And you thought The Last Exorcism was…the last exorcism. Nope! Here we are again with The Rite staring the great Anthony Hopkins. At the beginning of the movie, they let us know that the story is inspired by actual events and they back it up at the end with an interesting fact for Chicagoans. Believe it or not, the movie is about the religious paranormal…mainly demons who possess and torment. The movie follows Michael who is a non-believer and “having a final fling with atheism.”
The movie begins as most scary movies do…a creepy house (this time a funeral home), a scary playground, and a somewhat deserted town. Soon after, however, The Rite injects a whole lotta religion. Whenever you get bored, it’s always fun to play the Count The Crosses game. I counted about 45 crucifixes but I’m sure I missed a bunch because the movie actually isn’t that boring and keeps grabbing your attention. Michael (Colin O’Donoghue) runs away from home (the funeral home) to become a Priest. He then tries to run away from Priesthood too but is sent to Rome instead. This is where he meets the best part of the movie.
The best part of this movie is hands down Anthony Hopkins. He plays a charismatic priest who you’ll fall in love with and be scared of at the same time. Kinda like God? So mysterious…He has a quirky personality you wouldn’t expect from a Father but would expect from a guy that has done countless exorcisms…you gotta be a lil bit crazy, right? It’s Anthony Hopkins’ character’s job to prove that demons exist and that exorcisms are necessary to Michael. Michael is a skeptical and logical tough cookie to crack so the movie follows him down the rabbit hole of the church teachings and things that go bump in the night.
Anthony Hopkins in The Rite
The Rite is pretty straight forward and doesn’t venture far from the beaten path of the typical supernatural church movie. You get to see the inner workings of the Vatican kind of like Angles & Demons. It is a good story and may convert some non believers but also cast doubt in the faithful. Basically, it isn’t astonishing or groundbreaking, but adds more embers to the fire that is the unknown. One quote I did love from the movie is “Choosing not to believe in the Devil won’t protect you from him” so hide yo wife, hide yo kids cause they raping everybody out here.
Colin O'Donoghue and Anthony Hopkins in The Rite
The movie had so much potential and could have taken things to another level at a certain pivotal scene but decides to hold back and follow through with what actually happened…remember, this was inspired by true events. Even so, the movie is pretty interesting and definitely worth at least a rental. It’s not that scary but it’ll get you to jump out your seat a couple times if you let it. What do you (want to) believe?
Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, The Rite
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
