The abridged version of the Rite: Everyone gets possessed and has to fight a demon while fighting their own personal demons. There are winners and there are losers.
The movie wasn’t exactly the best movie I’ve ever seen and there are some cheap, startling moments. I hate when someone is glancing out of a window and something pops out at them – unnecessary. Also, Anthony Hopkins does creepy well. If I would believe anyone in that movie was possessed it would be Mr. Hopkins. For a man his age (he’s 73), he looks like he’s been that age for forever.
Movies like this are always a good jolt to my Catholic conscience. I have been a scholar (I use the term loosely here) of Catholicism since I was a young kid, and as I have matured, my interest in Catholicism moved from spiritual learning to anthropological learning. Through the years, I’ve learned enough about the popes, the bible, and Jesus to make your head spin, but movies like this spark a different feeling. It’s almost a longing for a faith I’ve lost a child. A footnote here is that as an 8th grader I considered a seminary preparatory school for boys to enter the priesthood (luckily, that’s not the route I took).
The funny thing is that this movie wasn’t very good, but I would compare it to a nostalgia inducing video playing “Good Riddance (Time of my Life)” while pictures of college/high school scenes float by. Sure, you may not have had a typical high school/college experience (or even liked your typical hs/college exp), but it will not fail to make you long for yesterdays. This movie works similarly. Not that I long for my days as an exorcist and battling Satan, but I am jealous the priests acquires his faith through a tangible experience (pff – how fortuitous for him – the rest of us work on faith alone).
Granted, I wouldn’t want the experience of watching someone become a possessed mess and then have it be my duty to de-possess them. I barely want the responsibility of depossessing a copier from a paper jam. With that, the movie made me think as a Catholic man, but without that foundation, I doubt I would have found this movie any more interesting than the Last Exorcism (which would get a C- on my rating system that is completely arbitrary and has no real definition). The issue with the Last Exorcism was that the preacher was a protestant cheat. Once again, that gentleman had his faith solidified after a traumatic experience with Satanism. The Catholic priests in these movies don’t seem to be cheating anyone – they just lack faith (think the Exorcist).
With Catholics, it’s all about the rite stuff – and it makes for good movies. Solid B for creepiness and making me think.
JJRC
