Faith and doubt in "The Rite"

While I love horror films, I tend to avoid them when the subject involves demonic possession. In my book, there's a huge line dividing ghosts and demons, and in that book, it's much harder to shake off thoughts of the devil than it is to forget about other things that go bump in the night.

But The Rite has Anthony Hopkins, whose Oscar-winning role as Hannibal Lecter has me creeped out forever. And even that was enough to convince my mom, who hates it when I watch anything "evil," to watch the last full show of The Rite with me.

Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue, in his film debut) works as an embalmer in the family morgue. Unhappy with his life and hating his father, he decides to escape to the seminary, planning to quit before entering priesthood so he could get a free college education. He does just this after four years in the seminary, confessing to a lack of faith.

But God, apparently, has other plans for him. He isn't named Michael, after St. Michael the Archangel, who Catholics would know is tasked to battle the Devil, for nothing.

I'm reminded of a saying I encountered at a difficult time in my life: "When you reach the edge of a cliff, let go and let God take over. Only one of two things will happen. Either He will catch you, or teach you to fly." The Rite basically has the same spirit, except that it was a lesson learned by experience.

Michael, with his rational mind, does have little faith in anything that can't be explained. At some point, this comes as a blessing. Sent to the Vatican for exorcist training by a priest who recognizes something in him, even after he expressed his lack of faith in God, Michael is assigned to observe a famous exorcist Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins).

Father Lucas is working with a pregnant sixteen-year-old patient named Rosario, who they believed was possessed after she was raped by her father. She seems normal enough at first, which helps boost Michael's skepticism, and even when the sessions become supernaturally frightening, Michael's doubt allows him not to flinch.

He carries his skepticism up until Rosario dies after suffering a miscarriage, bleeding to death as she is tied to a hospital bed. He is about to talk to a lady journalist, who is seeking answers herself, when Michael is suddenly challenged by the devil in a battle over Father Lucas himself.

What is the doubting exorcist-in-training to do when the exorcist himself is possessed by a demon?

Again, that saying: "Only one of two things will happen. Either He will catch you, or teach you to fly."

Doubting almost to the very end, the demon challenges Michael to believe in him. Bad move, if you ask me. Rationally speaking, if the devil convinces the hell out of you to believe in him, he is also convincing you to believe in God.

It's hard not to watch The Rite with Catholic eyes, or to consider it a Catholic film. First, it's based on The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio, a book written about Catholic priest Father Gary Thomas and his journey towards regaining his faith as he trains to be an exorcist. Second, the script was co-written with Baglio by Michael Petroni, a practicing Catholic, who was also one of the writers of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Third, and most obvious, it is set in and does not deviate from the Catholic context, even if there are slight concessions to Hollywood sellability.

I hadn't expected to like The Rite and consider it a film on faith, but as credits rolled, I felt as if I had just had a spiritual experience myself. Anthony Hopkins is an amazing actor. And God is an amazing God.

Watch The Rite and prepare to be convinced.

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