I have seen a lot of movies ranging from horror to comedy and the rest of them but one of the things that have always intrigued me in a movie is its plot or what we understand to be the storyline. The title of a movie may be very eye catchy but the moment I go through the storyline and notice that it’s empty I will lose interest in watching it. For me, horror movies are my best when it comes to cooling off and I must state it here that most times I get my writing inspirations through horror movies. In case you do not know, as a writer you must try as much as possible to engage your brain through reading, watching movies and even playing games. In this way, you will help your brain to do more in critical thinking and evaluation of scenarios. So let me ask you when was the last time you watched a nice movie? You don’t have to answer the question but I would urge you to take some time off and watch a movie or two. If you need my movie recommendation, then I would recommend you watch this movie The Unholy. Even though it is a horror movie, it has a lot of lessons that deal with our faith in whatever we believe in.
Movie Review: The Unholy
Before I go straight into this review, I must try to warn you about how horror the movie is because I remembered having series of goosebumps all over my body while I was watching the movie. I must confess that I watched it very late in the night so I think that contributed to how my body reacted to the horrors of the movie.
DISCLAIMER: This is not in any way a means to castigate the propagation of the Holy Rosary and the teachings of the Catholic Church and I believe that the Producer of the movie meant no harm.
I have seen a lot of horror movies just like I have stated above, but one thing got my attention to this particular movie The Unholy. It is a movie one would call an eye-opener into the things of the spirit. Therefore I would try as much as I can to also look at it from the spiritual point of view. The movie was produced in 2021 therefore, I make bold to say that not a lot of persons have watched it. The producer Evan Spiliotopoulos based the storyline of this movie on the book Shrine written by James Herbert.
Graphics
I remember back in the days when I watched the living Dead one of the things that made it very horrific was the use of suitable graphics to depict every horror in the movie. The producer of The Unholy did a great job with the graphics. One of the things that make a horror movie is when there is less anticipation of the horror scenes. What I mean by that is, when you are watching a horror movie and you can guess when a horror scene will be shown, you will no longer feel the impact of those scenes and that will take away the feelings you should have about the movie. The producer made sure that on watching the movie for the first time, you will never know or be able to anticipate where or when a horrific scene will blow up on your face. I must also commend him in the costuming of the entity he used which represented the demon that appeared as the Virgin Mary.
The Plot
The movie is set in Banfield, Massachusetts and it began with a scene where a woman was being killed in 1845. It was later as things were unfolding that I understood that the woman who was killed in the opening scene was the Mary that kept on appearing the girl known as Alice. Before this whole event, Alice was known to have lost her hearing but on one occasion after she began to hear, she claimed that it was the Lady (As she referred to her) who healed her. The whole story had a very good flow because I could see the producer trying so hard to make sure that it does not flow out of the contest. This is because one who has never watched the movie or one who does not remove every bias before watching the movie will end up losing the message therein. It may interest you to know that this movie has gotten a lot of criticisms but I would want you to watch the movie without any form of bias in your mind.
I decided not to go too deep in talking about the plot because anyone who wishes to read about it can get it on the internet, but I would dwell more on the things I have learnt from the movie because that is the major reason why I decided to review the movie.
Be careful who you pray to
Since the beginning of the world, there have been demons that live even amongst us as humans. We cannot deny this glaring fact because whatever we do in the physical is controlled by the spiritual. Don’t try to understand this statement rather try as much as you can to focus on the issue at hand. That will be a discussion for another day. When we go to our worship houses or shrines as the case may be, we pour out our hearts and our being both in supplication and in paying allegiance to that which we believe in. The hard question we have failed to ask ourselves is: who do we pray to? This is a question that could have saved the small town of Banfield from the stress they had to go through because they wholeheartedly believe something they did not understand.
Let us look at what the Bible said in the book of Mathew 7:15…
Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. Source
Looking at what the bible stated here, you will understand that even God himself knew that demons are parading under the surface of the earth claiming to be God because they can do miracles or should I say Magic. In the movie, I began to understand that where good exists, evil will not be far away from there and this was covered in the popular quote of Martin Luther which was used in the movie by father Hagan…
When God builds a Church, the devil builds a chapel next door… Martin Luther.
Our quest for miracles is what drives us into the unholy lands and in the hands of demons parading themselves as God or saviour. Father Hagan in the movie had this to say about miracles…
Miracles are strong acts of faith and there is nothing that Satan loves more than to corrupt our faith…
Just as you will see in the movie, the demon which appeared to Alice used miracles to corrupt her mind and the minds of others even the bishop who was meant to know better. Even though there are bases on which a miracle can be declared authentic i.e.
· The illness must be incurable
· The cure must be instantaneous
· The cure must be complete
That does not mean that the demon cannot pass through these criteria. As seen in the movie, even the Vatican sanctioned the miracles which led to the declaration of Banfield as the lady’s shrine. Whether a miracle has these three bases or not, one must try to evaluate what or who is behind the miracle because even the bible gave us the injunction to test every spirit and this is clearly stated in 1 John 4:1…
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Don’t forget that testing and doubting are not the same that is why the Holy Bible supports testing of every spirit. When you believe in a miracle but decide to test the spirit behind the miracle, you do not doubt. Doubt comes into play when you do not believe in the miracle talk more of believing in the spirit behind it, this is stated below by Alice when she was talking to Gerry Fenn about doubt.
Doubt weakens faith and doubt leads to damnation… Alice
It is on this note that I will end this review because I believe I have said enough for anyone who wishes to listen. For me, this movie should be made a must-watch for everyone out there irrespective of your religion or belief. I recommend you watch The Unholy today. I love you.
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