The Unholy Dvd

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 project was announced in December 2018 as the original title Shrine, with Sony Pictures adapting Herbert’s novel of the same name. The cast was announced between 2018 and 2020, with principal photography commencing in Boston, but on March 14, 2020, filming was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Unholy was theatrically released in the United States on April 2, 2021, by Sony Pictures Releasing, and received generally negative reviews from critics.

Plot

The film opens with the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft in 1845 in Banfield, Massachusetts. Before she dies, however, her spirit is bound to the body of a doll.

Many years later, skeptical journalist Gerry Fenn works a job reporting on all things strange and unusual. His latest assignment takes him to Boston, where the purported strange activity is revealed to be a teenage prank. As he’s preparing to leave he discovers the doll shown earlier in the movie and purposely crushes it, accidentally setting the woman’s spirit free. Gerry later gets into an accident as he’s driving away after seeing a young girl, Alice, run across the road. He follows her to a tree, the site where he found the doll, and hears her speak before collapsing. When he takes her to a hospital later he learns that Alice is a deaf-mute and couldn’t have spoken. Gerry decides to stay in town to investigate what he thinks could be a real story rather than a hoax or prank.

The following day Alice stuns the community by speaking and proclaiming that she has been cured by the Virgin Mary. This launches a media furor that is further propelled by other seemingly miraculous healings. The Catholic Church sends Monsignor Delgarde to investigate the claims, assisted by Bishop Gyles. Gerry befriends Alice, during which time he learns that while she has been speaking to a being named Mary, the girl has only assumed that this is the religious figure. Beginning to suspect that something sinister is occurring due to visions of “Mary” as a horrific entity, Gerry finds a partner in Father Hagan, who was healed by Alice but also suspects the healings’ true nature. Father Hagan discovers papers detailing the death of Mary Elnor, the woman from the prologue. Mary sold her soul to Satan in order to gain eternal life and power. He would allow her and her descendants, revealed to be Alice, to perform “miracles” so people would pledge themselves to her and in turn, Satan. To the horror of Gerry and Father Hagan, they learn that Alice, who they believe is unaware of Mary’s true nature, wishes to hold a service by the tree and broadcast it to the masses. An attempt by Father Hagan to stop this from happening is unsuccessful and results in Mary attacking and hanging him in the church.

Once the service begins Alice urges everyone to pledge themselves to Mary three times. Gerry manages to stop the crowd from fully pledging. Along with a physician who treated Alice earlier in the film, Gerry reveals that none of the miracles are real, as they were all a result of the placebo effect. This causes Mary to angrily appear and kill Bishop Gyles before trying to kill Gerry. She is stopped by Alice, who sacrifices herself to save his life. This in turn causes Mary to disappear, as Alice was her link to the living world. Struck by her sacrifice, Gerry begs God to save Alice’s life. She comes back to life, but is once again a deaf-mute. In the epilogue, the statue of Mary inside the Church where Alice was seen praying before during the beginning of the movie cries tears of blood once again.