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Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays a disgraced reporter who stumbles upon a wave of religious miracles obscuring a malicious story in the latest from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures.
Just in time for Easter, The ungodly proposes a satanic counter-programming to satisfy the appetites of the faithful for religious horror. Almost a decade after being dragged into a haunted dybbuk Ownership, Jeffrey Dean Morgan reworks Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, this time moving from Jewish folklore to Catholic demonology in a tale that plows the soil of Massachusetts for its tale of charred witches. After an intriguing setup that takes its time building the atmosphere and the characters, refusing to rush the first death, the film gradually becomes more and more overworked and hokey. It is also full of derivative tropes that worked best everywhere from The ring through The Conjuring Universe.
Like much of the production of Ghost House in the years since Raimi himself took the reins of directing on the entertaining villain. Drag me to hell in 2009, it was an intermediate effort that was stronger on production values than on originality. (The invading home invasion cooler of 2016 Don’t breathe was the main exception.) The ungodly marks an observable but indiscriminate stint in the writer-director’s chair for Evan Spiliotopoulos, whose long list of screenplay credits is dominated by extended Disney properties. At the very least, this first characteristic represents a departure.
Based on the 1983 novel Tomb from English horror writer James Herbert, the film begins with a prologue in which the execution of a young woman in 1845 is shown from her perspective through the eyeholes of a mask, accompanied by her screams as she is burned alive. Cut to his lifeless body hanging from an old oak tree in an open field.
In present-day Boston, Gerry Fenn (Morgan) is a jaded photo reporter specializing in sensational supernatural articles for the tabloids. A celebrity whore with a story-making history, the disgraced reporter pursues a false report of possible Satanism in the sleepy farming community of Banfield. He’s about to write the trip down as a waste of time when he finds a “baby kern” in the base of the same tree seen in the prologue. Learning that talisman dolls were used to ward off evil, Gerry does what any carefree jerk would do and shatters the relic, hoping to spice things up in a salable story.
Coming back that night, he swerves to avoid deaf teenager Alice (Cricket Brown) standing like a ghost in the middle of the road. He follows her to the tree and watches her speak in an excited whisper despite the silence since birth. Claiming to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, Alice says that “The Lady” spoke to her in detail, urging her to share the message of faith. Her uncle, Father Hagan (William Sadler), expresses concern over the hysteria that is agitating his flock in the small white New England church that sits next to the field. But when Alice forces a boy with muscular dystrophy to give up his wheelchair and walk, word instantly spreads that the oak tree is the site of miracles.
Even the staunch skeptic, Gerry, seems convinced, and with Alice agreeing to speak only to him, he’s been lucky in a legitimate phenomenon that could save his professional reputation. He finds a friendly ally in local doctor Natalie (Katie Aselton) but runs into a conflict with the clergy. Bishop Gyles (Cary Elwes) is a shrewd power player, figuring out what a shrine in Banfield could do to increase the dwindling number of worshipers, as well as his own stature within the Archdiocese. And the Vatican Inquisitor sent to authenticate the claim of a visit from the Virgin Mary, Monsignor Delgarde (Diogo Morgado, the Hot Jesus from the History Channel miniseries, The Bible) seems to want to refute it.
The character most obviously set up to face hellish fate is Father Hagan, and not just because of the late stage emphysema that overcomes him as Alice sings “Ave Maria”. “When God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel next door,” he tells Gerry, pointing out that strong acts of faith are fertile ground for Satan’s corruption. While no one, including the priest, seems to have noticed the religious statues suddenly crying blood, Father Hagan finds an old masonry notebook written in Latin that reveals alarming information about another Mary from the past.
The balance between investigative thriller and supernatural horror works to a point, supported by the eerie, almost ecclesiastical sounds of Joseph Bishara’s score. There are also effective elements in the design of Felicity Abbott’s production, like the run down motel where Gerry is hiding, with its glittering red neon. But as tragedy strikes, the Lady’s appearances become less benevolent, and Gerry begins to disentangle the distinction between divine and sinister forces, the film turns into cheap tricks and borderline silliness. No one should ever have to follow the exit of a howling ghoul vaporizing into a hiss of ash with lines like, “Now ?! Now you believe me?”
One problem is that Spiliotopoulos doesn’t make supporting characters appealing. Gerry has the only fully fleshed out bow, which benefits from Morgan’s underhand control. His profession gives him a solid background in false prophets and dark truths, making the deceased Catholic a prime candidate to see the light. Alice starts off strong, with the attractive newcomer Brown hitting the right notes of ambiguity between uselessness and mysterious enlightenment. But the miraculousGerry’s union with Gerry gets lost somewhat in the chaotic acceleration of routine hopping fears and nervous spider-walking appearances, straight out of J-horror.
Part of the irregularity in the storytelling and setting may have been caused by a disruption to filming due to the pandemic lockdown and the resulting difficulties in packing the production. There are cool effects, like ink melting on the pages of a sacred text, and others that are tired visual clichés, like a crucifix that spontaneously burns. The longer the delicate old Mary with her perverse threats, the less frightening the entity becomes. The moment she begins to rush to turn the feast of the Immaculate Conception into a black mass, she has become a drag, like the less intimidating sister of The nun. For a more satisfying solution to the pagan horror of New England, I return to Robert Eggers The witch.
Production Companies: Screen Gems, Ghost House Pictures
Distribution: Sony
Interpretation: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katie Aselton, William Sadler, Cricket Brown, Diogo Morgado, Cary Elwes, Marina Mazepa, Christine Adams
Director-screenwriter: Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the book Tomb, by James Herbert
Producers: Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Evan Spiliotopoulos
Executive Producers: Andrea Ajemian, Romel Adam
Director of Photography: Craig Wrobleski
Production designer: Felicity Abbott
Costume designer: Jennifer Lynn Tremblay
Music: Joseph Bishara
Editor: Jake York
Interpretation: Nancy Nayor
Rated PG-13, 99 minutes
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