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The Rite



The Rite - in which an ambivalent American man attends seminary school, decides it isn't for him, and then is blackmailed into taking a trip to Rome, to make sure he's sure. It seems like everything would be better if the main guy, Michael Kovak, cared more about his own destiny, but instead, we follow his agnosticism on a roller-coaster ride in the Vatican! Okay, so they send out of normal exorcism class, to an independent study with Anthony Hopkins. Michael has been working with his father as a mortician, so he seems to have the constitution an exorcism requires. Anthony Hopkins is a very good priest, and his main exorcism is on a 16 year old pregnant woman. Michael doesn't believe any of the things he's seeing, even though it is clearly demonic, but he doesn't believe in God, so he can't believe in the Devil. The pregnant possession is awesome, and she, like, coughs up some nails at some point. She's in a lot of pain, and also says some real fucked up stuff to Michael. Then,  he meets a nice, Italian reporter, and starts to tell her all of what he's been seeing, I guess so he can process it. She wants to report on it, so she's happy to listen. Plus, he's easy on the eyes. He doesn't want to talk about it with Anthony Hopkins because he doesn't trust him, because he brought a tiny frog as a prop to help a little boy who was being plagued by nightmares and bruises. Like, the kid is really in trouble, the frog is just a symbol of the banishment. Its fine, its whatever.
       Hopkins is amazing. Like, just this puttering old man with mountains of wisdom, who seems to be getting some work done with the preggo, but its slow-going. Also, he seems to be increasingly affected by the same demon, which is hinted to, and then confirmed, when he goes full-on possessed, and then Hopkins is fucking scary. Michael has to bring the reporter with him to muster the faith in his own vestments required to exorcise the demon out of Father Anthony. Oh, the pregnant girl died in a hospital. The demon definitely did it, and it started with the fetus. She was pregnant because her father raped her, but I don't think it really matters to the plot. So, now the demon had the time and energy to fully possess Hopkins. The civilian reporter helps almost-Father Michael exorcise the demon, turns out, its Baal. Exorcised. Because when Michael believes in the devil who is affecting his mentor, then he is logicked into believing into God, too.  This is a true story, and you can go look up both priests, at least you could in 2011.

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