft auto, vehicular warfare and spy missions working for a shadowy government group called The Agency, Dom is fairly at peace in LA: He gives driving lessons to his 10-year-son Little Brian (Leo Abelo Perry) – named after the late Paul Walker ’s character – and welcomes his grandma (Rita Moreno) for a heartfelt barbecue with his “family.”

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Cautiously in domestic bliss, Dom hands the reins of a new mission in Rome to his old friend Roman (Tyrese Gibson) but it's actually a trap set by Dante Reyes (Momoa), the sociopathic and sadistic son of a powerful Brazilian drug lord the crew took out permanently a decade ago (see: “Fast Five”). This vengeful dude doesn’t just want Dom to die, he wants the big guy and everybody associated with him to suffer. Many nefarious machinations ensue, including blaming our heroes for a massive terrorist attack, Dom being placed atop the global most-wanted list (again) and the bad guys going after his son.

'The Fast and the Furious': Vin Diesel recalls fixing Paul Walker's 'goofy lines'

As usual, laws of physics are pummeled at length and all logic is shot out of a cannon amid a "James Bond meets Popular Mechanics" vibe, yet “Fast X” is particularly head-scratching in its bizarre character choices and decisions: Jakob Toretto (John Cena) spent most of the last film trying to kill his big brother and now he's a goofball uncle? For those who prefer nonstop action, no movie series is this good at sending a flaming metal bomb careening through Rome. That said, much of the spectacle in this 10th film rehashes bonkers situations and scenes done before (and better), a running theme that also pervades much of the narrative.

In one sequence, buff lawman Agent Aimes (Alan Ritchson) runs down the plot of every film for Tess (Brie Larson), the daughter of Kurt Russell’s mysterious Mr. Nobody. (Fun fact: "Fast X" is actually quite accessible for newcomers.) Dom is often seen looking at pictures from previous “Fast” movies, and the newest outing essentially begins with a replay of the “Fast Five” finale: The old footage is a bittersweet reminder of Diesel and Walker’s exceptional chemistry and how the films have never been able to replicate that magic. Dom’s wife Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) even tells him he needs to stop looking in the “rear-view mirror” and live in the present – it’s a lesson the movie could stand to learn.

First 'Fast X' trailer: Vin Diesel rides again in explosive showdown with Jason Momoa's villain

Thankfully, Momoa puts the entire film on his back as the preening, devilishly excellent Dante unleashes rampant chaos and mayhem. While “Fast” heroes and villains usually veer macho, Momoa embraces a playful flamboyance you miss whenever he’s not on screen. And while the script is awash in ludicrous dialogue, Dante winds up with all the good lines, even while doing his nails and conversing with corpses. He and the legendary Moreno are great additions, as is Ritchson – those who dug Amazon’s two-fisted “Reacher” series will love him in this.

Both fun and frustrating, “Fast X” gets it in gear enough for a gutsy finale that leaves characters in serious peril. Yet with an end game in motion, and only one movie ( perhaps two ) left in this long-running franchise, it’s not the time to be stalling out this close to the finish line.

The 10 must-see movies of summer: From 'The Flash' and 'Little Mermaid' to 'Indiana Jones'

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – The Unholy (2021)

April 1, 2021 by Robert Kojder

The Unholy , 2021.

Written and Directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cricket Brown, Cary Elwes, William Sadler, Katie Aselton, Christine Adams, Marina Mazepa, Gisela Chipe, Bill Thorpe, Dustin Tucker, Danny Corbo, and Diogo Morgado.

The Unholy follows Alice, a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate. When terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister.

Where God goes, the devil is not far behind. Such is the premise for The Unholy (based on the 1983 novel Shine by James Herbert with Evan Spiliotopoulos writing and directing for the screen, making his directorial debut in the process following serving as a longtime producer for a slew of Disney projects), which admittedly comes with enough conceptual terror I forgot the movie was even rated PG-13 and stopped caring about seeing something ultraviolent. I’ve never read the book, but the film doesn’t exactly hide that the characters, who believe they are praying to the Virgin Mary in return for fulfilled miracles (a deaf-mute woman has her hearing restored, a child with muscular dystrophy rises from his wheelchair able to walk, and more), are actually worshiping something malevolent.

