Catacombs

  

 

Catacombs

1988

Director- David Schmoeller

Cast- Tim Van Patten, Ian Abercrombie, Laura Schaefer, Vernon Dobtcheff, Jeremy West

            

    In the middle ages, the Inquisition imprisons a demon in the catacombs beneath a monastery. Hundreds of years later, the demon escapes at the same time that the monastery has two visitors; an American priest and an elementary teacher from a Catholic school. The kindly monk that runs the monastery is killed by the demon, leaving his second in command in charge, a martinet who sees the devil’s hand in everything.

            

     The film doesn’t have any surprises and it progresses much as you would expect. It could have used about 20 more minutes as we don’t get much back story on the demon and there is a side plot about a psychic girl that didn’t really go anywhere.

            

       The movie was produced by horror veteran Charles Band who was fond of shooting on location in Europe. The story takes place in an ancient monastery and it looks like that is where much of it was shot. The director ,David Schmoeller, had a decent career in horror himself making two cult films, Tourist Trap and Puppet Master (also with Charles Band).

The cast features some familiar genre faces like Ian Abercrombie (the Merlinesque wise man from Army of Darkness) and Vernon Dobtcheff  (who has done a lot of genre work himself including Dr. Who).

The movie also boasts one of the more unusual set pieces you are likely to see. The monastery has a giant life sized crucifix of the type you would see in many churches. This crucifix however is obviously a real person, not a wooden carving. I guess this saved on special effects costs during one scene where the crucifix comes to life but it also means there are many scenes with an obvious half naked guy hanging in the background. Well at least the actor had no problem remembering his lines.

Not a scary film but it does benefit from a good cast and really good looking sets (except for the above mentioned Jesus).