Although disguised as a scary exorcism film in the trailers, The Rite deals more with faith in God than fighting demonic possession. Director Mikael Håfström shows us that not every film involving exorcism needs to try to top The Exorcist. “What did you expect? Spinning heads? Pea soup?”, Anthony Hopkins asks during the film, letting the audience know that this film is aiming for something else.
Most horror fans venture out to see exorcism films because they are looking for something to match or top The Exorcist. In past years, we’ve seen exorcism films including The Unborn, Stigmata, and The Last Exorcism, and all are marketed in a way that compares them to The Exorcist. This is a double edged sword, however, because even though you get fans of The Exorcist to fill the seats in the first weekend, you have the almost impossible task of living up to that expectation, which no exorcism film has been able to do.
Instead of focusing on a singular character in need of an exorcism, The Rite follows Michael Kovak, a seminary student, who is looking to end his journey to become a priest. He is more or less forced into going to the Vatican to take an exorcism class before making his final decision, and meets up with Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), a veteran exorcist, who tries to prove to Michael that the devil is real. The film focuses on Michael’s struggle with his own inner and external demons, which put his faith to the test. By the finale, Michael must decide whether or not he believes in God and whether or not demonic possession is real.
The Rite does not succeed on every level, but is kept alive by an interesting story and Anthony Hopkin’s performance. This film chooses to focus on Michael and Father Lucas over a possessed character, allowing for more character development time. While cheesy at times (possibly intentional), I enjoyed the character interaction and dialogue during the movie, feeling more attached to these characters than many recent horror films.
Anthony Hopkins delivers a really solid performance as Father Lucas, playing a character which reminded me at times of his performance as Van Helsing in Dracula. There is plenty of dialogue and not much action in this film, so Hopkins really manages to hold your interest throughout the film. Colin O'Donoghue does a decent job as Michael Kovak, but I feel that this role could have been better portrayed by a more capable actor. I never feel quite convinced that he’s really reacting to what’s going on during the movie.
As far as the effects are concerned, this is where you can tell that The Rite couldn't step out of the shadow of The Exorcist. There is nothing terribly wrong with what you see, but we've seen it all before. The body contortions, demonic voices, changing skin, and reaction to prayer and holy objects we know from other films is all here. This is one area that they could have really chosen to deviate from the "Exorcist" formula, and keeping to it lessens the effectiveness of the film.
Mikael Håfström was also responsible for 1408, which you may remember as a well executed, but safely played horror movie. 1408 was pg-13, so while it did have some scares, they didn’t take it too far, making it enjoyable, but not an excellent movie. This is the exact same way I feel about The Rite. It was pretty well executed and kept my interest, but it definitely played it safe. You are never truly scared by the events that unfold and the film doesn’t push the boundaries enough to do something that we haven’t seen in other exorcism films. One could argue that this was done because the movie was “inspired” by true events and they didn’t want to overplay the demonic possession part, but I disagree.
Your enjoyment of this film will depend on what kind of movie you are looking for. If you are looking for something to match or top the Exorcist, you’ll be disappointed. There isn’t anything wrong with this film and if you like horror movies that are more thriller and dialog than gore, you’ll probably find this entertaining.
Score: 2.5 / 5 Stars