I watched Unholy last night, a movie I've heard a lot about through reviews, and I finally got around to it. In my opinion, it wasn't that bad, though I can see why people don't like it. I found the characters weren't well written, the story is self-explanatory, and there isn't any real mystery. Again, I enjoyed it for things such as the special effects, the dream sequences were well-executed, and anything that has demons I'm always intrigued by.
In the beginning, we see the witch get burned at the stake, which makes me sad. I don't think her actions of condemning all the townspeople to Hell solicited a slow death, maybe imprisonment or something faster. Her death leads us to her following form as an evil, vengeful spirit that she sold her soul to the devil to become. I mean, I think I would be pissed off, too, if I was the witch being burned at the stake. Also, I don't love how she only partially possessed her human vessel, which they don't even explain, for I would have just taken over completely. Her spirit gets bound to a tree by the townspeople, and the spell that keeps her there is contained inside a corn baby.
Later on, the main character, Gerry, comes in. He's a reporter who came into the town from cases of cattle mutilations. I didn't like him, though, because he was a liar at his job, creating false headlines in search of fame, but he ended up costing others their jobs since they didn't know they were helping him with false stories. The movie does add some karma to the plot as he tries to find something new to report on over the cattle mutilations. He sees the corn baby on the farm and stupidly breaks it, freeing the witch's spirit.
In my opinion, Gerry did not have any redeeming qualities. A few good deeds do not make up for a life of poor choices. Granted, he learned his lesson, but still, I will never see that character as a hero in any way, shape, or form. To me, he is just a character cleaning up his mess. I will say I did enjoy the secondary protagonist, Alice because she was much more altruistic. And while she was possessed, she believed she was doing things on behalf of the Virgin Mary, so I have sympathy for that.
I think the only change I would make to this film is probably to set it in Puritan times when the idea of a which is more believable than in modern times, but other than that, this film is decent. The only people that I think would enjoy this film are people who don't care about production quality or profound character development, mainly because they resolve everything pretty much right at the end. I also wish they would've just asked God to bring Alice's soul to heaven and leave the devil's bride in hell, but they didn't do that. So technically, the spirit of the which is still around in that universe just severely weakened, but they might have done this in case they wanted to make part two. However, if they make a second one, I hope they make a more compelling story. Have you seen this movie? If so, what are your thoughts?