Review: 'The Rite' sees god-given potential wasted

Film: The Rite (A)
Director: Mikael Håfström
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Colin O'Donoghue, Alice Braga
Rating: **1/2

As seminary student Michael Kovak (O'Donoghue) has a crisis of faith while attending exorcism school at the Vatican, he is encouraged to meet Father Lucas (Hopkins), an unconventional cleric who educates him on the darker side of the Christian belief system.

Kovak finds out that his scepticism may have been unfounded all along when demons from his past are conjured up by some unexplicable force linked to his spiritual explorations.

The story, supposedly a true one, might have played out better as a simple faith-affirming drama which incorporated its unsettling details for creepy effect. One of the film’s unpardonable sins is that it, in a bid to be a 'horror movie',  portrays the Catholic church, though not as an elitist paedophilia ring, as most of the media makes it out to be, as a sanctimonious scaremonger. That anachronistic depiction weighs heavily on its message of hope and faith trumping the forces of evil — a central theme in the story, and the faith itself.

But, at the same time, mainstream horror film aficionados, who just want thrills and chills, wouldn’t give two hoots for the above values, not when they aren’t put across subtly at least.

Apart from the alienating effect on those who do not subscribe to the Judeo-Christian concept of the devil, a more pertinent problem is the bit of bad acting on the part of O'Donoghue. While Hopkins has the brilliance to effortlessly pull off what his role demands, his co-star, especially while constantly reiterating his disbelief, is as wooden as the myriad crosses that comprise the mandatory religious imagery.

To your average horror movie buff, who may not be unacquainted with the Catholic world view, the film may be simply wanting in chills. To the religious,  the “scary” nail-regurgitating and mule with flaming eyes are overkill. Not terribly low in predictability, The Rite is god-given potential squandered either ways.