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The
Rite
looked terrifying in
its pre-theatre
marketing run. Kudos
to those people
because they made
this movie look like
it was ridiculously
scary. They made
The
Rite
look like it was
going to put
The
Exorcist
to shame. Needless
to say,
The
Rite
doesn’t put
The
Exorcist
to shame and it
doesn’t really tell
a story that hasn’t
been told before.
The
Rite
tries to build
itself into a
chilling sequence at
its climax.
Unfortunately it
falls well short of
the scare intended
and will leave
audiences looking
for a good amount of
terror disappointed.
Michael Kovak has
always been a man
who’s struggled with
his faith. That has
to do with seeing
death over and over
again at his
father’s funeral
home and it has to
do with losing his
mother at a young
age. Being around
death constantly has
taken a toll on the
man. Still, when he
goes to get away
from the family
business, he finds
himself in seminary
school. At seminary
school he excels as
a student but
disappoints in
theology… what you’d
expect from a
would-be priest at
seminary school with
shaken faith.
Anyway, a priest and
professor at the
school, Father
Matthew takes an
interest in Michael
and he gets put into
an exorcism program
at The Vatican and
gets to go and stay
on the church’s
buck. So Michael
heads to Rome and to
the Vatican to learn
the trade of doing
exorcisms… but even
after hearing tons
of secondhand
stories and seeing
some gruesome
pictures and
stories… Michael’s
still not sold on
things being the
skeptic he is. So
the teacher in the
class Father Xavier,
sets Michael out to
do an apprentice of
sorts with a
practicing exorcist
in Rome, Father
Lucas. Father Lucas
teaches Michael some
tricks of the trade
and they do a couple
of exorcisms
together. After a
few chilling moments
the story builds
into its conclusion
with Michael having
to take the lead in
an exorcism.
Mikael Håfström’s
movie looks great,
I’ll give him that.
He captured Rome and
New England
admirably. He could
have made better use
of the beautiful
architecture in his
scenes in Rome
particularly, but
his indoor shots and
how he captured some
crazy stuff was done
well. Where this
movie lacks a lot of
potency is its
script. The dialogue
never feels forced
but it never feels
significant enough
for what’s going on
with the story. It’s
weak for what it is.
There are also some
problems with
predictability and
even though it’s
‘based on true
events’ it’s barely
based on true
events, just a few
facts. So its kernel
based. For them to
elaborate on this as
much as they did… It
needed to be
scarier. Instead it
just falls on its
face.
The
Rite
disappoints with
bonus features, and
when home video is
slowly adapting to a
streaming market
that’s a shame.
There’s a seven
minute feature that
talks about author
Matt Baglio’s book
and a few of his
stories and the
making of the movie.
There’s also an
alternate ending
that’s not chilling
at all and a few
deleted scenes. For
extra content,
The
Rite
is a drag.
The
Rite
looked like a
horrifying tale. It
wasn’t. Instead it
turns into a run of
the mill exorcism
movie that could
have been written
better. It’s a shame
that this didn’t
turn out better
because the idea was
fantastic… instead
it falls well short
of it’s intentions.
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