Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1 (click to see context) from:
[[redirect:Film/TheChurch198ghfg9]]
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1 (click to see context) from:
[[redirect:Film/TheChurch1989]]
to:
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 1,54 (click to see context) from:
%%
%%
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
%%
%%
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/la_chiesa11.jpg]]
''The Church'' (or ''La Chiesa'' in the original) is a 1989 Italian horror film written and produced by Creator/DarioArgento and directed by Creator/MicheleSoavi.
In TheMiddleAges a village of accused heretics and witches are slaughtered by the UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights. The bodies are buried in a hole and a church is built on top of the burial site to contain the evil spirits.
Fast forward to TheEighties when Evan (Creator/TomasArana), a newly hired librarian uncovers the church's past and unwittingly [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaks the seal]] and [[SealedEvilInACan releases the vengeful spirits]] of the slain villagers. The Demonic possesssion or 'contagion' as it is referred to spreads like the common cold and soon, a switch is hit that seals the evil inside. Sadly, a wedding party who show up half way through the movie are trapped inside the Church with demonic spirits.
A few main characters are developed early on, but by the midpoint they're largely forgotten about when the aforementioned wedding party shows up.
In typical Creator/DarioArgento style, the film is short on story and script but big on set pieces and visuals and gore and naked women having sex with demons and Music/{{Goblin}}.
Creator/DarioArgento's daughter Creator/AsiaArgento also plays a pivotal character.
----
!!Tropes
* AbusiveParents: Lotte's father, Herman, was abusive to his daughter, sheltering her from what he sees as a CrapsackWorld.
* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler:Possessed!Evan tries to rape Lisa, although he succeeds later on.]]
%%* BadassBookworm: Evan
* BlackComedy: The grumpy Heinrich and his wife go up to the bell tower, and when the wife sees that there's no rope to pull to ring the bell, [[spoiler:[[RefugeInAudacity she uses his severed head]].]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: The Architect who designed the Church was tortured by the Teutonic Knights.]]
* CorruptChurch: A literal example, in that the titular church is corrupted by the evil that resides within it. Although [[spoiler:the bishop]] is a pretty nasty person, too.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Subverted with [[spoiler:the bishop, who is often seen wearing a black hood and talking about the Devil. He comes off as grumpy at best, but not necessarily a bad guy. That is, until he reveals his plan to allow the plague to be unleashed upon the city. Ironically, he's wearing a [[LightIsNotGood Teutonic Knight garb]] in that scene.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: Practically a revolving door of these. Evan, Lisa and Lotte all carry this ball but eventually the movie settles on Father Gus.
%%* DemonicPossession: And how.
* TheDragon: Lotte's Father to Evan [[spoiler: after both become possessed.]]
%%* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Bishop
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Father Gus removes the device from the mouth of the Architect which causes the church to collapse]]
* HumanoidAbomination: Many of the hallucinations, ghosts of people who were killed in the movie, then there's the 'thing' at the end.
* KnightTemplar: First off, there's the Teutonic Knights, who were shown to be superstitious and utterly ruthless, [[AxCrazy killing unarmed villagers who don't do anything to fight back]], even burying one of their own men amongst the corpses of the villagers. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that they killed the architect that built the Church because they saw him as an alchemist. Second, there's the bishop, who wants the demonic plague to be unleashed upon the city, and [[OmnicidalManiac presumably the world,]] [[MisanthropeSupreme which he deems as profane]].]]
%%* LightIsNotGood
* MadnessMantra: Evan at his typewriter types [[NumberOfTheBeast "6"]] over and over.
* MalevolentArchitecture: The church was built upon a mass grave of villagers and is inhabited by their
%%* NightmareFetishist: Evan
%%* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Lotte, at least it is implied]]
* OneWingedAngel: Some of the possessed take a more demonic form.
* OnlySaneMan: Father Gus is one of the only one not possessed (or a KnightTemplar) near the end.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Different in that they take the form of hallucinations and apparitions, and can assume their true form while inhabiting a human body.
* ReligiousHorror: Well, for starters, it's set in a (literally and figuratively) CorruptChurch inhabited by demons.
