The Unholy (2021)

The Unholy parents guide

Of what we could confirm, nothing runs past a PG-13: real scares and several jump scares.

Scare

Properly scary

Frightening, not just tense.

Jump scares

Several

More than a couple of sudden jolts.

Gore

Light gore

Some blood or injury, briefly.

Violence

Some violence

Some fighting or peril.

Sex and nudity

None flagged

It is a horror title, so treat our zero as unconfirmed.

Language

Mild

Mild words like damn, hell or crap.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is The Unholy scary?

Yes, properly. The Unholy is the real thing without being an endurance test.

How gory is The Unholy?

Light gore and some violence.

What is The Unholy rated, and is it OK for kids?

For teens, mostly: it is rated PG-13, with real scares and several jump scares.

What is The Unholy about?

Alice is a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate. When terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister.

Cast and crew

More like The Unholy

• Psycho (1960)Properly scary · light gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyA woman on the run finds a chilling, atmospheric motel where dread steadily builds to a shocking twist.
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• The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)Properly scary · graphic gore · emotionally heavy · measuredTwo coroners uncover increasingly disturbing clues within a mysterious corpse, and the chilling dread never lets up.
• 1408 (2007)Properly scary · light gore · emotionally heavy · measuredA cynical debunker of the supernatural confronts genuine terror in a hotel room where the chilling atmosphere never breaks.
• Us (2019)Properly scary · light gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyA family's beach vacation becomes a chilling fight for survival against their own eerie doppelgängers.
• Alien (1979)Terrifying · graphic gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyA commercial spaceship crew answers a distress signal, unleashing a chilling, gritty, and atmospheric nightmare.
• The Others (2001)Properly scary · no gore · emotionally heavy · measuredA mother protects her light-sensitive children from unseen forces as a chilling, atmospheric mystery unfolds.
• The Thing (1982)Terrifying · extreme gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyAn Antarctic research team faces a shape-shifting alien, creating a chilling atmosphere of paranoia and suspense.

The Unholy is on our Horror on Hulu and Mystery on Hulu lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “a horror movie that's actually scary”
• “scary but not gory”
• “a fun halloween movie, not too scary”

Lists with the same feel: Scary, not gory; and Late night.