Review of The Rite (2011) by Michael V — 10 Nov 2011

It's impossible to make any movie about exorcism and come across The Exorcist territory. Since they were first and the best and still remain there to this day. It is so influential that unintentional references are bound to happen.

And this has those moments. Despite having some good intentions, The Rite is a pretentious, boring and too slow movie. This does not work as a horror movie nor as an analysis from that questionable situation; and it works even less when we compare it to other movies which did it much better like The Last Exorcism.

But it was a solid effort. You can tell they tried. Without finding a solid balance between story and horror we are left with many sub-genre horror cliches. The woman who screams curses and contorts her body, the priest with a faith crisis, the possessed ones who know even the most intimate secrets from the exorcists.

All been done ten times before. The main attraction for many people to go to watch The Rite is undoubtedly the presence from Hopkins in one of the leading roles, and he brings an enthusiastic and expressive work.

And even though he seems to loose the control near the ending, I would not blame him for that, but to the poor screenplay which betrays his character with a predictable twist. Colin O' Donoghue has the worst written character from the film, but he still managed to bring a decent and credible performance.

Plus sadly you get some wonderful actors here who have small parts and just get completely wasted. Rutger Hauer, Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds, and Alice Braga whose character almost seemed useless. This is pretty much a tedious rehash of worn out cliches.

Plus demon donkey. Where did that come from? Stay away.