The World of Horror

The Rite – Reviewed by Pinheadspenpal

Running time: 114 mins
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue, Alice Braga

The film centres around Michael Kovak, destined to either continue in the family mortuary business or become a priest. Apparently those are his only options and even though he doesn’t believe in God, is sceptical about the devil and is just basically faithless, he opts for seminary school. However the kid has an ingenious plan - go along with it for four years and then abdicate his vows afterwards, resulting in a free degree.

So after the four years Michael decides to kick his plan into action and sends an email to his superior claiming he wants to leave due to lack of faith. However his superior has other plans for Michael, believing he sees potential in the cynical boy proposes a course in exorcism. Michael’s all ‘why me?’ and the superior is like ‘its two weeks in Rome off you go’ but not before threatening to make Michael pay his college fees. So basically having no choice he ends up in Rome taking the exorcism course where shenanigans are aplenty with Anthony Hopkins the unorthodox exorcist guy who seems to be surrounded by cats and frogs.

Although this film had potential I just found it boring and just wanted to get to the end. The storyline was okay and I can see why some people may like this film – however I did not. To me it seemed like the movie was slow and dragged on and was ultimately about a non-believer’s journey into priesthood complete with the power of faith to save the day. There was nothing that held my attention and nothing that hasn’t already been done before.

The acting was fine – although not one of Anthony Hopkins finer roles. The aspect of the devil and demons could’ve been taken so much further to induce real fear but somehow the ‘scary’ moments just didn’t try hard enough. Films concerning religion and exorcists can be truly frightening but this one just gave up. Perhaps they were relying on a big name to carry the film?

I suppose the true horror was to reflect exorcisms that occur in real life, but if you’ve seen one exorcism film (I’m looking at you, The Exorcist) - you’ve seen them all. So to sum up, this film was just okay – I wouldn’t watch it again, it wasn’t entertaining enough to hold my attention. A better recommendation would be The Exorcism of Emily Rose – much more interesting storyline. Good luck if you do end up watching this film, some may enjoy it while others may simply not.