The Rite

Dir. Mikael Hafstrom
Starring. Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Alice Braga

The Rite, according to its official description, is a horror film. It is meant to induce a feeling of unease, of discomfort, of fear. However, in adhering to pretty much every possible convention of modern horror, the Rite succeeds only in being obvious and predictable, at times even comical.

The story begins, of course, with our troubled hero, Michael Kovak, played by Colin O'Donoghue, whose performance is an awkward combination of Bert from Sesame Street and Bruce Campbell's forehead. This might have worked if it weren't in a film that took itself so seriously. He's a young man, trying to discover his path in life, and despite having no real affinity for Christian beliefs, he decides to go to seminary. The next thing we know, it's like a few years later and he's decided he doesn't want to become a priest after all. Now he's in Italy! Where he has been sent to take a class on exorcism, because why wouldn't you? (This is all based on a true story, mind you, so don't question it.) He makes his religious doubts known in class, so as an attempt to make him into a believer, his professor/priest sends him to visit Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), local exorcist guru. Here, Michael's doubts are tested and ultimately proved wrong as it is revealed (far too late in the story) that Father Lucas himself is possessed with a demon spirit.

All that is good about Anthony Hopkins' performance is canceled out by the poorly cast O'Donaghue, who is slightly too good looking to play a priest and not really good looking enough to play a leading man. If there's a Freddie Prinze Junior biopic in the works somewhere, I'd recommend giving this guy a call. Otherwise, let's try and keep him off our screens.

There's also a completely under-developed love story somewhere in the plot, which combined with the bleak aesthetic, and the incessantly ominous score, satisfies all of the basic components of a PG-13 horror flick. The only thing the filmmakers seem to have forgotten is the horror. The whole movie is foreboding which, by the end, feels completely unwarranted. It's like climbing a very tedious and creaky staircase, only to find at the top, there's an elevator waiting to take you quickly and comfortably back down.

By the end, I found myself actually rooting for the devil. If evil had triumphed, at least all of that foreboding would have been justified. Instead, the film chooses to solidify its lack of frights by way of a poorly executed religious message, which will undoubtedly fall flat on most of today's audiences. For all intents and purposes, fans of the exorcism genre may find this film amusing, if they take care not to expect anything new.