The Rite

I love me a religious thriller. Just love them. I don’t know what it is about them, but I just do. I was trying to work out what about them I enjoyed so much and I think what it boils down to is that (as far as story telling goes) the Catholic mythology is so well established and well known, that it is easy to get involved.

I was very excited by the preview of this movie: It had Anthony Hopkins who can be a very compelling actor and … it was a religious thriller.

I was hoping it would be new and exciting. One that broke the mould like The Exorcism of Emily Rose did. But it didn’t.

This does not mean I did not enjoy it. It was a fun watch and Anthony Hopkins played the fringe exorcist priest brilliantly. Even when he himself got possessed and the young doubting priest had to save the day, there were some interesting effects and it all panned out as you would expect.

I guess one thing I did like was how subtle it was compared to some other religious thrillers. The fear we feel as an audience isn’t relational to the number of explosions, CGI demons and girls crawling on walls. It was nice that the few effects they did use were confined to the possessed in a bodily sort of way. It was nice that rooms weren’t being engulfed in flames every other scene.

So while it didn’t break the mould as far as doing something new with the genre, it did break out of the recent trend to be showy and over the top.

If you like this genre, The Rite is worth watching.