%%* TheRenfield: Lotte's Father
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The ghosts of the villagers are buried far beneath the church.]]
* SevenDeadlySins: Some of the ways the characters are enticed to either get into their head or outright kill themselves by the ghosts such as [[spoiler:the Bride clawing her skin off her face because she thinks she's an old woman]] or the biker thinking his girlfriend is making out with a demon.
* TheCameo:
** ''Film/{{Black Sabbath|1963}}'' star John Richardson cameos as the church's architect in a flashback.
** Director Michele Soavi appears as a cop.
* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler:The ghosts of the slain villagers form an apparition made from a mass of writhing mud-covered naked bodies.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Possessed!Evan tries to kill Lotte, who's played by Asia Argento when she was in her early teens.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:After he built the Church, the architect is tortured and left to die with the mechanism to destroy it inside his mouth.]]
----
%%
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
%%
%%
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/la_chiesa11.jpg]]
''The Church'' (or ''La Chiesa'' in the original) is a 1989 Italian horror film written and produced by Creator/DarioArgento and directed by Creator/MicheleSoavi.
In TheMiddleAges a village of accused heretics and witches are slaughtered by the UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights. The bodies are buried in a hole and a church is built on top of the burial site to contain the evil spirits.
Fast forward to TheEighties when Evan (Creator/TomasArana), a newly hired librarian uncovers the church's past and unwittingly [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaks the seal]] and [[SealedEvilInACan releases the vengeful spirits]] of the slain villagers. The Demonic possesssion or 'contagion' as it is referred to spreads like the common cold and soon, a switch is hit that seals the evil inside. Sadly, a wedding party who show up half way through the movie are trapped inside the Church with demonic spirits.
A few main characters are developed early on, but by the midpoint they're largely forgotten about when the aforementioned wedding party shows up.
In typical Creator/DarioArgento style, the film is short on story and script but big on set pieces and visuals and gore and naked women having sex with demons and Music/{{Goblin}}.
Creator/DarioArgento's daughter Creator/AsiaArgento also plays a pivotal character.
----
!!Tropes
* AbusiveParents: Lotte's father, Herman, was abusive to his daughter, sheltering her from what he sees as a CrapsackWorld.
* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler:Possessed!Evan tries to rape Lisa, although he succeeds later on.]]
%%* BadassBookworm: Evan
* BlackComedy: The grumpy Heinrich and his wife go up to the bell tower, and when the wife sees that there's no rope to pull to ring the bell, [[spoiler:[[RefugeInAudacity she uses his severed head]].]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: The Architect who designed the Church was tortured by the Teutonic Knights.]]
* CorruptChurch: A literal example, in that the titular church is corrupted by the evil that resides within it. Although [[spoiler:the bishop]] is a pretty nasty person, too.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Subverted with [[spoiler:the bishop, who is often seen wearing a black hood and talking about the Devil. He comes off as grumpy at best, but not necessarily a bad guy. That is, until he reveals his plan to allow the plague to be unleashed upon the city. Ironically, he's wearing a [[LightIsNotGood Teutonic Knight garb]] in that scene.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: Practically a revolving door of these. Evan, Lisa and Lotte all carry this ball but eventually the movie settles on Father Gus.
%%* DemonicPossession: And how.
* TheDragon: Lotte's Father to Evan [[spoiler: after both become possessed.]]
%%* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Bishop
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Father Gus removes the device from the mouth of the Architect which causes the church to collapse]]
* HumanoidAbomination: Many of the hallucinations, ghosts of people who were killed in the movie, then there's the 'thing' at the end.
* KnightTemplar: First off, there's the Teutonic Knights, who were shown to be superstitious and utterly ruthless, [[AxCrazy killing unarmed villagers who don't do anything to fight back]], even burying one of their own men amongst the corpses of the villagers. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that they killed the architect that built the Church because they saw him as an alchemist. Second, there's the bishop, who wants the demonic plague to be unleashed upon the city, and [[OmnicidalManiac presumably the world,]] [[MisanthropeSupreme which he deems as profane]].]]
