The Last Rite

If ever you find yourself starring in a movie of any kind: Prepare.

The boyfriend being the worst actor, ever, we continued watching, half heartedly. The idea behind the man in the black hat, the shadow man, the dark man, is a common enough premise, however sleep paralysis and demonic possession are two different things. None of which was executed believably. I usually can watch just about anything supernatural but this was bad. The only good came from the priest. I am still looking at twenty more minutes before the end and cannot wait.

Let me be as shallow as the grave: The scariest part of this movie was the lead actress' skin.

Forgo this one if you crave frights.

Well this movie has a ok atmosphere. It is in no way a scary movie and the effects well, there are no special effects.

The male antagonist is just about the worst actor I have ever seen. And I have seen a few. He is incredibly unbelievable. The female is mediocre.

When I stumbled upon this 2021 horror from writer and director Leroy Kincaide, I wasn't really harboring much of any hopes or expectations for the movie, given the movie rather low rating on IMDb. So I sat down to watch the movie, figuring that it would probably just be another run-of-the-mill and a dime-a-dozen possession movies.

But still, as I hadn't already seen "The Last Rite", and I do believe in giving a movie a fair chance, of course I opted to watch it and see what Leroy Kincaide had to offer.

I will say that "The Last Rite" had some interesting enough elements to it. I liked the concept of the shadowed entity with the hat, though I couldn't help drawing parallels to Reverend Henry Kane from "Poltergeist II: The Other Side".

The acting performances in the movie were good enough, for the most parts. Bethan Walker (playing Lucy), Kit Smith (playing Father Roberts) and David Kerr (playing Dr. Andrews) definitely put on good performances, while Johnny Fleming (playing Ben) definitely left me wanting more of proper acting on the screen) for someone in a secondary lead role.

But now comes all the bad things about "The Last Rite" and all of its shortcomings. The movie was slow paced, so insanely and unbearably slow paced. After having sat through what literally felt like 90 minutes of movie, I checked the timer on the player and to my dread saw that only 34 minutes had passed of watching the movie. So this was going to be a drag of a movie, and believe me, it was.

And not a whole lot is actually going on to make "The Last Rite" an outstanding movie from the numerous other movies of the same genre that proved to be more enjoyable and entertaining than Leroy Kincaide could muster to deliver. The director drew on the generic tropes of the possession and haunting genre, which made "The Last Rite" bland and generic. I mean, you have things like a door opening and closing on its own, drawers and cubboards opening by themselves, a quilt slowly being pulled down while the person is laying in bed, and such stuff. All things that have been done and seen countless times before.

As for the scare factor and for "The Last Rite" being a horror movie. Yeah, this was a mere stroll in the park. Exactly, the movie was too generic and predictable to be scary. Sure, there were a good atmosphere being built up in the movie, so writer and director Leroy Kincaide definitely managed that. But it was by no means scary.

The ending of the movie definitely was predictable and it wasn't an ending that left the movie complete. So after having suffered 1 hour and 47 minutes of slow torture, the ending was just a final slap in the face before the end credits.

If you enjoy horror movies and demonic possession movies, then "The Last Rite" is not worth the time, money or effort. And this is not a movie that I would recommend you sit down to watch, nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of "The Last Rite" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

Nothing remarkable but not the worst possession film I've seen. None of the characters are remotely likeable, relatable, or interesting. While I understand one could reason that the boyfriend was behaving the way he was because of the demons presence I am countering that argument with this- he's just a knob.

I guess I'm too old to appreciate modern horror films. This movie is yet another where two unlikeable people live together and one goes to a job he hates and the other stays in their haunted house. The house is always dark, even in the daylight and they never turn on any lights. The woman does very little. She rides her exercise bike but mostly sleeps, or lays awake or stands in the kitchen drinking, while staring blankly at nothing, but is in school. When he's home, he is always angry about his job and blows up at her frequently for no actual reason. He supposedly loves her but never gives her the benefit of the doubt if the cabinets are all suddenly opened by supernatural forces. I don't see that whatever boogeyman is wreaking havoc could be much worse than the jerk she lives with who has only one emotion...anger. They don't play music or watch TV or movies. They never leave their cold, dark, sterile house, not together at least. Demons, or not, stalking her, one thing is certain...she's already in hell. She could pack her things and move out. Her life could only improve as a result. Why she wants to stay with that volatile plank of wood of a boyfriend of hers, is anyone's guess. Her girlfriend tells her she should leave him but she refuses. If you enjoy watching boring, irritating people sit around and talk or yell at each other, then this is the movie for you.