The Sect (1991) by Michele Soavi

Director: Michele Soavi

Year: 1991

Country: Italy

Alternate Titles: La setta; Demons IV: The Sect; The Devil's Daughter

Genre: Cult

Plot:

After nearly running him over, a woman takes in an elderly man and tries to help him heal, which allows him to foretell her involvement in a sacred prophecy regarding a deadly cult looking to sacrifice her as part of their plans to force her into giving birth to a Satanic entity, and she must try to stop it.

Review:

For the most part, this was a fairly strong though slightly flawed genre effort. One of the better elements within here is the rather enjoyable storyline that brings about some intriguing enough elements for a quite intriguing setup. The main idea here to bring the series of encounters and interactions that are the result of the cult going around, setting the stage for their upcoming plans through a series of bizarre incidents ranging from the encounter with the hippie commune as they're partying in the desert or the murder of the woman in broad daylight, serving to bring about a hint of their deviant nature throughout here. The way the old man meets up with the teacher as the unintended victim of a hit-and-run accident and then turns her into the attention of the cult on her heels is a solid way of going about this, as it manages to generate the kind of intrigue over their impending plans while also bringing her into the investigation.

As well, by the time this starts to generate some interest in its storyline regarding where they're going to go with bringing the woman on board for their plans. These ideas come about through some immensely intriguing and likable concepts, mostly revolving around the cult abducting her and bringing her to their compound to finish off the ritual they intend to perform that will force her to bear the devil's child. This is where the final half comes into play, as the scenes here, from the initial sequence where she wakes up in their care and is subjected to a string of arcane procedures that supposedly prepare her to bring that together, set up her race to escape from their clutches, as this is where it manages to bring about a slew of likable action scenes, with everything here leading to some solid gore as well, giving this some worthwhile factors.

There are a slew of issues to be had here that bring this down. One of the biggest drawbacks here is an overwrought, bland pacing that keeps this one so dull for such long stretches of time that it's entirely possible to forget things that have happened here. This is due to the extremely long, drawn-out conversations that focus on trying to spout occult nonsense about signs and symbols that paint up her involvement in the cult's plans without realizing that she's a part of the whole ordeal, bringing up useless sideplots that do nothing but drag out the running time, or just not putting any focus on the macabre actions of their plans to the point of boredom. These also focus on it being too long, with a chase trying to find a lost bunny or finding a lost child's parents serving no purpose here and could've been removed without any effect whatsoever.

The other big issue here is that the whole purpose of their evil plans is something that really doesn't need this level of secrecy and protection around it, as it's been plainly obvious from the beginning what's going on. Most occult-themed films plan themselves around trying to find a female vessel that will birth the Antichrist back into the world for their nefarious purposes, creating the kind of familiarity that so many similar films have also attempted this idea of Satanic occultists looking to bring about the end of the world using someone's unwitting help. This takes place with several unique and original ideas to solve it all, but the general idea is something that has been done before and by numerous other films, with a better version than this one, taking parts from this one and going off on their own. These all end up bringing this one down overall.

Overview: **.5/5

A watchable if generally overlong and flawed genre effort, there’s still a lot to like here that makes this worthwhile for this is as the majority of issues here are quite damaging and detrimental, holding this down. Those with an interest in this kind of genre fare, who are huge Eurohorror fans in general, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.

This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site: