The Unholy is a horror film set in a small town in Massachusetts. When a young hearing-impaired girl named Alice is cured by the ghost of Mary, she brings her religious fervor to the masses as she now channels a newfound power to heal the sick. But a plucky, down on his luck investigative journalist is intent on getting to the bottom of this mystery, and he discovers that what at first seems like a true miracle may be something more sinister.
In 1845, a group of Massachusetts witches are thwarted from doing something nefarious when one of them is forced to put on a full-face mask and is burned alive. Her body is left on a tree.
Back to present day, Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is a disgraced reporter who has been busted for making up stories for the tabloids. He's now tasked with menial stories that borderline on the bizarre - such as mutilated cattle in that same small New England town. When he discovers a creepy doll at that tree, he disassembles it to see if there's anything more to it.
Later, Gerry narrowly misses smashing into Alice (Cricket Brown) who runs to the tree and begins talking, which she formerly has been unable to do. They befriend one another and Gerry bears witness to Alice performing miracles to heal people. His lack of religion makes him an impartial witness as Alice divines Mary through herself.
Alice's uncle, Father Hagan (William Sadler) is wary of the unusual circumstance, pointing out that miracles are a prime target for the devil to strike down unwitting believers. Bishop Gyles (Cary Elwes) is also of the mind that while this could be good to bring people to the town, it could also be a foreboding omen of darkness. Will Alice prove to them all that Mary is benevolent and good? Or is there truly something evil about her newfound powers of healing?
Adapted for the screen by newcomer director Evan Spiliotopoulos (Hercules, Beauty and the Beast) there are a few moments that work among many more that don't. Based on the horror novel Shrine by James Herbert, it has a pretty solid concept that was unfortunately executed with the bravado of a 5th grader who rushed to get their homework down early so they could go play.
Nothing about this movie is necessarily scary, with the exception of some creepy body movements on the part of a ghost who comes to visit. But that actually makes the film less scary, when it could have simply been a psychological thriller about whether visions are real or not. Despite a nice soundtrack and some attempts at statue-coming-to-life surprises, nothing is able to resurrect the plot.
The PG-13 rating is appropriate for how light The Unholy is on mature content, but this film could have been served better by going the extra step and not pandering to kids. Too scary for young ones, and with a darkness that never really goes anywhere near scaring adults, it struggles as a genre movie without fulfilling the requisite tasks to do what it promises - which is to scare the audience.
Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures produced The Unholy, and with their track record, it seemed like the film could have gotten more mileage out of the budget. But in the end, very little materializes, and the film becomes a bore.
Not quite scary enough to be horror, campy enough to be comedy, nor action-packed enough to satisfy, The Unholy is a waste of time that exists more because it could have been good at one point, yet nobody stopped to question how they could make it better, or even halfway decent.