The Rite

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A 2011 movie based on Matt Baglio's book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. It follows a reluctant, skeptical exorcist.

It has mostly been panned by critics.

Tropes used in The Rite include:
  • Demonic Possession
  • Evilly Affable: Baal. Its somewhat insane rants are always delivered in a faux-friendly and familiar tone.
  • Hollywood Atheist: The main character is a priest who doesn't actually believe in God (he joined the seminary to get a free college degree). Even after he sees a girl possessed by demons who speaks in tongues, contorts her body into impossible positions, and changes her voice completely, along with her vomiting up the nails used to crucify Jesus, he still claims it was just a hoax to cover up her being molested.
  • Hollywood Exorcism: The film plays this straight, albeit in a more subdued manner than usual, and lampshades it by having the exorcist joke about projectile vomit head spinning.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Every possessed person.
  • Large Ham: Anthony Hopkins is in true form here. Especailly as the demon, Baal.
  • Lecture as Exposition: Father Lucas explains the basics of exorcism in lectures at the beginning of the film.
  • Precision F-Strike: When Michael finds that his room is full of frogs, (a sign of possession) he mutters out a "You gotta be fucking kidding me!"
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The mule. Yes, a demonic mule appears in this movie.
  • Surreal Horror: The demonic vision.
  • Uncanny Valley: The possessed seem to have this as their hat.