The Rite

What makes this film old is Anthony Hopkins and his laboured transformation into a tortured being, who needs to be tied up hand and foot, there to snarl and growl.We've seen this Hopkins before, better done in his man-eating Hannibal Lecter role.

Parades about with a self-seriousness at odds with a second-half dominated by veiny-faced, limb-contorting special effects and screaming, screaming, screaming.

This dreary affair is 'inspired by actual events', but it's a very low-wattage entry into the genre of the exorcist movie.

It may not convince you of the existence of the devil but, with its true-story twist on a popular cinematic theme, it adequately entertains.

It's a fatuous film with none of the weight and dark energy of The Exorcist.

Much like Håfström’s last film, 1408, a promising and even impressive opening gives way to a final act that squanders everything that came before.

The Rite arrives too late to its infernal circle. [Full review in Spanish]

By the film's mid-point Hafstrom has lost control of the film.

[The film] isn't great, but it isn't a disaster either. That's got to count for something.