%%* LightIsNotGood
* MadnessMantra: Evan at his typewriter types [[NumberOfTheBeast "6"]] over and over.
* MalevolentArchitecture: The church was built upon a mass grave of villagers and is inhabited by their
%%* NightmareFetishist: Evan
%%* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Lotte, at least it is implied]]
* OneWingedAngel: Some of the possessed take a more demonic form.
* OnlySaneMan: Father Gus is one of the only one not possessed (or a KnightTemplar) near the end.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Different in that they take the form of hallucinations and apparitions, and can assume their true form while inhabiting a human body.
* ReligiousHorror: Well, for starters, it's set in a (literally and figuratively) CorruptChurch inhabited by demons.
%%* TheRenfield: Lotte's Father
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The ghosts of the villagers are buried far beneath the church.]]
* SevenDeadlySins: Some of the ways the characters are enticed to either get into their head or outright kill themselves by the ghosts such as [[spoiler:the Bride clawing her skin off her face because she thinks she's an old woman]] or the biker thinking his girlfriend is making out with a demon.
* TheCameo:
** ''Film/{{Black Sabbath|1963}}'' star John Richardson cameos as the church's architect in a flashback.
** Director Michele Soavi appears as a cop.
* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler:The ghosts of the slain villagers form an apparition made from a mass of writhing mud-covered naked bodies.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Possessed!Evan tries to kill Lotte, who's played by Asia Argento when she was in her early teens.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:After he built the Church, the architect is tortured and left to die with the mechanism to destroy it inside his mouth.]]
----
to:
%%
%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
%%
%%
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/la_chiesa11.jpg]]
''The Church'' (or ''La Chiesa'' in the original) is a 1989 Italian horror film written and produced by Creator/DarioArgento and directed by Creator/MicheleSoavi.
In TheMiddleAges a village of accused heretics and witches are slaughtered by the UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights. The bodies are buried in a hole and a church is built on top of the burial site to contain the evil spirits.
Fast forward to TheEighties when Evan (Creator/TomasArana), a newly hired librarian uncovers the church's past and unwittingly [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaks the seal]] and [[SealedEvilInACan releases the vengeful spirits]] of the slain villagers. The Demonic possesssion or 'contagion' as it is referred to spreads like the common cold and soon, a switch is hit that seals the evil inside. Sadly, a wedding party who show up half way through the movie are trapped inside the Church with demonic spirits.
A few main characters are developed early on, but by the midpoint they're largely forgotten about when the aforementioned wedding party shows up.
In typical Creator/DarioArgento style, the film is short on story and script but big on set pieces and visuals and gore and naked women having sex with demons and Music/{{Goblin}}.
Creator/DarioArgento's daughter Creator/AsiaArgento also plays a pivotal character.
----
!!Tropes
* AbusiveParents: Lotte's father, Herman, was abusive to his daughter, sheltering her from what he sees as a CrapsackWorld.
* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler:Possessed!Evan tries to rape Lisa, although he succeeds later on.]]
%%* BadassBookworm: Evan
* BlackComedy: The grumpy Heinrich and his wife go up to the bell tower, and when the wife sees that there's no rope to pull to ring the bell, [[spoiler:[[RefugeInAudacity she uses his severed head]].]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler: The Architect who designed the Church was tortured by the Teutonic Knights.]]
* CorruptChurch: A literal example, in that the titular church is corrupted by the evil that resides within it. Although [[spoiler:the bishop]] is a pretty nasty person, too.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Subverted with [[spoiler:the bishop, who is often seen wearing a black hood and talking about the Devil. He comes off as grumpy at best, but not necessarily a bad guy. That is, until he reveals his plan to allow the plague to be unleashed upon the city. Ironically, he's wearing a [[LightIsNotGood Teutonic Knight garb]] in that scene.]]
* DecoyProtagonist: Practically a revolving door of these. Evan, Lisa and Lotte all carry this ball but eventually the movie settles on Father Gus.
%%* DemonicPossession: And how.
* TheDragon: Lotte's Father to Evan [[spoiler: after both become possessed.]]
