Rating: 
Summary: La Chiesa
Review: The story seems initiated by the fascination of the otherworldly architecture of the european gothic cathedral, which of course is the ultimate setting for a movie about pagan demons coming back to life.
A mediaeval pagan sect is massacred by templars and a cathedral is build on the burial ground to seal off the "evil". In present day the curiosity of a librarian working in the church leads to the awakening of what was once buried underneath.
The movie is intellectual and slowpaced, which will scare off the illiterates expecting a slasher-movie in the usual Argento-style, but the pace is essential to the whole idea, the investigation and exposal of the mystery. It's a great jigsaw puzzle, worthy of repeated viewing. Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (who didn't want us to laugh in The Name of the Rose) makes a good appearance as the bishop, having the perfect face for this kind of menacing old clergyman. The rest of the acting is simply adequate, the english dubbing mostly awfull, but the cinamatography and special effects are quite inventive, making it not only a great story but an inciting cinematic experience as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Stylish and Odd
Review: This is a great atmospheric, gothic horror film with a bit of gore to spice things up. There's not much going on as far as plot is concerned. We have a prologue showing a group of Templars massacreing a supposedly Satannically obsessed pack of villagers, and then building a cathedral over top of the burial ground. Fast forward to the modern day, where a demonic curse is released by an overly curious librarian, leading to havoc and the trapping of a number of individuals within the cathedral. That's about the short and long of it. People are possessed by demons, demons run amuck, the cathedral is shot ominously, it's all rainy, characters do little but release demons/be possessed by demons/be killed by demons etc. The plot doesn't much matter, and Soavi doesn't let it get in the way of the good stuff.
This has got some really good production values, and the acting is generally quite good by the standards of this sort of fare.(I particularly the librarian, during the day after he was possessed, but before things really go crazy.) Virtually all the performances are acceptable, at the very least, with the exception of the whiny old man, who is very annoying. I'm not as impressed by the demon effects as some are. Personally, I think they are simultaneously quite impressive technically, and a bit hokey in design. However, they are given a minimum of screen time, and work pretty well when used in such a manner. The gore is generally very well executed, with the exception of the decapitation in the opening scene, which is a bit weak. The highlight is, obviously, the suicide by Jackhammer. A hideous concept executed beautifully. Other than that we've got a guy impaled on a spier, impalation through the neck with a gate, facial self-mutilation, a chick getting smashed by a subway car, another decapitated head etc. Generally, the gore works well. Too much gore would've been inappropriate, but without any things might've been a bit too slow and uneventful. Soavi finds just the right balance.
This film is all about atmosphere. The entire film has a fairly dark, oppressive air to it, particularly in the opening section and the scenes after they're trapped in the cathedral.(The shots of them just sitting around the cathedra waiting are particularly effective) Soavi's camerwork is obviously influenced by his mentor Argento, using lots of low-angle shots, and lots of slow, prowling shots examining the interior of the cathedral. However, unlike Argento, the cathedral is largely presented as is, without the colored lighting and bizarre set design you frequently find in an Argento film.(This is the way it should be; the cathedral itself is ominous enough.) The soundtrack, partially done by Goblin, is quite effective. It's nothing particularly surprising, but it's nice and ominous without being overbearing or hokey.
Fans of Dario Argento will probably want to check this out. It's quite different from anything I've seen from him, but it's got a bit of the same flavor. Fans of The Beyond may also want to check this out, provided they actually enjoyed the atmospheric portions of the Beyond along with the gore. Personally, I was sufficiently impressed that I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of Soavi's films, should they ever get released on DVD.(or arrive at my house... stupid mailman)
Also, its got hot demon sex.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but Convoluted
Review: This slow-paced "thriller" is entertaining all-in-all. The storyline is too convoluted; it twists and turns like a multi-headed snake, going in too many directions and not following through with several of the main characters, and there are MANY main characters; too many. The first half promises a mysterious journey through the dark, secret passages of an ancient church built over the earth of a massacre that took place generations before. We're never certain whether the "innocents" who were murdered by the Templar Knights were actually devil worshippers or just misunderstood early Christians, as possibly indicated by the stigmatas that mark the bottom of their feet.
As for too many characters, we have a very sexy leading lady, and rugged handsome leading man, a striking ancient priest who seems at times like he will be the savior of earth, a young black priest, and an innocent young girl who is either the reincarnation of one of the murdered innocents from the past, or THE girl herself. All these characters promise a storyline to follow, but then their importance fades towards the end of the picture, and no real hero, with the exception of the young black priest, come to the foreground.
