I had no idea who Evan Spiliotopoulos was – and to be fair I still don’t beyond knowing a bit more about his career – prior to writing this commentary though he’s been around as far as being a writer is concerned, with over 25 credits to his name.

That’s a lot of writing, which he’s been doing some variation thereof since 1996, according to IMDB.

The Unholy is the first feature he’s both written and directed, which is…interesting because seeing he’s done so much writing for movies and television I wonder why he hasn’t directed something before now.

And speaking of writing, the trailer for The Unholy plays like an episode of The X-Files – I’m not kidding. Check out the episode Miracle Man – which isn’t to imply that it’s a copy though it plays uncomfortably familiar.

So, let’s just say I’m somewhat leery and probably wouldn’t be too interested except that the movie is being produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House production shingle.

Sam Raimi, it should go without saying, ranks particularly high in the pantheon of genre film making. You may not like everything he’s done (I certain don’t. Army Of Darkness (1992) got way too goofy for me and 2009’s Drag Me To Hell had an over-reliance on CGI that didn’t always work – and it was kinda goofy at points).

Now the thing about Raimi is that he’s always made movies were typically an uneasy mixture of gore and humor. This is a huge reason why The Evil Dead (1981) worked (though hasn’t aged particularly well) as well as it did.

Now, Raimi isn’t directing though he is producing (I have no idea what type of producer he is. By which I mean some producers are very hands-off in the sense that they’re there if you need them, but if you don’t, they’re not. They leave you alone and let you do your thing. Guillermo Del Toro, from what I can tell, is that type of producer. Though there’s the other type, which I suspect James Cameron is. In fact, he apparently so irritated Tim Miller on Terminator: Dark Fate that in the moment said that he wouldn’t direct other person’s work again) so hopefully that means some of his tell tale weirdness will rub off on Spiliotopoulos.

Then there’s the wonder that is Jeffrey Dean Morgan, an actor that’s a charisma supernova.

Seriously. Check out Watchmen (2009), The Possession (2012) or his work as Negan in The Walking Dead (2016-2021). The guy is just all sorts of interesting and despite not being always the center of attention, always manages to shine nonetheless.

So that’s a long-winded way of saying I’ve very interested in seeing the The Unholy.