Creeping out the audience

The Rite (2011)
Certified: 18
Duration: 113 minutes
Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue, Ciaran Hinds, Alice Braga, Marta Gastini, Rutger Hauer, Toby Jones
KRS release

The Rite stands heads and shoulders above the other “horror” competition on the strength of Anthony Hopkins’s performance and on the material on which the film’s script is based.

The film is adapted from Matt Baglio’s book The Making of a Modern Exorcist. Mr Baglio had written the book after attending a seminar on exorcism in the Vatican and based on the information he gathered after speaking to Californian priest Fr Gary Thomas.

The author chronicles Fr Gary’s life and recounts some 20 exorcisms that he performed. The priest was brought on as a consultant to maintain a certain degree of accuracy of narrative. This in itself gives The Rite an added air of authenticity which makes it stand out among similar movies.

Michael (Colin O’Donoghue) entered the seminary as a means to get free college education, but with the threat of having to pay back a huge sum of money he starts taking priesthood as a serious career choice. He even accepts Fr Matthew’s (Toby Jones) offer to go to the Vatican to attend exorcism classes.

Here he meets his teacher Fr Xavier (Ciaran Hinds), and befriends Angeline (Alice Braga), a journalist who is writing an article on exorcism.

Michael eventually teams up with Fr Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) who becomes his mentor. Fr Lucas is a veteran exorcist who has witnessed his fair share of cases. Yet he stands in stark contrast to Michael, who prefers psychology over theology. The two will have their hands full with the case of Rosaria (Marta Gastini) – a young woman who has been impregnated by her father and who manifests the signs of one who is possessed.

Michael has family issues, not least of which is the troubled relationship with his fanatic Catholic father Istvan (Rutger Hauer).

The evil inside Rosaria also comprehends the hurt that resides within Michael concerning the death of his mother when he was still a child. These are fears and factors that will be used against the young man. Michael will find himself up against a wall when the force inside Rosario goes after Fr Lucas.

Mr Hopkins dominates all the scenes. He hams up his performance and once again proves that he can be as subtle as a brick – in all the right ways.

In the film’s under-lit environment he emerges as a force to be reckoned with; his performance a deciding factor to securing the audience’s connection. He really seems to be enjoying himself and seems to be quite immersed in his character which appears to be a cross between Hannibal Lecter and Linda Blair in exorcist mode. Mr O’Donoghue delivers a good performance but this is Mr Hopkins’s show through and through.

Helped along by the thunderous and ominous musical score of Alex Heffes, The Rite works by following the template of the 1973 classic The Exorcist. The film has the usual “boo” moments of the genre expertly placed to scare its audience off the seats.

The script, written by Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s Michael Petroni, is interesting in its mix of truth and fiction. The Rite may seem to be about scares and horror but it is also about theology, thus the understated pace and attitude the film adopts is adequate.