PLOT SUMMARY: A journalist is stunned when the small town he is visiting is gripped by strange occurrences everyone believes to be the work of the divine.
Faith can move mountains. It's the one thing that helps us go through our life. Faith in ourselves, faith in others, faith in entities and deities...the list goes on.
But there are different kinds of faith. When we have faith in ourselves, it helps us boost our confidence. When we have faith in others, we learn to trust.
When we think about religious faith, we believe that there is a higher power that is taking care of us. It is better to believe that rather than feel like we are all alone in this world.
But the sceptics would have a different definition for faith. When we use that faith to make something work for us, they call it the placebo effect.
All we need to do is to believe with all our heart and things magically work. But it is actually our faith and the minds that help us heal faster, or make it through a particularly hard day or fix some issues we thought would be impossible to fix.
And then we must ask ourselves, do we believe in miracles?
If we believe in God, and pray to God, and that particular wish comes true, is it a miracle or a coincidence?
The Unholy, based on The Shrine by James Herbert, is actually a question of whether you believe in miracles. And most importantly, do the miracles come from an entity thought to be good or evil.
Turns out, the movie underlines the point that if too many miracles are taking place, it isn't the work of God but something far more sinister.
THE UNHOLY Movie Plot
The movie begins with an incident in 1845 where a woman is hanged on a tree and is being tortured by a group of men. We can see this only through her eyes. Soon enough, she has a mask placed on her and then a couple of verses are said and a doll brought out. The woman's soul is transferred into the doll.
Years later, we meet a journalist, Gerry, who is visiting a small town to write a story. When he doesn't find anything useful to write about, he feels something calling out to him in the fields. Right below a tree, he finds a doll that is all chained up and has a tag on it with a weird date on it that claims February has 31 days.
The local he is with tells him about Kern dolls that are supposed to bring good luck as they absorb all negative energies and cleanse the land. Gerry shows the local exactly what he thinks about this practice. He promptly steps on the doll's face and breaks it.
To add insult, he makes the local pose with the doll.
Later that night, as he's driving in the dark, he finds a girl in a white gown standing in the middle of the road. Gerry swerves and doesn't brake. When the car stops, he gets out and follows the girl who appears unperturbed at almost being run over. She approaches a tree and pledges her soul to it. Gerry follows her and when he addresses her, she faints.
He takes her to a nearby house where the doctor is called. The girl's name turns out to be Alice who is being raised by Father Hagan. When the doctor uses sign language to converse with Alice, Gerry points out that she can speak. The doctor, Natalie, states that it is impossible.
The next day, Gerry has decided to stay back and stalk Alice, the girl he is sure can speak. He thinks this can make a good story and follows her into church.
At church, Alice keeps staring at the statues and suddenly gets up and starts talking. She claims Mary has healed her and so she has got her voice back.
Everyone assumes it is the Virgin Mary she is talking about. Alice goes out towards the tree where Gerry has found the doll and claims to see Mary there.
The whole town goes in a frenzy especially when Alice heals a disabled boy next. The tree and the surrounding area is quickly covered up and people start printing t-shirts about how only Alice can save them.
The Catholic Church sends two men to investigate Monsignor Delgrade and Bishop Gyles. Their job is to investigate the miracles and see if it is indeed authentic.
In the meantime, Gerry reaches out to the former newspaper he used to work with for the story but is turned on because he was accused of writing fake stories. He goes to visit Alice who feels connected to him and talks only to him. Gerry uses this as an advantage to insert himself into every discussion about Alice so he can stay connected and write his story.
But Gerry also starts getting nightmares of a woman emerging from a stream by the tree and there seems nothing holy about her. When Gerry wakes up he wonders who exactly has Alice made a connection with.
The next person Alice heals is Father Hagan who already has his doubts about miracles but is ready to believe in Mary when he suffers from breathing issues. Alice promptly heals him by asking him to pledge to Alice. He does and is immediately healed.
Father Hagan isn't satisfied with just being healed. He needs to know how he recovered so quickly and sets about playing detective in a basement where he finds pages of drawings that reveal Mary's truth.
He is immediately killed for being too nosy and the Bishop thinks it would be better if it is ruled an accident because apparently people deal with accidents better than murders. Even Alice isn't told of Father Hagan's true nature of death.
So the whole town believes Father Hagan tripped and hung himself by mistake.
Meanwhile Gerry is having serious doubts about the whole Mary story. Along with Natalie, he tries to investigate the source behind his nightmares. Since he has been known to fabricate stories, he feels Mary comes to him because she is being dishonest too by using Alice to get more souls pledged to her. And since Gerry is a journalist and dishonest, Mary must feel like she can use him to carry her message to more people.
Gerry too finds the pages Father Hagan had but isn't killed immediately. He manages to escape but realizes he must warn the others of the truth.
On the drive over, he receives a job offer from the newspaper he used to work with but decides to let it go because he doesn't want Mary's story to reach more people.
THE UNHOLY Ending Explained with Spoilers!
He talks to the Bishop about his findings and is shocked to discover he already knows the truth but wants to be quiet because more people have joined the church after the so-called miracles took place.
Gerry tells him that Mary had pledged her soul to the devil so that she can live forever but the Bishop tells him that no one is going to believe him because of his tarnished reputation for writing made-up stories.
The Monsignor decides to help Gerry and Natalie get rid of Mary but he's no match for the ghost of a woman who is powerful enough to enter churches, burn crosses and make them fall on people.
Gerry and Natalie rush to stop Alice from holding a ritual that will make more people pledge themselves to her.
Gerry publicly states that the miracles are a lie and blamed everything on the placebo effect. After all, there have been only two miracles so far... Alice's voice and the boy standing up. It's not like it rained or there were a lot of crops growing or business started booming.
So it's easy for Gerry to state his theory on the placebo effect. In the meantime, Natalie, signs to Alice that Mary is devious and not to be trusted.
Alice stops people from pledging to Mary and of course, Mary gets pissed and sets everything on fire. The Bishop dies and Mary turns to Gerry to kill him but Alice sacrifices herself because she lost her ability to speak again.
Mary starts to disintegrate immediately because Alice was her only link to come to the living world because...plot twist...Alice was a descendent of Mary.
Mary goes away and Gerry prays to God to bring Alice back to life. And then bam! Alice is brought back to life without speaking abilities.
In the end, the statue of Mary cries tears of blood again...kind of because Alice is alive again.
So no doubt Mary is going to be back too because her connection still lives.
The movie is interesting and there are some genuinely scary moments.
Scare scale: 3.5/5
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