A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL BECOMES A BLOOD-CURDLING HOME FOR THE ULTIMATE EVIL IN MICHELE SOAVI’S OCCULT CHILLER
Coming to Blu-ray on March 20, 2018 Chicago, IL (February 12, 2018) – The third installment in Doppelgänger Releasing and Scorpion Releasing’s ongoing series of restored films from Italian horror auteur Dario Argento, THE CHURCH is a 1989 Gothic chiller about a group of visitors trapped in a medieval cathedral who are plagued by the evil demons that have been released from the crypt beneath it.
Co-produced and co-written by Dario Argento and directed by Argento protégé Michele Soavi, THE CHURCH makes its U.S. Blu-ray debut remastered with a high definition transfer and containing a new interview with co-star Asia Argento. THE CHURCH is set in present-day Germany in an elaborate medieval cathedral that was once the site of a massacre of a village of supposed devil-worshippers by a band of crusading knights. When the church’s new librarian (Tomas Arana, The Sect) breaks the seal of the building’s crypt, he releases a cabal of evil spirits that are contained beneath it. At the same time, the church's automated mechanisms are triggered, causing its doors to close and trapping everyone inside. The laws of reality soon collapse as a nightmare takes hold and claims the lives of those within one by one, threatening to unleash a supernatural pestilence upon the world! THE CHURCH is Michele second directorial effort, following the 1987 slasher Stage Fright, his directorial debut. Prior to directing his first feature, worked on Dario Argento’s films Tenebre , Phenomena and Opera, and on such noteworthy projects as Lamberto Bava’s A Blade in the Dark and Demons and Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. With THE CHURCH (which was originally intended to be the third entry in Bava’s Demons series), Soavi was given an opportunity to fully explore his dreamy, stream-of-consciousness approach to the genre, complete with rich visuals, strong set pieces, and an overall creepy atmosphere. Soavi very quickly came to be considered a horror stylist in his own right. THE CHURCH is also notable for its evocative soundtrack, composed by the late, great progressive rock musician Keith Emerson, minimalist virtuoso Philip Glass, and the Italian prog-rock band Goblin, who previously collaborated with Argento on his films Suspiria and Tenebre. Doppelgänger Releasing and Scorpion Releasing will release THE CHURCH on Blu-ray for the first time in the United States on March 20, 2018 (prebook February 13, 2018). The Blu-ray, which includes a new interview with actor Asia Argento and original theatrical trailers, carries the suggested retail price of $24.95. More information on THE CHURCH can be found on the DOPPELGÄNGER RELEASING website |
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