In 1973 a demonic figure by the name of Pazuzu turned the satanic possession of a young girl into the permanent possession of a horror subgenre. Nothing, neither jerky camera jitters nor flashy 3d behemoth, can compare to the institution that is The Exorcist, the most iconic horror film of all time. With a backstory as creepy as its plot, a gross of over half a billion dollars, and a tantalising blacklisting by the Irish film censors till 1990, it has occupied a reference point in every occult film, and irrevocably damaged the sales of pea soup, for nearly 40 years. And so, when it comes to The Rite, Swedish director Mikael Håfström’s exorcising thriller, it’s hard not to think that the spectre of the 70s shocker looms heavily over proceedings.
And like so many other exorcism horrors, The Rite aims to seize the audience’s interests by claiming to be based on true events, even going so far as to assert papal and literary credentials in its opening credits. The story revolves around rising Drogheda star Colin O’Donoghue as Michael Kovak, an American seminarian whose chilly upbringing in his father’s mortuary makes the Six Feet Under family seem positively wholesome. Escaping to religious life, Michael excels in his studies, yet his faith is never quite so certain. In order to win him back to the flock, his teacher, a game Toby Jones, sends him off to Rome, to learn how to be an exorcist, with the hope that casting out demons in others will help free Kovak of his own.