%%* GoMadFromTheRevelation: The Bishop
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Father Gus removes the device from the mouth of the Architect which causes the church to collapse]]
* HumanoidAbomination: Many of the hallucinations, ghosts of people who were killed in the movie, then there's the 'thing' at the end.
* KnightTemplar: First off, there's the Teutonic Knights, who were shown to be superstitious and utterly ruthless, [[AxCrazy killing unarmed villagers who don't do anything to fight back]], even burying one of their own men amongst the corpses of the villagers. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that they killed the architect that built the Church because they saw him as an alchemist. Second, there's the bishop, who wants the demonic plague to be unleashed upon the city, and [[OmnicidalManiac presumably the world,]] [[MisanthropeSupreme which he deems as profane]].]]
%%* LightIsNotGood
* MadnessMantra: Evan at his typewriter types [[NumberOfTheBeast "6"]] over and over.
* MalevolentArchitecture: The church was built upon a mass grave of villagers and is inhabited by their
%%* NightmareFetishist: Evan
%%* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: [[spoiler:Lotte, at least it is implied]]
* OneWingedAngel: Some of the possessed take a more demonic form.
* OnlySaneMan: Father Gus is one of the only one not possessed (or a KnightTemplar) near the end.
* OurDemonsAreDifferent: Different in that they take the form of hallucinations and apparitions, and can assume their true form while inhabiting a human body.
* ReligiousHorror: Well, for starters, it's set in a (literally and figuratively) CorruptChurch inhabited by demons.
%%* TheRenfield: Lotte's Father
* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The ghosts of the villagers are buried far beneath the church.]]
* SevenDeadlySins: Some of the ways the characters are enticed to either get into their head or outright kill themselves by the ghosts such as [[spoiler:the Bride clawing her skin off her face because she thinks she's an old woman]] or the biker thinking his girlfriend is making out with a demon.
* TheCameo:
** ''Film/{{Black Sabbath|1963}}'' star John Richardson cameos as the church's architect in a flashback.
** Director Michele Soavi appears as a cop.
* TheWormThatWalks: [[spoiler:The ghosts of the slain villagers form an apparition made from a mass of writhing mud-covered naked bodies.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Possessed!Evan tries to kill Lotte, who's played by Asia Argento when she was in her early teens.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:After he built the Church, the architect is tortured and left to die with the mechanism to destroy it inside his mouth.]]
----
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
''The Church'' (or ''La Chiesa'' in the original) is a 1989 Italian horror film written and produced by Creator/DarioArgento and directed by Michele Soavi.
to:
''The Church'' (or ''La Chiesa'' in the original) is a 1989 Italian horror film written and produced by Creator/DarioArgento and directed by Michele Soavi.
Creator/MicheleSoavi.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None
Changed line(s) 49 (click to see context) from:
** ''Film/BlackSabbath'' star John Richardson cameos as the church's architect in a flashback.
to:
** ''Film/BlackSabbath'' ''Film/{{Black Sabbath|1963}}'' star John Richardson cameos as the church's architect in a flashback.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Added link to Tomas Arana's page
Changed line(s) 12,13 (click to see context) from:
Fast forward to TheEighties when Evan (Tomas Arana), a newly hired librarian uncovers the church's past and unwittingly [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaks the seal]] and [[SealedEvilInACan releases the vengeful spirits]] of the slain villagers. The Demonic possesssion or 'contagion' as it is referred to spreads like the common cold and soon, a switch is hit that seals the evil inside. Sadly, a wedding party who show up half way through the movie are trapped inside the Church with demonic spirits.
to:
Fast forward to TheEighties when Evan (Tomas Arana), (Creator/TomasArana), a newly hired librarian uncovers the church's past and unwittingly [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaks the seal]] and [[SealedEvilInACan releases the vengeful spirits]] of the slain villagers. The Demonic possesssion or 'contagion' as it is referred to spreads like the common cold and soon, a switch is hit that seals the evil inside. Sadly, a wedding party who show up half way through the movie are trapped inside the Church with demonic spirits.
