The Rite (2011) – WTF Really Happened to This Horror Movie?

Demons, witches, and devils have been around in religion and life for nearly as long as people have been around. This extends into movies as since the very beginning of motion pictures, we have attempted to capture the fears of these types of fears on film in a number of ways. Most of the media we see on it is built out from existing ideas to create a new narrative that looks to capture the interests of the general public enough to make a profit or base a movie on it. While many people know both the book and movie of The Exorcist, something like The Rite (watch it HERE) that more or less came and went in the early 2010s proves that it also has an interesting story to tell. Whether or not you believe in the religious supernatural events found in either the book or the movie, it’s interesting to see how closely a movie follows the events of a book. Grab your crucifix and let’s find out this demon’s name as we find out what REALLY happened to The Rite.

The movie was a collaboration between Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema with the hope of starting the year of 2011 off right (no pun intended there). While it was released in January, a month where movies, especially horror, go to die, it did ok. It was made for 37 million and pulled in 97 million at the box office. While the critical response was mostly negative at 33% and 21% on popular aggregate sites, Roger Ebert actually gave it 3 out of 4 stars and was pleasantly surprised by what the movie was trying to do and say. Audiences like it a bit more though. In addition to the decent box office pull, the movie averaged a B cinema score from audiences and the Catholic Church applauded it for its efforts, even if details were off at times. The book was scooped up by the producers of The Exorcism of Emily Rose who liked the idea of a true story book and saw the profit from that movie as transferable with this one.

The movie was written by Michael Petroni while the book’s author Matt Baglio got a based-on credit and an advisor credit as well. Petroni wrote 14 episodes of a TV series in the early 90s and his big break was the screenplay adaptation of Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned. The year before this movie came out, he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia sequel and hasn’t slowed down much since. He wrote the screenplay for the incredibly popular novel The Book Thief’s adaptation while also creating and writing the 10 episodes of the TV show Messiah. Even this year he wrote the screenplay for yet another exorcist movie with the very popular Pope’s Exorcist. The Rite was directed by Mikhail Halfstrom who had a nice little run with this movie, 1408, and Escape Plan but doesn’t have a lot of other recognizable works to his name.

In front of the camera is a mixed bag of award winners, character actors, and underwhelming choices. The co-leads couldn’t be more different from each other with Anthony Hopkins as Father Lucas Trevant and Colin Donehue as Michael Kovak. Donehue has done a few things here and there but his biggest claim to fame came after this movie with a 130-episode run on Once Upon a Time. Hopkins is a two-time academy award winner who has 149 credits from Alfred Hitchcock, that’s playing the actual man, not being in one of his movies to Hannibal Lector. His 60 years in the business have produced dozens of memorable characters and he continues to act into his 80’s. the rest of the cast includes Alice Braga, Ciaran Hinds, Rutger Hauer, and Toby Jones. It’s a surprisingly deep cast for what the movie ended up being.

The movie opens inside a funeral home where we see Michael Kovack and his father doing what morticians do. Michael decides he doesn’t want to be a part of the business anymore, so he goes off to Seminary school with the idea that he can get a free education by quitting and renouncing his vows before completion so that he doesn’t owe anything. Father Matthew tries to talk hm out of quitting before they witness a freak accident that causes Michael to give the last rites. Father Matthew tells Michael that he hasn’t given his superiors his letter of resignation but if he does, the church will collect over 100,000 in student loans. Instead of this, Matthew wants Michael to look into being an exorcist and learning from the best in Rome for 2 months. Rather than pay his debts, Michael agrees and heads to Rome to study.

(Factometer 50%) Michael Kovak was in actuality Gary Thomas but unlike some of the movies we have covered, there is some truth here. Thomas started working for a mortuary when he was 14 and actually went to school to study it. This is when he switched over to a seminary at age 25 and at age 30, he was an ordained Catholic Priest. Where the story and film diverge is that Gary Thomas didn’t work at a family business mortuary with his dad, nor did he want to join up merely to get a free education. He was actually interested in being a man of the cloth for some time while he worked at the mortuary. There was no horrible and miraculous event that pushed him in that direction.

