Review of The Vatican Tapes (2015) by Jesse O — 21 Oct 2015

While I understand the reasoning behind demonic possession/exorcism films, it's interesting and easy to promote, but, creatively, none of these exorcism films have ever managed to come close to the best film in that genre.

That film, obviously, being The Exorcist. It's been FORTY-TWO years since The Exorcist came and yet no film since then has ever even come remotely close to that. I understand why people keep trying, but the comparisons among film geeks will always be there and it'll always end up favoring The Exorcist, because it's a much better film in every way, shape or form.

The only film, that I can honestly say, comes within half of The Exorcist's greatness would be The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I wouldn't call the latter a great film, it's good at best, but it does the best job at portraying a fairly exciting, and terrifying to some, exorcism.

With that said, this movie isn't as horrible as one might have expected from reading the reviews. I don't mean to suggest that this is a good film, or even an average one, but it does a better job than one would imagine.

I think a lot of that, honestly, has to do with Olivia Dudley's commitment to the role. Olivia isn't exactly a high-profile actress, at the moment, but I think she does a really solid job with what is, essentially, every exorcism film you've ever seen.

Honestly, the film's scripting is a little goofy and silly, to the point where it's actually laughable in some scenes. I think that's part of the reason I didn't hate this film as much.

I realize that some of this stuff is very real to some people, but the film has such a self-serious tone that it ends up being comical in a lot of scenes. So that makes the film a little more tolerable, honestly.

If you think this movie is terrible, which it probably is if broken down, then at least you can get some chuckles out of it. I will say that the climactic exorcism is actually fairly decent, all things considered.

I think it does a good enough job. I do think that it gets a little goofy as the exorcism progresses. Like it escalates accordingly, but it all ends up feeling a bit silly by the end. I mean the ending definitely seems to set up a sequel, that I doubt we'll ever get, due to this film not being exactly successful, but I thought the ending was solid and it fit within the context of the story the film was trying to tell.

It wasn't out of left field, like the ending to The Last Exorcism, which was horrendous. I wouldn't call this a good film, in the least, it's below average at best, but it surpasses expectations thanks to a committed performance from Olivia Dudley and its self-serious tone leads to some laughs at its expense.

I wouldn't exactly recommend it, but you can certainly watch worse films. I realize that that's not a glowing recommendation, but if you've got a free movie rental from Redbox and you've seen every film they have, then you can use it on this and you won't be too pissed off.

Slightly below average, but nothing that you ever really need to see.