The Church is a 1989

Italian films of 1989

A list of films produced in Italy in 1989 :-External links:* at the Internet Movie Database...

 Italian

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 written and produced by Dario Argento

Dario Argento

Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....

 and directed by Michele Soavi

Michele Soavi

Michele Soavi, sometimes known as Michael Soavi is an Italian filmmaker.-Career:Michele Soavi was born in Milan. As a teenager, Soavi enrolled in creative arts classes and developed into a talented actor. He took acting lessons at Milan's Fersen Studios, but his greatest talent was working behind...

. The film stars Hugh Quarshie

Hugh Quarshie

- Early and Personal Life :Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry and was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina and Richard Quarshie, and emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom when he was aged three...

, Tomas Arana

Tomas Arana

-Life and career:Arana was born in Auburn, California. He grew up in San Francisco and studied classical theatre at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater and at the City College of San Francisco. Afterwards he relocated to New York and acted in off-Broadway productions...

, Barbara Cupisti

Barbara Cupisti

Barbara Cupisti used to be an Italian television and film actress who is well known outside of her native country by Horror fans. They will most likely recognize her from her films with director Michele Soavi.Since 2002 she started to direct....

, Asia Argento

Asia Argento

Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...

, Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.

Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.

Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. was the son and namesake of operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. He was born in Moscow, Russia, and had a distinguished career in acting throughout Europe, mainly in Italy. His mother was Iola Tornagi, a noted ballerina who quit ballet and acting to take care of Feodor and his...

, and Giovanni Lombardo Radice

Giovanni Lombardo Radice

Giovanni Lombardo Radice is an Italian film actor, better known to audiences as John Morghen.Radice is mostly famous for the gruesome death scenes his characters fall victim to in films such as Cannibal Ferox...

.

Plot

In medieval Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, the Teutonic Knights

Teutonic Knights

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...

 massacre a village of supposed "witches

Witchcraft

Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...

" and build the titular structure over their dead bodies. Flash forward to the present day where an assorted group of tourists are visiting the church. When the seal of the crypt is inadvertently broken, the malevolent spirits of the villagers attack the tourists. Father Gus (Hugh Quarshie

Hugh Quarshie

- Early and Personal Life :Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry and was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina and Richard Quarshie, and emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom when he was aged three...

) and Lotte (Asia Argento

Asia Argento

Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...

), the Sacristan

Sacristan

A sacristan is an officer who is charged with the care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents.In ancient times many duties of the sacristan were performed by the doorkeepers , later by the treasurers and mansionarii...

's daughter, must
try to combat this evil force before it is unleashed upon the outside world.

Cast

• Hugh Quarshie
  Hugh Quarshie
  - Early and Personal Life :Quarshie is of mixed Ghanaian, English and Dutch ancestry and was born in Accra, Ghana, to Emma Wilhelmina and Richard Quarshie, and emigrated with his family to the United Kingdom when he was aged three...
  
   as Father Gus
• Tomas Arana
  Tomas Arana
  -Life and career:Arana was born in Auburn, California. He grew up in San Francisco and studied classical theatre at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater and at the City College of San Francisco. Afterwards he relocated to New York and acted in off-Broadway productions...
  
   as Evan
• Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
  Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
  Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. was the son and namesake of operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. He was born in Moscow, Russia, and had a distinguished career in acting throughout Europe, mainly in Italy. His mother was Iola Tornagi, a noted ballerina who quit ballet and acting to take care of Feodor and his...
  
   as The Bishop
• Barbara Cupisti
  Barbara Cupisti
  Barbara Cupisti used to be an Italian television and film actress who is well known outside of her native country by Horror fans. They will most likely recognize her from her films with director Michele Soavi.Since 2002 she started to direct....
  
   as Lisa
• Antonella Vitale as Bridal Model
• Giovanni Lombardo Radice
  Giovanni Lombardo Radice
  Giovanni Lombardo Radice is an Italian film actor, better known to audiences as John Morghen.Radice is mostly famous for the gruesome death scenes his characters fall victim to in films such as Cannibal Ferox...
  
   as Reverend
• Asia Argento
  Asia Argento
  Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
  
   as Lotte
• Roberto Caruso
  Roberto Caruso
  Roberto Caruso was an Italian road racing cyclist. Professional from 1991 to 1998, he won the Trois Vallées Varésines twice.- Honours :1990* 1996 : * 1997 :...
  
   as Freddie
• Roberto Corbiletto as Hermann, the Sacristan
• Alina De Simone as Lottie's Mother
• Olivia Cupisti as Mira
• Gianfranco De Grassi as The Accuser
• Claire Hardwick as Joanna
• Lars Jorgenson as Bruno
• John Karlsen as Heinrich
• Katherine Bell Marjorie as Heinrich's Wife
• Riccardo Minervini as Schoolboy
• Enrico Osterman as The Torturer
• Micaela Pignatelli as Fashion shoot photographer
• Patrizia Punzo as Miss Brückner
• John Richardson
  John Richardson (actor)
  John Richardson is an English actor, who appeared in movies from the 1950s until the 1990s.He appeared in many Italian films, including Mario Bava's Black Sunday...
  
   as Architect
• Matteo Rocchietta as Younger Schoolboy
• Michele Soavi
  Michele Soavi
  Michele Soavi, sometimes known as Michael Soavi is an Italian filmmaker.-Career:Michele Soavi was born in Milan. As a teenager, Soavi enrolled in creative arts classes and developed into a talented actor. He took acting lessons at Milan's Fersen Studios, but his greatest talent was working behind...
  
   as 1st Policeman at Lisa's House

Soundtrack

The score was composed by the British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

-America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

n duo Keith Emerson

Keith Emerson

Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...

 and Phillip Glass. The Soundtrack

Soundtrack

A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...

 featured tracks from Goblin

Goblin (band)

Goblin are an Italian progressive rock band known for their soundtracks for Dario Argento films ....

 and Fabio Pignatelli

Fabio Pignatelli

Fabio Pignatelli is an Italian musician. He was the bass guitar player for the defunct Italian progressive rock band Goblin. Goblin provided soundtracks for several horror films, most famously Dario Argento's Suspiria and George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead...

.

Release

The film premiered in Roma

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 on 10 March 1989 and was released in the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 cinemas on the same day.

Background

The Church was originally conceived as the third film in the Dèmoni

Demoni

Dèmoni is a 1985 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by Dario Argento. The screenplay was written by Bava, Argento, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti, from a story by Sacchetti...

series, which Soavi, in an interview with Cinefantastique

Cinefantastique

Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...

, referred to as "Pizza Schlock" that he wanted to move beyond.. It is known in Japan as Demons 3.