Horror movies are amazing. There's so many niches and sub-genres and even sub-sub genres. It's awesome that a classic movie like THE EXORCIST has inspired this huge sub-genre of "possession movies" that's still going so strong today. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins as a priest who exorcises demons in Rome, is one that comes in the middle. It's very entertaining, has some tense moments, and of course, the acting and production values are top notch. The problem is...the story is something we've seen before and it's almost a note-by-not deconstruction (or reconstruction) of THE EXORCIST. We have a young priest who's questioning his faith, he's got a strained relationship with a parent who dies that's brought into the equation, and his faith is tested with an obviously real case of demonic possession. *SPOILER ALERT* What's cool about the possession case this time around is that it ends up being Anthony Hopkins- the priest teaching the correct way to give exorcisms-who actually ends up BEING possessed! I thought this was a neat plot twist and the movie really held my attention, despite being such an EXORCIST clone. I think when William Peter Blatty wrote THE EXORCIST, he hit on about every major thing that happens to a person and a priest when dealing with demons and exorcisms---and I would call that incredible research and attention to detail! These days, everything that comes in the wake of THE EXORCIST liberally borrows from what Blatty put into fictional form. It's interesting to note that THE RITE is based on a true story as well, it'd be interesting to read the nonfiction book and compare it to the Hollywood-ized version here. Still, I found THE RITE to be fun and entertaining, full of twisted imagery, fine performances, neat plot twists, and many jump-scares- despite obviously holding back the blasphemy with a PG-13 rating. The soundtrack score by Alex Heffes is noteworthy for being simplistic and haunting, echoing the success of horror movies like...well, THE EXORCIST and HALLOWEEN. You can do worse than THE RITE in the "possession" genre---so check this one out if you're into this particular horror niche or if you just like Anthony Hopkins' acting. He delivers the goods, Lecter style!
Horror movies are amazing. There's so many niches and sub-genres and even sub-sub genres. It's awesome that a classic movie like THE EXORCIST has inspired this huge sub-genre of "possession movies" that's still going so strong today. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins as a priest who exorcises demons in Rome, is one that comes in the middle. It's very entertaining, has some tense moments, and of course, the acting and production values are top notch. The problem is...the story is something we've seen before and it's almost a note-by-not deconstruction (or reconstruction) of THE EXORCIST. We have a young priest who's questioning his faith, he's got a strained relationship with a parent who dies that's brought into the equation, and his faith is tested with an obviously real case of demonic possession. *SPOILER ALERT* What's cool about the possession case this time around is that it ends up being Anthony Hopkins- the priest teaching the correct way to give exorcisms-who actually ends up BEING possessed! I thought this was a neat plot twist and the movie really held my attention, despite being such an EXORCIST clone. I think when William Peter Blatty wrote THE EXORCIST, he hit on about every major thing that happens to a person and a priest when dealing with demons and exorcisms---and I would call that incredible research and attention to detail! These days, everything that comes in the wake of THE EXORCIST liberally borrows from what Blatty put into fictional form. It's interesting to note that THE RITE is based on a true story as well, it'd be interesting to read the nonfiction book and compare it to the Hollywood-ized version here. Still, I found THE RITE to be fun and entertaining, full of twisted imagery, fine performances, neat plot twists, and many jump-scares- despite obviously holding back the blasphemy with a PG-13 rating. The soundtrack score by Alex Heffes is noteworthy for being simplistic and haunting, echoing the success of horror movies like...well, THE EXORCIST and HALLOWEEN. You can do worse than THE RITE in the "possession" genre---so check this one out if you're into this particular horror niche or if you just like Anthony Hopkins' acting. He delivers the goods, Lecter style!
