The biggest scheme

The biggest scheme the Devil ever pulled was the trailer to “The Rite”. It sure looked promising, but the film never really delivered. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised, since the concept is terribly unrealistic to begin with!

An atheist-sceptic trains for the Catholic priesthood (despite not believing an iota of the Bible and Tradition), and ends up at an exorcist course in Rome, where he befriends a devil-possessed exorcist, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins (OK, he was perfect for the part). After some supernatural haunting, including by a red-eyed mule (!), the sceptic becomes a priest-for-real, while the Devil presumably retreats into the woodworks. And yes, cats really are on the wrong side of the eternal battle.

The plot holes are obvious, the film is dragging, some twists are never explored in depth (what about the investigative reporter infiltrating the exorcist course?), and the horror scenes just aren't scary enough. But sure, it's interesting that “The Rite” seems to be relative positive towards Catholicism and exorcism, compared to “The Da Vinci Code” and other blockbusters. Still, only worth one or two stars in my opinion…