Kovak attends the class that Father Matthew asked him to go to that is taught by his friend Father Xavier. He meets a female reporter named Angelina who is there to write an article about both exorcism and the catholic church’s battle with them. The two bond as they are both there for different reasons and have skepticism about the entire ordeal. Michael even argues with Father Xavier often and presents, if you’ll forgive the pun, the devil’s advocate to many of the cases presented in class. Xavier sees Michael’s trepidation but also intelligence and decides to send him to see his colleague and famous Welsh exorcist Father Lucas. Lucas takes patients, or people believed to be possessed by demons at his home and welcomes Michael in to see his first case, a pregnant woman who was abused by her father, who is also the father of the baby, and that is why she was able to be possessed. During this phase of the exorcism, Michael witnesses the girl spit up bloody nails and speak languages she does not know. Even with these events, he is skeptical that there is anything supernatural going on and that there may not be a possession at all.

(Factometer 50%) Again, many of the ideas presented in the film are based on fact. There is, or was at least, a class taught on demons and exorcism. While its not quite at the Vatican, it’s at Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University and the classes title is Exorcism and the Prayer of Liberation. It was created by Giuseppe Ferrari and approved by the rector Paolo Scarafoni. It is true that the real Kovak, Father Thomas, went there but instead of meeting a female reporter in the class, he ran into the only other American by the name of Matt Baglio who was from San Diego. Baglio is actually who wrote the book that the movie is based off of and the two men would go on to witness multiple exorcisms and events together…mostly. Unlike the film though where father Xavier sends Michael to Father Lucas, in real life Father Thomas felt he should see the real thing and apprentice. He was eventually accepted by Father Carmine De Filippis where he would witness over 80 exorcisms. While neither Father Thomas nor Carmine ever saw a person vomit up a nail but there were tales of it and many other things that made it into the movie from Father Gabriel Amorth who was credited with over 70,000 exorcisms.

Michael visits another potentially possessed person with a boy who has marks on him that look like hooves. There is also a premonition that happens about Michael’s father passing away and this comes true. While Michael is gone, the girl who Father Lucas tried to help via an exorcism attempts suicide and Lucas attempts another exorcism, but this results in deaths of both the woman and her unborn child. Father Lucas becomes despondent after and loses some of his faith. This allows a demon named Baal to possess him and he starts doing bad things around the city. Michael finds him outside his home in the rain and he and Angelina decide to perform the exorcism themselves after they are unable to get a hold of Father Xavier. It isn’t easy but they are able to get the demon to admit its name and help Father Lucas expel the demon. Michael decides that he will stick with his faith and become an Exorcist.

(Factometer 20%) This section of the movie is far less closely bound to the true story of the book and events it’s based on. The real Father Carmine was never taken over by possession, though he claims that he has been attacked both verbally and physically by demons and those they possess like all exorcists have. Father Thomas’s dad in real life didn’t die and make him head home while he was in Rome nor was his father the head of a mortuary. Much of the final act of the movie was a work of fiction based loosely on what Baglio and Father Thomas observed during their time together. Nothing Father Thomas saw in Rome convinced him to stay with the church and be an exorcist as he was already more than committed to his craft. He was a much older man than portrayed on film and at the time the film came out, he estimated about 6 hours a week of his time was devoted to exorcism related activities. He also had exorcised about 4 or 5 people that were suspected of possession while praying over another few who he still believes needed help.

Whether or not you believe in god, the devil, and possession, it is a very powerful experience that is spoken about, written about, taught, filmed, and dramatized all over the world. The book was incredibly popular, and the movie was a hit. In terms of what we look for in this show, it is closer than most we have covered in terms of what is seen on film being in line with what is purported to be true. Read the book, watch the movie, and decide for yourself what REALLY happened to The Rite.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Really Happened to This Horror Movie? can be seen below. To check out the other shows we have on the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel, head over to the channel – and subscribe while you’re there!