The
Rite
2011
Director- Mikael Håfström
Cast- Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Marta Gastini ,Alice
Braga, Ciarán Hinds, Rutger Hauer, Toby Jones
What do
you do when the exorcist is the one possessed? That is the question posed
Michael
(Colin O'Donoghue) is the son of a mortician (Rutgar Hauer) who is in line to
inherit the family business but decides to join the clergy instead. On a side
note, can there be any more of an ominous omen than a mortuary run by Rutgar
Hauer? Michael is on the verge of completing seminary school when his lack of
faith gives him cold feet. His superior (Toby Jones) sends him to the Vatican
as a possible candidate for exorcism training (seems like a bad choice for
someone lacking faith?).
Michael
is paired up with an eccentric old exorcist, Father Trevant (Hopkins). Though
Michael is a Doubting Thomas, Trevant allows him to tag alone and participate
in a protracted weeks long exorcism of a 16 year old pregnant girl (Gastini).
Michael starts to see evidence of the supernatural (including a pretty scary
demon mule) but his cynical shell is still uncracked. The ultimate test of his
lack of faith is when Trevant himself becomes possessed and Michael is the only
one that can help.
Though
the film is pretty long (just under 2 hours) it could have used about 20 more
minutes. The transition from exorcist to
possessed is pretty quick for Hopkins and I think a gradual transition would
have been more intriguing. Still, the film has some interesting moments and
some scary images that will satisfy exorcism fans.
One thing I noticed while
watching the film; when the two priests were working together the film wasn’t
that scary but when it was just the one priest mano a mano with Satan, the fear factor increased.
This made me think of the granddaddy of all exorcism films, The Exorcist, where the movie is much
scarier when its Father Damien alone and Max Von Sydow showing up is a kind of
relief. Apparently isolation seems to be a critical factor in this sub-genre.
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