THE RITE(2011)

(Directed by Mikael Hafstrom)

"Er, the best movie of dump month....maybe?"- Signed by MartialHorror.

 

Plot: A doubting Priest is forced to take a 2 month seminar about Exorcism in Rome and finds himself under the tutelage of an actual exorcist. But is it real?

Review:

Mainstream critics are excellent when it comes to lauding great movies like “The Hurt Locker” and “The Fighter”, but are useless when it comes to horror films….or any film that is part of a controversial genre. So just because they panned “The Rite”, that doesn’t mean that it’s a bad movie. Remember that they also weren’t fond of genre classics like “Saw” and “Friday the 13th”. You see, the problem is that they can’t take horror seriously anymore. The only times they will actually like a horror film is when it’s meant to be more humorous. They love “Scream”(but were annoyed that it was still a slasher, albeit one that satirizes itself) and “Piranha 3D” because they don’t take themselves seriously, so the critics can laugh at the genre with the movie itself. But when fairly normal horror films arise, they complain about the movies reliance on gore, boo scares or jump scares and the lack of intelligence. Yet when they get an ‘intelligent’ horror film, they have absolutely no idea what to do with it and judge it as if it was a normal horror film(and complain about the lack of the aforementioned genre conventions). “The Rite” is an intelligent horror film, or at least about as intelligent as we could hope for. It’s flawed and a bit too familiar, but it does play with your mind pretty well.

Michael Kovak(Colin O’Donoghue) is a bit of a jackass who cons the Church into paying for his education by enrolling into a Catholic school for Priests. The plan is to resign as soon as he graduates. Unfortunately, this is pretty stupid on his part as the Church does not like being screwed with but Michael gets a deal so that if he takes a seminar on exorcisms and demon possessions in Rome and he isn’t convinced about God’s existence(as he’s an Atheist), then they’ll let it slide. Forced to agree, he travels to Rome and is put to work under Father Lucas(Anthony Hopkins), an exorcist. Witnessing so called ‘exorcisms’, Michael still isn’t convinced. But when Father Lucas becomes possessed, he begins to suspect he was wrong….

The main problem I had with “The Rite” was that I’ve seen “The Exorcist”. That was such a great movie that it’s almost inevitable that every exorcism movie will draw comparisons but be very weak in comparison, much like what Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” did to zombie movies. In fact, the majority of Exorcism movies can be represented by the sequels. You have the godawful messes that try to be unique(“Exorcist 2”), the movies that try to be unique but are damned by the studios for it(“Exorcist 3”), the goofy action films that desperately ask the fans to take them seriously(“Exorcist: The Beginning”) and the ones that are good but too slow for the majority of viewers to accept(“Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist”; I haven’t seen this one though so am going based off what I hear). The conventions have become too common(the doubting Priest, the mentor who is overcome, science vs religion, the demonic voice, etc). “The Rite” does cleverly lampshade this with an amusing reference to its forefather, but the film itself never really tried to break away from the mold. If you’ve seen one Exorcist movie, you’ve likely seen them all and if you’ve seen “The Exorcist”, you probably have little reason to see the same movie except done wrong.

However, I do believe that “The Rite” is criminally underrated. Whereas most exorcism movies attack the gut with visceral images, “The Rite” attacks the mind. The demons know all of your weaknesses and faults and will exploit them to gain leverage over you. Who is safe if even a Priest isn’t? Furthermore, the possessions themselves are hard to tell apart from your typical schizophrenia patient. Therefore, if you’re possessed, you’re likely to be put under futile psychiatric evaluations instead of being helped by a Priest, damning you even more. That’s where this film works as a horror film, it attacks you with ideas and the possibility that this can be real, not with your typical scare sequences(there is one groan inducing cat boo scare though). Of course, if the idea of being possessed isn’t scary to you, then you will find it a bore and I do wish things were more ambiguous with the “is it real?” angle(the movie reveals that possession is true in a surprisingly anti-climactic scene, where we just see a girl with her demonic face on). Even if one scene had Lucas declaring someone as just insane instead of possessed might work, but every case we see is meant to be a demonic possession. I personally was hoping that instead of being possessed, Lucas just had gone insane but the movie didn’t go that route.

 

I also felt that the cast made things more enjoyable, or more specifically, Anthony Hopkins made things more enjoyable. Everyone else does fine. O’Donoghue  is capable as the lead, Alice Braga(Angeline) is fine as the leading lady and it’s always cool to see Rutger Hauer(Michael’s Father) appear in a decent film. But Anthony Hopkins is entertaining as hell as the eccentric Priest. He can be friendly, charming, intense, tragic and cruel. He never goes too far and plays the role realistically and effectively. Hopkins has become a bit of a sell-out in the past few years, phoning in his performances(“The Wolfman”), but he completely makes up for it here.

“The Rite” is a well made film, but does remind us that there isn’t much you can do with these kinds of movies that hasn’t been done before. Director Hafstrom(who also did “1408”) lets the scenery and atmosphere speak for themselves and the script does often lack character development while always feeling familiar. But I enjoyed the film mainly for Anthony Hopkins and the films attempt to portray exorcism and possession as a real thing without going too far.

Violence: Rated PG-13. Sometimes it’s pretty freaky.

Nudity: None, but there are references to rape.

Overall: “The Rite” is worth watching if you like exorcism and/or possession movies. It’s certainly not as bad as critics make it out to be.

2.5/4 Stars