Michael Kovak (O’Donoghue) works as a mortician with his father (the superb Rutger Hauer, whose career peaked too early with Blade Runner). As he says, everyone in his family is a mortician or a priest, so to escape home he tests into seminary. Right off the bat, this is an exorcism movie with a 21st century sensibility. Priests curse, seminary students play violent video games, and the night before he leaves, Kovak is out at the club drinking and cruising for chicks with a friend. Uninterested in actually becoming a priest, Kovak sends his resignation in on the last day of classes, only to have a freak accident force him into his role as a Father. Plagued with doubt, the Church sends him to the exorcism school in Rome. His teacher sees his skepticism and his potential, and sends him out of class to work with Father Lucas Trevant (Hopkins), and that’s when the real ride begins.
The film is beautifully shot, with that natural smoothness and beauty that was so indicative of films made in the 1990s, before Hollywood went CGI crazy and movies started to have a glossy finish more akin to porn than studio pictures. It’s refreshing to see a film so well lensed, and accolades are deserved for a director still willing to hold the line of solid visuals that don’t rely on darkness to hide poor effects.
Unfortunately, The Rite suffers from a PG-13 rating. Usually, a film’s rating has very little to do with its quality. There are plenty of horrible films in every bracket, while the best ones fall where they fall and are judged separately from their rating. While there is an occasional scandal over the MPAA standards (feel free to watch the fascinating doc This Film is Not Yet Rated), ratings hardly stand in a film’s way. If anything, people want an R-rating dropped to get more butts in the seats. In this case, The Rite’s hands are tied for the opposite reason. The film, which inevitably has to be compared against the first and best of its kind, The Exorcist, seems muted. When the Demon speaks through a pregnant girl, saying the priest “stinks,” it pales in comparison to the slew of epithets little Linda Blair spat out in 1973. The violence and images are teenager friendly, so ultimately the Demon seems a little lackluster, like he’s having an off-day. He comes across as the Diet Coke of the underworld, when what we want is a good, crisp, evil-as-hell soda with all the awful ingredients still in.
The Exorcist was a phenomenon that will be impossible to trump, just as Jaws made any other shark film seem absurd by comparison. To stand at all against these standards, a film has to stand alone with a new or exciting take on a story that’s been done. The Last Exorcism went for the 1st-person “found footage” route that Paranormal Activity reinvigorated, but had such a disastrous final scene that everyone left the theatre crying with laughter. The Rite thankfully does not suffer from poor writing, and even totes strong direction and performances. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the audience has already seen in graphic detail the evil that the Devil and his minions are capable of. Anything less simply pales in comparison.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
This one’s worth investigating further. Beyond a few additional scenes there is a “Chilling Alternate Ending” that isn't anything to right home about. The real gem, however, is the featurette The Rite: Soldier of God, which tells the true story that inspired the film. Just the thought that there are still exorcisms performed today, and done with some frequency, is worth mulling over.
"The Rite" is on sale January 28, 2011 and is rated PG13. Horror. Written by Michael Petroni. Starring Alice Braga, Anthony Hopkins, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Odonoghue, Rutger Hauer.
