Catacombs

Alternate titles : The Curse 4 : The Ultimate Sacrifice

Tagline : "Dare you enter the labyrinth?"

Set in Northern Italy, American school teacher Elizabeth Magrino (Laura Schaefer) is visiting the monastery of San Pietro, to brush up on her bible studies. Whilst there, one of the monks excavating the remains of the catacombs underneath the abbey stumbles across an ancient tomb.

After removing the seal from the tomb (never a wise idea in a horror film) the monastery is rocked by the mysterious disappearance and death of several of the monks. The extremely pious Brother Marinus (Jeremy West) immediately blames these events on Elizabeth's arrival, believing god is punishing them for allowing a woman into their order.

Befriended by a fellow American, a priest named Father Durham (Timothy Van Patten), who's staying at the monastery to try and find his 'calling' in life, they begin to investigate the old legends surrounding the catacombs and discover the tomb is said to contain an ancient demon, that was supposedly sealed up inside by the Inquisition during the mid-1500's. A story Brother Marinus insists to be true.

Of course the Father Superior, Brother Orsinni (Ian Abercrombie), thinks these old tales are nonsense. However, as more people disappear and demonic manifestations begin to emerge in the catacombs below, could Father Marinus actually be right?

Released in the US as part of the unrelated series of "Curse" sequels, Catacombs was produced by Charles Band, the guy that gave us the "Puppet Master" films and as such, is a respectable medium-budget horror. Though I did find that after the pre-credits intro, with the exorcism and imprisonment of the film's demon, the rest of the movie takes rather long to get going, so some may find this a bit on the slow side.

Overall Marks : 5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag line "The corridors of Hell".
• The movie was completed in 1988, but because Empire pictures went bankrupt shortly afterwards, the film rights got caught up in a lot of legal red tape and so was subsequently shelved. The film was finally released in 1993.
• The original script by R. Barker Price would have been too expensive to shoot, so director David Schmoeller had to rewrite large sections of it, which due to the exceptionally tight production schedule, meant that on some days he was re-writing pages right up to the point where they were about to start shooting.
• Timothy Van Patten, who plays Father Durham, also played gang leader Peter Stegman in the cult film "Class of 1984". He has since gone on to become a prominent US TV director, his credits including "Homicide - Life on the Street", "Sex and the City", "Deadwood" and "The Sopranos".
• The film was shot in just 20 days, 10 of which were in the studio, the other 10 on location in Italy.
• Jeremy West, who plays Brother Marinus, also played a Cardinal in the 1988 film "Man in the Iron Mask", a priest in the 2001 short film "Aizea : City of the Wind" and another monk in the 2004 film "Messiah". Fans of "The Howling" series may recognise him as Lester from "Howling 6 : Freaks"
• The film was originally released in the US under the title "The Curse 4 : The Ultimate Sacrifice", though like the other films in that series, bore no actual connection to the first film. It has since been re-issued on disc under it's original title.
• Ian Abercrombie, who plays Brother Orsini, also played the Wise Man in "Army of Darkness".
• Director David Schmoeller also directed the 1979 cult movie"The Tourist Trap" as well as the films "Crawlspace" and "Puppet Master" for producer Charles Band.
• The Monastery in the film was the Abbey of San Cassiano, a former benedictine monastery located just outside the town of Narni, Italy.
• Feodor Chailiapin Jr, who plays Brother Terrel, also played a monk in the 1986 Sean Connory film "Name of the Rose" as well as playing a bishop in Dario Argento's "The Church".
• The old UK VHS release was cut by the BBFC to remove a 12s scene of a statue of christ coming to life and stabbing a priest with a nail, as they felt this would be in breach of UK blasphemy laws. These antiquated laws have since been abolished though, so the film would undoubtedly pass uncut today.

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