Still, with the creepy, gothic church interiors and the sinister demons that begin to kill and take over victims, the film will hold the interest of Itallion Horror Cinema fans.
The dvd is presented in widescreen, and the picture quality and sound are superior. Not much in the way of extras, but the theatrical trailer and a bio of director Michele Soavi. For Italion Horror film buffs only.
Rating:
Summary: Give it a try
Review: To start off, other than director Lamberto Bava, Demons III has no connection to the first two Demons films. As a matter of fact, it doesn't even contain any demons, but hey, that's ok. Many Italian horror fans don't like this film, but I kind of dug it. It starts out with a really creepy dream intro with a little gril discovering an ogre living in the basement of a castle. After this the film kind of falls apart as she grows up, becomes an author, and travels to a castle to write a novel. And you guessed it, her childhood dream becomes reality. It's an interesting concept, but the film tends to drag a bit. Not to shabby but I dug it. Again this film is bashed by Italian horror fans because it contain's no gore, again beacuse of the "Demons III" in the title. And since the first two films were so gory, one would naturally expect this one to be as well. It's not. Demons III isn't a bad film, just don't expect it to be like Demons 1 & 2 and you might find some joy in it.TRIVIA: DEMONS III: THE OGRE isn't the only film to carry the Demons 3 title. In 1988 Dario Argento (Who produced Demons 1 & 2) wrote and produced a film that was entitled Demons 3. Even though the film contained demons, it had no connection to the first two films so it was retitled The Church at the last minute before release. Later on in 1991 Italian director Umberto Lenzi made a film entitled Demons 3, but again it had no connections to the first two films and though it remained titled Demons 3 in Italy, it was retitled Black Demons for U.S. release.
Rating:
Summary: The Collection Plate Holds......DEATH!!!
Review: What's going on in the church? Well, back in the middle ages a community of alleged devil worshippers get slaughtered by some templar-like knights. After throwing the bodies in a pit, they get an alchemist to build a church on the pit. Flash forward to nowdays and the church is up and running. Some Curious George librarian decides to unravel the mystery, letting all the revenge-hungry demons out. This is about one hour through the film. For the remaining 40 minutes the people inside the Church are trapped and have to deal with all kinds of demon hocus pocus. This project started out as a third Demons film, but went through some ch-ch-ch-changes. There are similarities to the Demons films however. The demonic possession in this film seems to spread from person to person in the form of a physical infection/sickness. They even call it a "plague" at one point. WILL THEY GET OUT ALIVE???? Dario Argento's protege, Michele Soavi(who went on to do the awesome Cemetery Man) obviously learned a thing or two from his teacher. The Church isn't a fantastic film, but it's quite good and shows Soavi's potential. It's not a total gorefest, it's only really gory when it has to be. There is a very gruesome suicide by jackhammer that'll get your attention. As others have pointed out, the devil monster in this film looks excellent. And boy it does! Too bad he's got about 5 seconds of screen time(and that's not really an exaggeration either). For the price of this dvd it's quite a painless gamble. If you like the Fulci approach to Italian horror, The Church can go either way with you. But if you dig Argento's style, most likely you'll dig this as well.
Rating:
Summary: Below my expectations.....
Review: When I heard about this movie, I wanted to watch it for it's name alone, I felt nervous watching it because I thought it was going to be as frightening as other horror films involving religion. Now, the acting is very good, the scenery is amazing and eerie, it's what I expected to look like when I saw the cover of it. There is plenty of gore and in very gruesome ways, the subway scene is historic! There is one scene from this movie that is a really famous painting, let's see if you will know what scene I'm talking about. I liked the ending of the movie, it's a real twist, but I was expecting alot more. I kept saying to myself, this has to be the scene where the dead rise! But there are no zombies in this movie so don't expect any, there's alot of de javu in this, but I really expected more, like a battle between good and evil. The atmosphere couldn't have been any better, if you're a horror fan wanting to watch something different, with a really creepy atmosphere watch this movie. If you're looking for a horror movie with tons of action, look elsewhere, though this was fun to watch it leave me wanting to know more about what happened, that's probably the reason I wasn't too satisfied with it, because it leaves you wanting something. Oh and here's some advice, never go into a church with metal doors.
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