page_title: The Church (1989 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The Church (1989 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: Magyar: Mátyás templom (Budapest 1, Szentháromság tér) This is a photo of a monument in Hungary. Identifier: 139
context_page_description: The Church is a 1989 Italian supernatural horror film co-written and directed by Michele Soavi, and produced by Dario Argento with Mario Cecchi Gori and Vittorio Cecchi Gori. It stars Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana, Barbara Cupisti, Asia Argento, Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. and Giovanni Lombardo Radice.
  Although it was originally conceived as the third installment in the Dèmoni series, Soavi insisted the film to be distant from the series, wanting it to be “sophisticated”, and re-wrote the screenplay to remove any connection to the series. Filming was primarily shot in the Matthias Church in Budapest, with additional footage filmed at studio sets in Rome and in downtown Hamburg, Germany.
context_section_description: In an interview conducted on January 22, 1988, directors Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento were discussing a follow-up to Demons 2 stating that they were working on a follow-up film, with Argento stating it would not be called Demons 3, but potentially Ritorno alla casa dei demoni (transl. Return to the House of the Demons). The third Demons film had a story developed by Franco Ferrini and Dardano Sacchetti which involved an airplane that had to make an emergency landing where it finds itself on an island with a volcano where the passengers. Sacchetti explained that the situation was for them to arrive in a "weird hell" and compared the film to Alien, but with the isolated place being an airplane opposed to a spaceship and the demons replacing the aliens. After developing several drafts, the writers abandoned the story with Sacchetti stating that they had trouble creating a story set in an isolated area of the airplane. The screenwriters eventually developed a new screenplay set in a church which acted as a passage into hell. Argento would later state that The Church "was never Demons 3, Nobody but Lamberto ever wanted to make Demons 3; I didn't want it, the studio didn't want it, nobody wanted it."
  The decision of re-starting the screenplay from the beginning led to Bava leaving the project as he began working on a set of television films in October 1988. This led to director Michele Soavi to enter production as the director, right after he had completed his film Stage Fright. Soavi was surprised at Bava leaving the project, stating "I couldn't be he had worked on it for so long and didn't want to complete the project." Soavi made some changes to the script, including a new opening scene influenced by John Milius' film Conan the Barbarian. Soavi declared that he "loved the first part, but in the middle it was a little silly, so I got together with Franco Ferrini and worked on it to make it stronger." Shooting of the film took place from September 1988 to November 1988  with a budget of three and a half million dollars.
  On finding the appropriate church for the film, Argento stated they looked throughout Europe: Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland and found that nobody wanted them to shoot in their church due to the nature of the film. Finding it easier to shoot in Eastern Europe, the crew explored Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria eventually settling on a Church in Hungary. The film was shot at Matthias Church in Budapest, in Hamburg, and at both R.P.A. Elios Studios and De Paolis In.Ci.R. studios in Rome. Soavi described his filming experience as exhausting, noting that he "was free, and I could do what I wanted... but I also sufferd a lot because of the difficulties, the vicissitudes, the delays."
  While preparing for the film, Argento learned that Keith Emerson would be interested in writing the score, having worked with him previously on Inferno. Having received his twelve-track demo which Argento did not like: "They were terrible. Noe even a child would have written music like that. A sort of bombastic march, it sound like the Carabinieri fanfare." Only three tracks by Emerson were used in the film: an organ-driven main title theme, a track titled "Possession" and a rearranged version of Bach's Prelude 24. For the rest of the score, Soavi inserted two tracks by Philip Glass and relied on Fabio Pignatelli who is credited as Goblin.
  Soavi has derisively referred to them as "Pizza Schlock", and expressed that he wanted The Church to be more sophisticated. In an interview with Cinefantastique, Soavi explained that he wished to move beyond with his creations following the film's release, and because of that he parted ways with Argento, ending their long-time creative partnership.
caption: The Church was partially shot at Matthias Church in Budapest.
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