I watched "The Rite" recently. That's right, I watched a demonic possession and exorcism movie based on a true story.Starring Anthony Hopkins as Father Lucas and an unknown Colin O'Donoghue, at least to me, as a young man Michael Kovak who left home in search of his calling. The movie traced his journey from an initial skeptic till the end when he eventually overcame his own disbelief and embraced his status as Father Kovak in real life.
His lack of faith and his disbelief in God and Devil brought him all the way to Rome to attend a class on exorcism. After meeting Father Lucas in the suburbs, he witnessed how the latter conducted various sessions of exorcism on victims with demonic possession and still thought it was all a hoax. After one of the young girl victim died, he was even more disillusioned and all ready to leave since he felt there was nothing he could do and that the victims needed psychiatric help more than anything else.
His test came when Father Lucas was possessed by a demon, who tried to challenge the young priest. Due to the dire circumstances, he had no choice but to perform the first exorcism of his life and cast out the demon from the body of Father Lucas after regaining his faith in the religion, and belief in the existence of a God and a Devil.
While there weren't much special effects, I guess such movies are not meant for the weak heart. Demonic possession and exorcism are not things to be taken lightly and it is not something we usually see in our daily lives. Whether one believes it or not depends on one's experiences but if one comes across it, I am sure it is not a pleasant sight to stomach.
Anyway, I love Anthony Hopkins's acting in the movie and once again, it shows how good an actor he is. A link on the movie is below:
