I don't understand why the critics hate this movie...it's very exciting. It is actually better than the Grandaddy of all such movie, The Exorcist. This movie takes the idea of demons residing in people seriously, framing it in a story about a non-believer and a believer. There are quite a few scary moments, and the exorcisms are rather realistic...no turning around of heads, and no pea soup.

What I don't get from "The Rite" is (except the usual outstanding performance by Anthony Hopkins) that its a 114 minute christian advertisement that the devil sucks and Jesus will save your ass. Unfortunately, he didn't save mine.

Although the exorcism sub-genre has been nearly worn to a frazzle, it is always refreshing when the film industry develops an original idea rather than churning out sequels and remakes. The Rite is sufficiently original in this regard; though overly reliant on cliches, stereotypes and the usual faith-versus-evil boilerplate, the film manages to keep you engaged mostly through the sheer talent of Sir Anthony Hopkins.

At its core The Rite is the story of a young man tortured by uncertainty and indecision, walking the line between faith and skepticism. He is the archetypal faith-questioning falling-from-grace antihero we have seen waltzing through any number of religious dramas; yet for a character of such supposed moral complexity, our young seminarian is disappointingly static. This poor development is illuminated in contrast by the talent and experience of Hopkins. His portrayal of the unorthodox and tortured mentor simply dominates. In fact, once the movie reaches its pedestrian climax, you may find yourself wondering why the hero and the equally forgettable love interest/damsel are even in the room. Hopkins probably could have turned a more enthralling scene via monologue with his inner demons.

Even so, The Rite is watchable. There are some things it does right: the veiled debate between supernatural and psychology that subsists throughout, for instance, is handled delicately and subtly enough as to enrich rather than distract. This possession-versus-mental-illness dynamic establishes a palpable sense of dread and unhinged suspense (despite some cheap jump scares and one unfortunate cat scare). Rather than preach or spoon-feed emotion and sentiment, the film leaves most of the judgments and evaluations for the viewer (that is, until the resolution wraps everything into a nice neat package). And, despite prominently featuring the Catholic faith, the church is neither endorsed nor denigrated but rather skillfully employed as a neutral backdrop to establish setting and tone.

Classic cinema it is not, but overall, The Rite is a decent supernatural horror drama that won't leave you feeling like you've wasted two hours. Hopkins turns a solid but not brilliant performance, and you may be left scratching your head as to how he became attached to this project.… Expand

A much better movie then the Critics give it credit. Kept my attention throughout the movie and left me hoping and win a in a great good verse evil plot. Sir Hopkins as always brings you in and gives you fear but also hope. A must see and one that I will see again.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Father Lucas(Anthony Hopkins) is not one of those diva Roman Catholic priests who shows up only when the devil gets ready to take complete possession of its victim's soul. This church servant, differing from his American counterparts, makes house calls on lesser cases, routine visits to his afflicted parishioners, just like a French doctor in Michael Moore's "Sicko". He's no Father Merrin(Max Von Sydow), a priest with a thing for dramatic lighting. His exorcism skills, as it turns out, are subpar. It's time for him to retire; he's too old to be the hero. Frankly put, the members of his flock are in trouble, because this man of the cloth is just not that powerful. To its credit, "The Rite" deviates somewhat from the oft-used template of William Friedkin's "The Exorcist", just enough to make things mildly interesting. Although "The Rite" employs the all-too-familiar trope of the demon possessed victim being a young woman, she's not the central figure of the story, since her supernatural ordeal with nefarious forces is not an isolated case. The film treats demonic possession as if it was a common malady, like the flu. Father Lucas has the aura of a country doctor, which is to say, he doesn't inspire awe. In addition to the pregnant girl that Lucas treats at his cat-infested abode, there's the battered boy covered with horse tracks he learns about from his extra-curricular rounds. Unlike past "Exorcist" knockoffs such as "The Haunting of Emily Rose" and "The Last Exorcism", the curing of the bedeviled young woman is not the primary objective of the film. In fact, the Italian girl doesn't get cured at all; she dies, in a surprising move, bringing to mind Alfred **** "Psycho", because her death thwarts audience expectations. The moviegoer expects Rosaria(Marta Gastini) to be there for the climax. But like Janet Leigh in that Bates Motel shower, the impregnated teenager meets a violent untimely end. Her swelled belly then becomes a red herring. Since the girl never named a father, the film teases you with the notion that Satan sired that baby. At the hospital, we're half-expecting her to give birth. But when the demon kills them both, we realize that the girl was an ancillary character all along. A "Rosemary's Baby" situation is averted. She was knocked up the old-fashioned way: the devil wouldn't kill his own spawn. Father Lucas fails her. More often than not, the priest can be counted on to save the day, but here, the servant fails; it's the man of god who needs saving. In "The Rite", it takes an atheist to do a clergyman's job. Michael Kovak(Colin O'Donoghue), the heretic from the states, needs a lot of convincing, maybe too much convincing(how many frogs will it take to convince you Mike?), before he finally acknowledges that the devil exists. "The Exorcist" exists, too. Father Lucas makes reference to "spinning heads and pea soup" when the fraudulent seminary school graduate appears unimpressed after witnessing his first exorcism. Foregoing the shock tactics of the 1973 chiller, "The Rite" presents itself as a respectable take on demonic possession. The film is notable for its lack of gore...and scares. Although Rosaria coughs up blood and nails, what "The Rite" needs is for the girl to regurgitate the blood and nails in the priest's face. By not embracing its exploitation movie roots, the girl might as well have psychological problems, because a tempered flick about the devil, as "The Rite" proves time and time again, can make for a pretty dull experience. Where's the blasphemy?… Expand

I enjoyed the movie. It felt like the movie understood how people feel about exorcisms and how some people would react to certain situations. I believe they put a lot of effort into making this movie as believable as possible. Overall I really thought this was a good movie.

Anthony Hopkins is not enough to save a movie that imitates (poorly) The Exorcist. Trivial, obvious, predictable: watch a movie for a couple of scenes is not a good idea.

I Arecio the movie or so bad or so good, usually, focusing on their horror genre q no c think achieving a 100% q had to wait long for scenes, I found Nickolson q provides a good acting is in my opinion ...

Don't know why the critics said that this movie was bad-performed and clichéd... I've just seen it and... well, Anthony Hopkins is, whether you like or not, a machine-gun in your head shooting all the time. In this movie you have the possibility to see him in every role you can imagine: sad, happy, mad, good, bad, evil incarnated, the best of the angels of God... God himself... don't know... whatever you want, each kind of character in the same role... this is what I've expected from Anthony. This great jobs he made me get accustomed to. The new one star, Colin O'Donoghue, not bad actually, but I was looking for him to react in a lot of scenes, but he didn't let his feeling command himself, is like when a stone is expected to crash, a bomb expected to blow it all, but it doesn't... I can see potential on him but... he need to improve a little. The movie itself has a good script, storytelling, fluently carried. The relation between personal stuff (Colin's character past and so on...) and the present (relation to Father Lucas= Hopkins, and exorcisms, the actual argument where you are put in the entire movie) is one of the greatest I've ever seen, fluent an well-mixed. Good job for me. Don't follow the trends. As I always say.… Expand

The commercial said if you don't believe in the Devil you will. I can tell you my opinion is still exactly the same as it was before. The problem is that the movie took way to long to develop and then didn't go as far as it needed to be exciting. Good choice if you have seen everything else interesting to you. You'll feel better about the time and money it costs by seeing it at the "cheap seats".… Expand

@ Bart...that is the best review I've ever read. I might actually go and see the movie now just to see what inspired that much appreciated comedy!!!!!

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This movie had me fairly bored throughout until the possession of Hopkins, who is the only redeeming quality of the film in terms of entertainment. However when the Hannibal Lector voice breaks out, I cheered. Rent it and start at about scene 20 (assuming the 24-scene format)… Expand

Hard to stretch this review to 150 characters as it can be summed up very easily. Great concept, awful movie and a waste of Anthony Hopkins time and talent.

This is not bad for a retro movie.
The characters are the old fashioned two dimensional good and evil without any motivations. At one point the evil character strikes a small child for no reason at all apart from the fact that he is evil.
I expect more from movies now than characters are just evil or good without any logic behind it.
The main character stays skeptical when surrounded by creepy events to the point where it actually starts to become funny.
This would have been a good move in 1982.… Expand

The only thing that saved this film was the excellent cast, aside from O'Donoghue who portrays a lackluster, tedious, and far-too-subdued man who can't seem to figure out what he believes it. Hopkins is pitch-perfect as ever, and I could sense a Lecter nuance present in his performance. He captivates every scene and puts all those around him to shame in nearly every scene. This film could have been excellent, but with a story staunchly centered on a lost young man searching for answers, this one slinks back into your standard fare horror/suspense flick.… Expand

I'm actually shocked that the critics didn't like it. I thought it is a great movie. Its cinematography is quite eerie.The plot is very intriguing, and Anthony Hopkins' performance is one of the best that I have seen by an actor. I do have to deduct two points because of some technical errors, and its questionable horror classification. I thought that it is a Christian thriller film..............

I was somewhat disappointed with the final product of this old story but i still enjoyed the hell out of it. Anthony Hopkins did a great job in my opinion. And Mikael Hafstrom was a perfect fit for directing this material

This is a pretty good movie. I watch a lot of horror flicks and honestly this is one of the best ones that has come out in the past five years. It's not mind blowing, but it's pretty good. All in all, worth watching if you're into supernatural horror movies

This film was always going to divide opinion. It's hard to tackle religion, theology and the prospect of demons and angels without arguments breaking out between believers and nonbelievers. As one who saw the film seeking entertainment and diversion - I can say I found it immensely entertaining. Indeed, I'm really quite astonished at just how violently the critics are canning this. The mood is excellent, the setting is divine, the cinematography immersive and the characters well rounded and believable. In addition, the demonic possession scenes don't stoop to spinning heads and climbing on ceilings to enhance the scare, but rely also upon well written dialogue which tends to be as thought provoking as it is mildly disturbing. Hopkins is magnificent, as per usual. All in all, it's probably the best movie of it's kind I've ever seen, critics be damned (if you'll pardon the pun). Go see it!… Expand

I am a huge fan of both books and movies in the vein of the religious/spiritual supernatural, this one failed to leave an impact on me. I love Anthony Hopkins, but he seemed very forgettable as a character in this movie. The main character seems to continuously repeat the same lines, emotions, and reactions which gets old fast. There were a few cool scenes during the exorcisms but nothing that was new or more shocking than any other exorcism movie that I had seen. I watched this movie just 3 days ago but am already having a hard time remembering it.… Expand

Great acting great directing would normally make a perfect movie but in the rite they took a story that didn't know were it was going and ultimately went nowhere but the acting and the directing do draw you into the story however the story at the end does leave you asking for more

The movie centres on Michael Kovak (Oâ

The Rite Is An Alright Film. Being That It Was Based On True Events I Was Shocked At What I Saw And Shows Us That Some Atheist's Belief In Exorcism Might Change When They Learn This Story. Anthony Hopkins Perfomance In This Movie Was Excellent. The Big Problem With This Film Is It Isnt Scary At All. Scenes That Try To Scare You Really Dont Scare You At All. Comparing This To The Exorcist Movie. That Movie Is More Better Then This. I Would Give This Film A Very Low Matinee… Expand

Bottom Line: Dumb, demonic, and unintentionally funny. Passing recommended.

Welcome to the twenty-first century. Or the cinematic era when nearly every horror film HAS to revolve around either â

Après avoir vu L'Exorciste, ce genre de film devrait se refaire un nom. Il est dommage que Le Rite suive (en moins bien) les traces de son modèle, péchant par son manque d'originalité et de rythme. Mais avec une bonne mise en scène qui procure quelques instants de frayeur et un Anthony Hopkins toujours jubilatoire avec ce regard glaçant digne d'Hannibal Lecter, Le Rite se laisse suivre sans déplaisir.… Expand

I enjoyed THE RITE, but it was slow and has boring characters and lacks scares and chills. The acting wasn't that good as well.