It’s practically Stephen King-ish when one considers the Monkey’s Paw horror approach that turned Pet Sematary into one of the author’s greatest works. Of course, that means the horror is mostly psychological with us watching these characters make mistakes that we otherwise might make in their same shoes. The Unholy is the rare example of a horror movie where it somewhat works better because the audience is kept inside the loop.

It’s also a pleasant surprise that the protagonist is a disgraced journalist by the name of Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan of The Walking Dead notoriety), an ethically slimy reporter here looking for his next big story, going on a moral arc in the process that while it is par for the course, comes with the added caveat of juxtaposing his profession with various men of faith across different rankings. Once word of the miracles gets out to the Catholic Church, it should be a given that someone is going to be up to no good even in the face of imminent danger. Gerry is a known liar trying to make a comeback, and while he may be inadvertently responsible for the events at play here, fluffing up the story and the actual truth come into serious question for what seems like the first time in his life.

Initially called out to report on potential demonic rituals involving animals near a church (something that’s amusingly not at all what it seems and shows a welcome sense of humor among everything else here), Gerry also stumbles upon a creepy porcelain doll with the impossible date of February 31st scribbled across it. He decides to stomp on it and use it as material to make the aforementioned story, which has turned out to be a waste of time, more exciting. It turns out, he has let loose… something.

It’s easy to see why people within the vicinity don’t think too much of it since 18-year-old Alice, who lives with her uncle Fr. Hagan (William Sadler) in the area, is healed of her deaf-mute condition once the spirit is set free. She’s informing everyone that she is now communicating with the Virgin Mary (it’s presented to us with ethereal, hazy white, glowing visuals). In turn, Alice is now healing others. Fr. Hagan is convinced something more sinister is going on, as are we, seemingly not wanting to be cured of his emphysema. Monsignor Delgarde (Diogo Morgado) is also brought in to carefully analyze these miracles to see if they are indeed acts of God.

Now, there are some lame attempts at jump scares alongside a hooded being in desperate need of more CGI work (to the film’s credit, the budget seems to have gone to the climax which does look fine), but it would be wrong to say that The Unholy is even trying to be visually frightening. It wants to get under the viewer’s skin with its concept of not knowing if they are talking to something heavenly or demonic, and in that regard, it’s effective and simultaneously engaging. The story also moves along with type pacing, as a small no-name town suddenly brooms in popularity with Gerry back in business with the story of a lifetime.

If The Unholy commits any sin (aside from sticking a bit too close to the trademarks of modern-day horror grounded in jolts and loud noises with no subtlety), it’s that it doesn’t dig deep enough to explore any of these characters and themes. Whether it’s the journalist discovering the importance of sticking to the facts, an overly villainous Bishop (Cary Elwes), the young woman with a gift, the individuals and families on the receiving ends of miracles, and those not sure what to think of these miracles at all, the narrative is stuck more concerned with hiding the plot points rather than say anything of interest that can’t be picked up from the trailer or this review. However, it does have atmospheric dread, solid performances, and an effectively sinister concept to offset the depth of the story.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Fox Marvel Characters Who Need Redemption in Deadpool 3

Hellboy: Guillermo del Toro’s Occult Superhero Fantasy at 20

The Most Obscure & Shocking John Waters Movies

The Most Anticipated Horror Movies of 2024

Great Cult Films From 1984 You May Have Missed

10 Essential Films From 2004

Fantastical, Flawed and Madcap: 80s British Horror Cinema

Essential Cult 80s Movies You May Have Missed

5 Underrated Jean-Claude Van Damme Movies

Cannon’s Avengers: What If… Cannon Films Did the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Comic Books
Video Games
Toys & Collectibles
Articles and Opinions
About Flickering Myth
Write for Flickering Myth
Advertise on Flickering Myth
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy

IMAGES

Movie Review: The Unholy (2021) (With Spoilers) · N=1
Movie Review: The Unholy (2021)
The Unholy Movie Review (2021)
Movie Review: The Unholy (2021)
THE UNHOLY: New Blu-ray Cover Art and Release Date Revealed
The Unholy (2021)

COMMENTS

The Unholy movie review & film summary (2021)
A disgraced journalist covers a deaf girl's miraculous visions of the Virgin Mary in a small town, but is it really holy or unholy? The reviewer finds the film standard religious horror with some jump-scares, but lacking in depth and realism.
The Unholy
These actors maintain the illusion that The Unholy is a competent horror movie for far longer than it deserves. Rated: 2/5 Apr 9, 2021 Full Review Angie Han FilmWeek (KPCC - NPR Los Angeles ...
'The Unholy' Review: A Religious Horror Movie You Can Believe In
Music: Joseph Bishara. With: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cricket Brown, Cary Elwes, Katie Aselton, William Sadler, Diogo Morgado, Marina Mazepa, Christine Adams. Cricket Brown makes a splash in a rare ...
The Unholy
The Unholy's story is nothing we haven't seen before, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan makes for a compelling lead, and there are still more than enough scares here to satisfy horror hounds. Full ...
'The Unholy' Review: 'There's Something About Mary'
Adapted from a 1983 novel by James Herbert, "The Unholy" ( no relation to Camilo Vila's 1988 dud) gives us the usual weeping statues and a soundtrack heaving with crackles and whispers ...
The Unholy (2021)
The Unholy: Directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos. With Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cricket Brown, William Sadler, Katie Aselton. A hearing-impaired girl is visited by the Virgin Mary and can suddenly hear, speak, and heal the sick. As people flock to witness her miracles, terrifying events unfold. Are they the work of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister?
The Unholy Review
5. Review scoring. Jeffrey Dean Morgan battles evil in The Unholy, a Sam Raimi-produced horror flick that proves devotedly spiritless. At best, The Unholy is a horror flick fit for tweens who aren ...
The Unholy (2021)
movieman6-413-929510 19 July 2021. The Unholy is a new horror film directed and written by Evan Spiliotopoulos, this is his first work as a director. In the film, after a visit from the Virgin Mary, young deaf and mute Alice (Cricket Brown) is able to hear, talk again and is given the gift of healing other sick people.
The Unholy
The Unholy is a good tight scary commercial theological horror film. Its spooks and demons unfurl within a pop version of Christianity, which makes it sound no more exotic than last week's "Exorcist" knockoff or last year's helping of the "Conjuring" franchise. But The Unholy has a religious plot that actually works for it.
The Unholy
John Higgins Starburst. After a bright and bloody opening, the film settles into a more mystical story before building to an atmospheric, if silly, climax. Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Feb ...
The Unholy (2021 film)
The Unholy is a 2021 American supernatural horror film written, produced, and directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos (in his directorial debut), based on the 1983 novel Shrine by James Herbert.Produced by Sam Raimi through his Ghost House Pictures banner, it stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katie Aselton, William Sadler, Diogo Morgado, Cricket Brown, and Cary Elwes. ...
'The Unholy': Film Review
'The Unholy': Film Review. Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays a disgraced journalist who stumbles onto a wave of religious miracles obscuring a malevolent history in the latest from Sam Raimi's Ghost ...
'The Unholy' review: Gothic terror bogs down in tired tropes
"The Unholy," Evan Spiliotopoulos' dramatically muddled horror movie based on the James Herbert novel "Shrine," stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Movie Review
Movie Review - The Unholy (2021) April 1, 2021 by Robert Kojder. ... The Unholy is the rare example of a horror movie where it somewhat works better because the audience is kept inside the loop.
The Unholy
The Unholy, released on Good Friday of 2021, might be one of the year's most spiritual movies. The Unholy, released on Good Friday of 2021, might be one of the year's most spiritual movies. ... Movie Review. Gerry Fenn never met a story he didn't lie. That's no typo. Fenn, a one-time big-city newsman, was drummed out of the business for ...
Movie Review: The Unholy (2021)
As a whole, The Unholy works as your standard PG-13 horror fare; there are plenty of jump scares (many of the ineffective variety) and the story unravels in the expected ways. Characters investigate the local history in cobwebbed storage areas and shadowy archive libraries, and there's little ambiguity behind the character arcs.
The Unholy Movie Review
The Unholy. By Jeffrey M. Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer. age 14+. Disappointing horror movie is boring despite jump scares. Movie PG-13 2021 99 minutes. Rate movie. Parents Say: age 10+ 1 reviews.
The Unholy review
The Unholy review - Satan continues to inspire the very worst films. A poorly made horror takes an interesting concept, from a James Herbert novel, and squanders it with ineffective visuals and ...
The Unholy (2021) Movie Reviews
The Unholy follows Alice, a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate.
The Unholy (2021)
Arrow in the Head's The Iceman reviews The Unholy. Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cary Elwes, William Sadler, and Cricket Brown.
THE UNHOLY
When God builds a church, ᛭he devil builds a chapel next door. 🩸🕊᛭he #UnholyMovie is Now Playing in Theaters. http://bit.ly/UnholyTicketsVisit Site: http:/...
The Best Chris Redfield Quotes From Resident Evil, Ranked
Chris Redfield has been a big player in the Resident Evil series ever since the very first game when he became tangled up in a zombie-infested mansion alongside his S.T.A.R.S colleagues. Since ...
'Evil Does Not Exist' review: This Japanese eco-drama will leave you
The result is a mesmerizing new movie, Evil Does Not Exist, that leaves behind the mostly urban settings of Hamaguchi's earlier films like Happy Hour and Asako I & II. It takes place in a rural ...
'Evil Does Not Exist'
At 106 minutes, it's also one of his shortest, at least compared with 2021's Oscar-winning "Drive My Car" (three hours of grief, guilt and "Uncle Vanya") or the five-hour-plus "Happy ...
The Unholy (2021) Movie Reviews
The Unholy follows Alice, a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate.
Speak No Evil (2024)
Speak No Evil: Directed by James Watkins. With James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare.
'Never Let Go' Trailer: Halle Berry Fights an Evil Spirit
Berry is no stranger to horror and thriller films, having starred in "Gothika," "The Rich Man's Wife," "Perfect Stranger," "Dark Tide" and "The Call."
'Fast X' review: Vin Diesel, Jason Momoa lock horns in so-so outing
After nine movies of grand theft auto, vehicular warfare and spy missions working for a shadowy government group called The Agency, Dom is fairly at peace in LA: He gives driving lessons to his 10 ...
Movie Review
Movie Review - The Unholy (2021) April 1, 2021 by Robert Kojder. ... The Unholy is the rare example of a horror movie where it somewhat works better because the audience is kept inside the loop.
The LEGO Movie
The first-ever full-length theatrical LEGO movie follows Emmet an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person (the MasterBuilder) and the key to saving his LEGO world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers -- including an old mystic (voiced by Morgan Freeman) and LEGO Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) -- on an ...

