Just to point out some errors with the above comments, and to point out things you might have missed.
Actually the loculus is just a red herring, a bunch of packaging, for the actual objects hunted.The nails from the crucifixion, the DNA of Christ, for the purposes of cloning.
The loculus was hidden under two inches of sand in a place with acros up because, well, the acros were there to help support a very old building till it was renovated (you see that all the time in cathedrals) and because the loculus was in the care of Terence Stamp's character, Martel, until some point prior to the beginning of the film. It was hidden later by his associate, the nuts guy who end up nailed to a ceiling with his liver cut out. He hid it in a bit of a rush. The secret everyone was looking for was not where the loculus was, but it fact, how to use it. The loculus is the lock, the container. The nails are the secret remember.No one knew they were there, because everyone was busy trying to solve the box's puzzles and symbols.
Incidentally, the reason the devil guy still wants to take out the witch and Jake is simple enough, their child conceived in the church is the 'natural' messiah, as opposed to the cloned version. Ironically, the cloned version therefore can be seen as the 'Antichrist'.The plot to clone it from original DNA, but in secret, so that the 'controlled' created version matches DNA records. Thereby verifying its credentials. Its actually quite good, and probably would have made a very good trilogy of books rather than a single film.
I suppose you could call it a Pagan/Christian reformation text, but then I would be being too clever by half.
Where this separates from its millennial tensions cousins is that arguably it ends a bit more downbeat. I.E devil cardinal looking after his Vatican sanctioned official 'new-Christ' and the witch-mother cradling the true rebirth. Ambiguous.
Actually the loculus is just a red herring, a bunch of packaging, for the actual objects hunted.The nails from the crucifixion, the DNA of Christ, for the purposes of cloning.
The loculus was hidden under two inches of sand in a place with acros up because, well, the acros were there to help support a very old building till it was renovated (you see that all the time in cathedrals) and because the loculus was in the care of Terence Stamp's character, Martel, until some point prior to the beginning of the film. It was hidden later by his associate, the nuts guy who end up nailed to a ceiling with his liver cut out. He hid it in a bit of a rush. The secret everyone was looking for was not where the loculus was, but it fact, how to use it. The loculus is the lock, the container. The nails are the secret remember.No one knew they were there, because everyone was busy trying to solve the box's puzzles and symbols.
Incidentally, the reason the devil guy still wants to take out the witch and Jake is simple enough, their child conceived in the church is the 'natural' messiah, as opposed to the cloned version. Ironically, the cloned version therefore can be seen as the 'Antichrist'.The plot to clone it from original DNA, but in secret, so that the 'controlled' created version matches DNA records. Thereby verifying its credentials. Its actually quite good, and probably would have made a very good trilogy of books rather than a single film.
I suppose you could call it a Pagan/Christian reformation text, but then I would be being too clever by half.
Where this separates from its millennial tensions cousins is that arguably it ends a bit more downbeat. I.E devil cardinal looking after his Vatican sanctioned official 'new-Christ' and the witch-mother cradling the true rebirth. Ambiguous.