SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Unholy follows Alice, a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate. When terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister.
The Unholy Video Summary
The Unholy Plot Summary and Synopsis
A movie starts in 1845 somewhere in a rural area, where a bunch of peasants and a priest burning a woman tied to a tree for presumably being a witch. A priest is using a creepy doll while saying a prayer.
It fast-forwards to modern days Boston, MA.
Journalist Gerry Fenn drinks a coffee with whiskey while talking to his editor. He goes to a small New England town of Banfield “A little piece of God’s country” to take an interview with a local farmer about cattle mutilation. Suddenly Fenn hears strange voices in his head. He follows them and finds the very same tree from the beginning of the movie and finds the very same kern doll, which wrapped in a chain sealed with a stamp dated February 31.
He decides it is a good story, breaks the doll, and takes a picture of the farmer as if he finds the broken doll.
While driving away Fenn gets into a car accident when he sees a girl in white on the road. He gets out of the broken car and follows the girl. He touches her and she faints.
A young deaf girl’s name is Alice Pagett, she is the priest’s niece. Fenn heard her talking, but no one believes him. He decides to write a story about her. In the church, Alice hears the voice and follows it to the tree. Now everyone hears her talking about someone named Mary, presumably Virgin Mary, asking the villagers to come to the tree again the next day. A local doctor Natalie Gates checks Alice and she seems to hear and talk like a normal person.
The next day Alice heals a disabled boy who starts walking in the name of Mary.
The Catholic Church sends inquisitor Monsignor Delgarde to prove or disprove the miracle. Alice tells everyone that Mary wants people’s faith. A statue of the Virgin Mary in the church cries bloody tears.
Father Hagan finds a broken doll near the tree and a hooded monster arises with a clear intention to kill him, but it is distracted by workers building a shrine around the tree.
Father Hagan almost dies because of his emphysema in a church but recovers immediately when Alice cures him, right after asking if he believes in Mary and is ready to do serve her with all the heart and soul. Doctor Natalie Gates later confirms he’s completely recovered from a previously lethal condition.
Father Hagan sees a hooded monster behind Alice.
The Pope confirms the miracles by Alice as genuine. Some people are leaving Banfield because “when a God comes down here, bad things happen”.
Fenn is taking his moment refusing his editor’s offer to pay his debts in exchange for the story.
Alice tells him the Lady is happy as everyone is believing and talking about her because of Fenn.
Fenn, while on a date with Natalie Gates, tells her about the doll he found at the very beginning of the movie. Natalie explains to him that the doll contained an evil spirit, and the impossible date was chosen to make it impossible for a spirit to get freedom.
Father Hagan finds an ancient notebook in a church basement wall. A woman with a strong Irish accent comes to a confession chamber and tells Hagan it was a long time since her last confession. Then she reveals herself as the force behind all the miracles including Hagan’s recovery. She attacks the priest in a form of а previously seen monster.
Fenn finds Hagan hanged in the church. The Catholic Church official Bishop Gyles asks him to consider it as a tragic accident, not a suicide which it apparently looks like.
A ghost is trying to attack Fenn through the video with Alice he watches on the laptop. He finds Natalie and together they find the notebook Father Hagan read before his death. They learn the witch’s name was Mary Elnor. She healed people in the name of the Virgin Mary the same as Alice, and everyone who opposed her met the horrible end. She was executed after she confesses to serve Satan, and the mask of the Virgin Mary was nailed to the woman’s face. After her death her miracles have distinguished, all who were healed were relapsed. They also learn Alice is Mary Elnor’s descendant. Witch attacks, but Fenn and the doctor escape.
Witch attacks Fenn in the church again, but Monsignor Delgarde banishes her away. A little bit later he is killed by a burning cross.
Alice asks people to go to the shrine to perform service and pledge their faith and offer their souls to Mary. Fenn intervenes and says it all the story was fake, and he comprised the hoax to become famous. Alice confirms his words. The tree bursts into flames and everyone rushes away.
The witch is finally free from the chains and goes on a killing spree. She first kills Bishop Gyles, then tries to kill Fenn, but is stopped by Alice, who sacrifices herself. After Alice’s death, the witch lacks any living descendants and disintegrates.
Fenn prays to God to return Alice back to life and she comes back. She can’t hear or speak anymore.
The Unholy Ending
Sometime later Fenn, the doctor, and Alice stand by Father Hagan’s grave. Fenn tells what a good person Hagan was.
The final scene shows the statue of the Virgin Mary crying bloody tears.
The Ending Explained
The final scene gives heavy allusion (though never directly mentioned in the movie), that the witch was revived the moment Alice was brought back to live by Fenn’s prayings. Multiple times throughout the story the protagonist receives the message that the witch can only live through her descendants. The statue crying bloody tears is a definite fact that the story of Irish witch Mary Elnor is not over yet.
Cooncel Rating
Not a so exciting “good vs. the forces of evil” movie with a predictable plot twist. Actors perform well, but still not enough to overcome the horrible script.
Source: © Cooncel.com.
Title: The Unholy
US Release Date: April 2, 2021
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katie Aselton, William Sadler, Diogo Morgado, Cricket Brown, Cary Elwes
Directed by: Evan Spiliotopoulos
Written by: Evan Spiliotopoulos
Synopsis: A hearing-impaired girl is visited by the Virgin Mary and can suddenly hear, speak, and heal the sick. As people flock to witness her miracles, terrifying events unfold. Are they the work of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister?