The Rite: Exorcism Becomes Anthony Hopkins and Colin O’Donoghue

Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), implores heavenward.

The Rite is one movie that dramatizes the events which led to Father Thomas’s journey to becoming a full-fledged exorcist, driving away demons and encountering the Devil itself. Sir Anthony Hopkins plays a crucial role in The Rite, playing Father Lucas, the aged priest who mentors Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue) into becoming an exorcist. A good teacher, he deals with dark conflicts of his own.

The Rite is a movie that’s more than your typical horror film because it is based on a journalist Matt Baglio’s documentation of the actual process that an exorcist in training goes through. Though the movie is largely fictionalized, it nevertheless depicts the truth behind the training of an exorcist of the Catholic Church and the rite that drives away demons. It plays up the argument that a person possessed may actually be suffering from a mental illness.

Actor Donoghue gets his first big screen appearance in The Rite and confesses about his nervousness when he learned he was going to work with veteran actor Sir Anthony Hopkins. But he added that Hopkins made him feel at ease in their scenes together. The elder actor’s advice to him was to simply let it [the scene] go and he’d realize afterwards how it worked well.

Kovak learns exorcism the hard way.

Donoghue accompanied The Rite author Baglio to actual exorcisms. He said the thought of attending one was more frightful than when he was actually present. He commented on how they were like therapy sessions. Part of the training of priests in exorcism is to recognize if a case was indeed a possession rather than mental illness. Donoghue commented that The Rite is more of a psychological thriller than a horror film. This subtle approach may actually do the film good since audiences want something fresh, serious, and based on reality, after some slasher films have found their way to the dumps.

The Rite is directed by Mikael Hafstrom, who also helmed the John Cusack psychological ghost film, 1408. Alice Braga plays the journalist (Baglio) doing research in Rome on exorcism. The Rite is a movie that does not have the hype behind movies like The Da Vinci Code, but it is based on real research by a journalist who has spoken to Catholic exorcists.

Father Lucas in agony.

TRIVIA:

A few facts about exorcism from the point of view of the Catholic Church:

1. Possession is not a sin.

2. Possession is not a disease; you can’t catch it from someone possessed.

3. For a person to be possessed, the door must be opened by them (through occult ties and practices) or be a victim of someone who has.

4. The symptoms of possession are abnormal strength, knowledge of things hidden or the ability to speak and understand unknown languages.

5. Extraordinary physical manifestations in a person possessed, like unexplained wounds, an unhinging jaw, and the throwing up of a frog that turns to saliva on the floor, are real.

A Taste of the Supernatural