Les Couloirs de l'Enfer

Catacombs is a nice timepasser and pretty decent lesser known horror movie. This takes place in modern times(well, the late 80's)and is about a powerful demon locked away in the catacombs of an ancient monastery that is breaking out and reeking havoc, The acting is pretty good and the pacing and f/x are solid. Catacombs plot and style is nothing new and borrows heavily from The Exorcist, The Omen films and other, better films in the same genre. It does generate a spooky atmosphere and I would say, there is not much that will blow viewers away, but its done well enough that most people can sit through the film and more ardent fans of similar horror films should enjoy it.

When I had the chance to sit down and watch the 1988 horror movie "Catacombs" here in 2024, of course I did so. Sure, I had never even heard about the movie, prior to sitting down to watch it. But with it being a horror movie, that in itself was more than enough to make me give the movie a fair chance.

However, writers David Schmoeller and R. Barker Price put together a script and storyline that failed to entertain me. The movie started out nice enough, but then lost its momentum and sort of went from being a horror movie to being a boring pseudo-religious movie without direction and contents. Truth be told, I fell asleep along the slow paced narrative, yeah, the movie was that boring.

Of the entire cast, I was only familiar with Ian Abercrombie and Vernon Dobtcheff. The acting performances in the movie were good, and the actors and actresses did portray their characters nicely on the screen.

Visually, not an overly impressive movie. So "Catacombs" didn't even have that working in favor of it.

"Catacombs" was a swing and a miss of a movie. And this is definitely not a movie that I would recommend that you waste 88 minutes on watching. Some of us suffered through this ordeal, so you don't have to. You're quite welcome.

My rating of director David Schmoeller's 1988 movie "Catacombs" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

Before I watched this horror I watched another one coming from the same year. It's easy to see, again, that horror wasn't very popular around that era. Of course there were some highlights as Hellraiser (1987) but here again, it surely isn't a slasher or a gory piece. But there is a bit of suspense here although that you easily can see who will be possessed by the demon. There is almost no blood in it and the effects used are very cheap. What I mean is, the bodies are doing the tricks and now and then a cross or other things just fall of the wall. The acting is reasonable well and it is strange that this flick never had a proper release. Still up to now it isn't available on VHS or DVD. If you want to see it you will have to find it on rental VHS. It wasn't that bad but it's easy to see that it was a low budget. A perfect example that the latex and slime effects were over, which mostly look gory, and that a new era was on his way, the computer era or better known as CGI. But if you can find it than I would recommend it to watch it.

Taken off the shelf and retitled "Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice", this was actually made before the second and third entries in the unrelated series. This one deals with a possessed albino who was sealed in the walls of an old monastery 400 years ago. Fast-forward to the present and a young teacher's arrival to the monastery somehow frees the demon from it's prison.

I'm a fan of the other three film in the Curse "series", and while I enjoyed this one to an extent, it's easily the weakest of the four. The film boasts an exciting opening sequence, but things get bogged down when we move to the present. Of the cast, Laura Schaefer is certainly attractive, but the only good performance here is that of Jeremy West as the strict Brother Marinus. The atmosphere is solid, Pino Donaggio contributes a typically good score and there's a really effective bit with a possessed statue towards the end. This scene alone is worth seeing the film for.

On the other hand, the film would benefit from a different actor in the hero role. The guy they chose annoyed me, and so did the bedridden priest who goes on and on about utter nonsense. His character should have been omitted entirely. I also can't believe that an obvious continuity error was allowed to remain during the scene where Schaefer walks in on the monks having dinner.

A mixed bag.

First of all this isn't CURSE IV. It was filmed in 1988 under a different title, but wasn't released to video until 1993 under the title CURSE IV: THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE. Anyway, this is a lame thriller with cheap special effects, no suspense, and a laughable monster. The only good things are that the plot is o.k. and the actors are decent, but the film is just plain boring. ** out of *****. I don't really consider this part of the CURSE series, since 1-3 are much better.