The Unholy (2021)
Be careful who you pray to.
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.
In The Unholy, consciousness is carried by the dead — a plane of “possessed-doll horror”. The story fights on E9/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing faith, media, miracle, possession.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Also hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
The Medium (2021)consciousness in the dead · spirit‑possessed village
The Possession (2012)consciousness in the dead · dybbuk box horror
Incarnate (2016)consciousness in the dead · possession dreamscape
The Containment (2025)consciousness in the dead · spiritual possession
Nefarious (2023)consciousness in the dead · prison possession
Down a Dark Hall (2018)consciousness in the dead · possession boarding schoolSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
The Pope's Exorcist (2023)consciousness in monsters · faith, possession
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)consciousness in monsters · faith, possession
PK (2014)consciousness in aliens · faith, media
Incantation (2022)consciousness carried elsewhere · faith, possession
The Preacher's Wife (1996)consciousness carried elsewhere · faith, miracle
Annabelle (2014)consciousness in objects · faith, possession
