“Unholy Communion,” a murder mystery largely shot in and around St. Paul last year, is coming to home screens.
Starting Friday, the film will be available to buy or rent online from Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Xfinity and other digital providers. It’ll also be released on DVD on Oct. 7 and will stream next month on Hulu.
“Unholy Communion” will also be screened on Sept. 9 at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. Tickets are $10 in advance via theparkwaytheater.com and $15 at the door.
“It’s so gratifying,” said writer and director Patrick Coyle. “That’s the end game. You work really hard for something for a really long time, trying to do it for more than your friends and family. It’s going to get out into the wider world.”
Coyle adapted the film from the book of the same name by Scandia author Thomas Rumreich. It follows a Washington County investigator who is tracking a serial killer preying on priests. Rumreich based the novel on his own experience of being sexually abused by a priest when he was a college student at St. John’s University as well as the 16 years he spent working as a forensic odontologist for the Ramsey County Medical Examiner.
The film stars Adam Bartley (“Longmire,” “Night Sky”) and Vincent Kartheiser (“Mad Men,” “Another Day in Paradise”) — both native Minnesotans — and features a largely local cast and crew who shot at the former Keenan’s Bar and Grill (now the 620 Club) on West Seventh Street and other sites around St. Paul.
In a March 2024 interview with the Pioneer Press, Bartley said it didn’t take him long to say yes to the role: “I read (Coyle’s) script and I called him the next day and I’m, like, ‘Yeah, man. I’m in, I’m in. I gotta work out the details, but I’m in.’ And it’s just been one ridiculous blessing after the next.”
Coyle, who has previously directed three feature films, said he learned from past experiences in finding a distributor. After taking on a sales agent in Los Angeles, Coyle received four offers.
“We took the best financial deal,” Coyle said of Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution division of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group. “And they agreed to pay residuals to the actors. They’ve treated us really well.”
Rumreich and Coyle found about 15 investors to fund the budget, which Coyle thinks they’ll be able to recoup.
“I’m knocking on wood,” he said. “It’s a genre that has a pretty big fan base.”
Coyle is currently in pre-production for another film, “Leavenworth Street,” which is scheduled to begin shooting in spring 2026. Set in his hometown of Omaha, it’s an original story about a woman who went to prison for killing her abuser and is attempting to start her life over. He said he’s “pretty sure” he’ll once again film in St. Paul.
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