Movie Reviews

Sheila O'Malley

Now playing

The Last Stop in Yuma County

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Brian Tallerico

The Idea of You

Film Credits

The Unholy (2021)

Writer (based on the book Shrine by)

Cinematographer

Latest blog posts

Cannes 2024: Megalopolis, Bird, The Damned, Meeting with Pol Pot

Prime Video's Outer Range Opens Up in a Hole New Way in Season 2

The Ebert Fellows Go to Ebertfest 2024

Cannes 2024 Video #2: The Festival Takes Off

‘The Unholy’ Review: ‘There’s Something About Mary’

Explore More in TV and Movies

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Email not verified

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Movies / TV

The Unholy Reviews

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

site categories

David Rooney

Related Stories

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Review: The gothic terror and limited scares of ‘The Unholy’ bog down in tired tropes

More to Read

Review: ‘Monsters of the American Cinema’ confronts the horror in grief

Review: ‘Blackout,’ a new take on one of horror’s oldest myths, is claws for celebration

Review: ‘The First Omen’ plays to the faithful, but more nun fun is to be had elsewhere

More From the Los Angeles Times

New Mexico weighs whether to toss Alec Baldwin criminal charges in ‘Rust’ shooting

Kevin Spacey says he has ‘so much to offer’ after Hollywood pals demand his comeback

Review: ‘IF,’ a movie about imaginary friends, requires suspension of disbelief — and a few more drafts

Francis Ford Coppola teases ‘Godfather’ update, criticizes Hollywood studios at Cannes

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Content Caution

In Theaters

Home Release Date

Distributor

Movie Review

Positive Elements

Spiritual Elements

Sexual Content

Violent Content

Crude or Profane Language

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other Negative Elements

Latest Reviews

The Strangers: Chapter 1

Thelma the Unicorn

I Saw the TV Glow

Movie Review: The Unholy (2021)

Or browse by category:

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

Common Sense Selections for Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

Explaining the News to Our Kids

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

A Lot or a Little?

Positive Messages

Positive Role Models