A couple of months ago we got a look at the first official trailer for The Rite, starring Anthony Hopkins. Although the film has an interesting plot – involving a skeptic who attends an exorcism school – the trailer unfortunately didn’t offer anything that we haven’t seen before in other similar movies.
Now Warner Bros. has released the second official trailer for The Rite. Does it improve upon the first one? In some ways yes, but it also contains a lot of the problems the first trailer had.
Before we get to the new trailer check out the official synopsis:
Inspired by true events, The Rite follows skeptical seminary student Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue), who reluctantly attends exorcism school at the Vatican. While he’s in Rome, Michael meets an unorthodox priest, Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), who introduces him to the darker side of his faith, uncovering the devil’s reach even to one of the holiest places on Earth.
Now have a look at the latest trailer for The Rite:
You can view the trailer in HD over at Apple.
Although improving upon the first trailer, this new trailer doesn’t do enough to squash any of the major concerns I have about the movie. Screen Rant Senior Editor Kofi Outlaw described the movie as looking like “more exorcism schlock” and I would have to agree with him. The whole “older preist trying to convince the skeptic” thing has been done many times before and The Rite doesn’t appear to add anything to that particular to-and-fro argument.
Despite two pretty unimpressive trailers thus far, I have a feeling The Rite may do quite decent at the box office. Despite being released next January (the month in which studios dump movies they’re not overly confident in (to put it nicely)), the recent success of the low-budget horror The Last Exorcism may spark enough interest in audiences to give The Rite a chance.
In spite of my reservations about the movie, I’ll still end up seeing it in theaters – if for no other reason than the admittedly impressive cast, which includes Anthony Hopkins, Colin O’Donoghue, Alice Braga (Predators), Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds and Rutger Hauer. This ultimately one of those “wait and see, it could be fun” movies for me.
The Rite hits theaters on January 28th, 2011. Does this second trailer do anything to convince you to check it out?
Source: Youtube and Apple
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Looks like good old fashioned exorcism fun — rehashed. I love these stories but wonder if there will ever be a demonic posession that doesn’t require Catholicism or Cajun/Carribean/African voodoo to fight it. These are OK, just overdone.
Priest on a dark street silhouetted by street lamp — check
Pale, stonefaced child with religious imagery — check
Non-believer being taught otherwise — check
Lots of eyes rolled back — check
Child in danger (but probably not really) — check
Home interiors painted either dark grey or black — check
Exorcism movies are like Romance and Mystery novels. The elements and stories are all basically the same, and that is what the fans look for. I guess I’m an Exorcism movie fan — I’ll see it.
Well, that probably has something to do with the fact that “exorcism” as we understand the term comes from Catholic tradition.
Filmmakers could certainly craft a film about demonic possession that differs from this, but it couldn’t then be correctly identified as “exorcism”.
They need a whole new concept, and that’s the ticket to box office success!
Don’t forget about the old gypsy curse movies. Sam Raimi covered that one recently with Drag Me to Hell!
ill probably see this, it looks interesting enough
Without attempting to sound cynical, there’s generally a reason why movies are released in January and it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with being terrific. That seems to be the month where the studios dust the shelves off and toss out movies to make room for bigger & better projects.
One thing that intrigues me is that this film is based on a book that supposedly goes to great lengths to portray exorcism as understood by the modern Church, rather than willingly making errors in the interest of crafting a generic horror flick.
And can I really pass up Anthony Hopkins?
Anthony Hopkins as a wise, bad@ss exorcist teaching a young apprentice, but then ends up possessed himself? Yes, I will see this movie.