An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2021’s The Last Rite
The Last Rite is inspired by true events which means the events of the movie didn’t actually happen but, the writer wrote the movie after something happened to someone, maybe the writer, that gave them the idea for the movie.
A woman (Bethan Waller) is terrorized by demonic evil that presents itself as a man in a hat living in the shadows.
Is it Scary?
The Last Rite might be scary if you’ve never seen other demonic possession movies. All of its jump scares and scares are things you’ve seen before and everything is predictable. Unless you’re currently being hunted by a ghost, you won’t be scared.
Detailed Plot:
The film opens with a priest laying out some items on a kitchen counter and a concerned man sitting at the kitchen table. The two hear thumping coming from the floor above and the priest goes upstairs to investigate. Entering a bedroom, the dramatic music swells and… we transition into the title screen.
We cut to the concerned man, whose name is Ben (played by Johnny Fleming), in bed with his girlfriend, Lucy (played by Bethan Waller). The two are awoken by their alarm clock and since there’s no priest around, this must be several days earlier.
A little bit later, the two are having breakfast and having some playful banter while Clair de Lune plays in the background. If there’s anything I’ve learned from movies with Clair de Lune in it, it’s that this is the calm before the storm or a ragtag team of 11-13 thieves just completed the greatest theft in history.
That night Lucy is working on her dissertation at home, alone, when she hears something drop near the kitchen. Investigating, she finds a picture frame on the ground and when picking it up we see a very quick glimpse of a black figure in the reflection. Lucy also sees this but when she turns around it’s gone.
Ben arrives home at that exact moment and Lucy tells him she saw someone. This never happens this early in a horror movie! Ben tells her he didn’t see anyone and Lucy just… changes the topic, asking Ben about his day. I got excited for no reason. Turns out Ben had a rough day at work selling art due to a valuable client ghosting him.
That night, while the two sleep, the bedroom door opens on its own and then closes very gently. Like if a parent was checking in on their child. The camera pans over to the clock and we see it’s 3 am, everyone knows 3 am is the evil hour!
The next day Lucy is on the phone with her friend when they hear a thud coming from a nearby window. At the window, a crow has flown into it and died, leaving behind a bloody streak. Her friend is about to tell her about some superstitions but Lucy quickly shuts it down.
Later Ben returns from work and it wasn’t a good one as he goes straight for the booze. Lucy greets him and, at first, everything seems pleasant until she asks about his day. Ben gets all crazy-eyed and becomes aggressive in his responses. Even when he asks about her day his eyes scream “I’ll murder you.”
Lucy tells him about the crow and starts asking questions about the house; who owned it before, did they talk about weird things happening, etc. She also tells him that ever since she moved in, she feels like she’s not alone in the house.
Ben realizes she trying to find out if the house is haunted and dismisses her questions, yelling that the house “isn’t fucking haunted.” Because the best way to convince someone of something is to aggressively deny it.
The following morning Ben leaves Lucy an apology note and a rose on his pillow before leaving for work. In the kitchen, she sends him a text thanking him along with a picture of herself. Ben replies asking who is in the picture and we see the same figure Lucy saw in the reflection several days ago, standing outside.
Later, Lucy is at a coffee shop with her friend Ellie (played by Tara Hoyos-Martinez) who basically tells her she’s screwed. I guess this scene was just there to introduce Ellie as an actual character and not a voice on the phone because otherwise there’s no point to this quick scene.
Back at home, Ben has prepared a fancy dinner for Lucy which is just pizza and fries. Don’t judge also are they not going to talk about the person who was standing outside their backyard earlier? Of course not.
Ben gives Lucy a formal apology and it seems the two are back to being all lovey-dovey. That is until Lucy goes into the kitchen and finds all the drawers open, causing her to drop her wine glass.
Ben comes rushing in yelling, “What the fuck are you doing now?” The whiplash from this guy’s sudden shift in personality is ridiculous. When Lucy calmly tells him she didn’t do anything and found everything open, he flips out. He tells her they didn’t just open on their own (they did) and he accuses her of “fucking shit up.”
At this point, I’m starting to think the shadow man is somehow influencing Ben into being violent/aggressive or he’s just an abusive dick.
That night while Ben is asleep on the couch (ha) Lucy comes downstairs for a glass of water. We see the thermostat drop 20 degrees and when Lucy turns around, she sees the shadow man standing outside. Before she can run, Ben comes in, continues his aggressive behavior, and dismisses her claims of a man in a hat.
We next see a quick scene of Lucy at a doctor’s office getting prescribed meds for sleep and getting a recommendation to reduce stress. Later, Lucy is with Ellie at a lounge where Ellie encourages her to leave Ben since he’s been a dick lately.
So we’re establishing Lucy’s personal life and her work (school work specifically) has been pretty shitty. Having seen a bunch of horror movies, this tells me demonic possession is right around the corner.
In the bathroom at the lounge, a woman stops Lucy and knows that she has seen the man in the hat (fucking how?). She grabs her arm, raises her voice, and tells her she can’t run and to not let him in. Was that supposed to be friendly advice?
Back at her house, Lucy and Ellie do some research on the man in the hat and learn about an author who has not only written about him but, also had his own experience. In their research, they also find some loose connections between the man in the hat and sleep paralysis but Ellie literally “blah, blah, blahs” her way past it.
The following day Lucy goes to visit the author, Dr. David Andrews, but for some reason didn’t call first so he’s not really friendly towards her. He eventually lets her in to talk about the man in the hat and Lucy finds some drawings resembling what she’s seen.
Dr. Andrews accuses her of being a journalist looking to write a hit piece on him to discredit him, insinuating that it’s happened in the past. Lucy apologizes for disturbing him and decides to leave.
Suddenly he becomes more open and says the man in the hat is attracted to stress. He also tells her he believes her because of the look on her face and that her eyes gave it away. Which is just some convenient bullshit.
Dr. Andrews tells Lucy the man in the hat has chosen her for some reason. He explains that it could be due to childhood trauma, the house she’s living in, or something else, which is pretty freaking vague. Apparently, the man in the hat is like a parasite, feeding off negative energy and since Lucy has already seen it, it’s attached itself to her.
Andrews recommends Lucy start praying and before he can explain further the two hear a sound coming from the kitchen. Andrews hurriedly rushes Lucy out, telling her he has work to do but also tells her whatever she does, “Don’t let him in.”
In where? In what? How does someone let him in? What does that even mean? Why do all warnings come in riddles? Before Lucy can ask, the man in the hat appears behind Andrews and it looks like Andrews is just cool with it?
Back at home Lucy pulls out some religious items from a box and hangs up a cross by her bed. That night Ben hasn’t returned home and when the clock strikes 3, Lucy calls out for her grandma in her sleep, causing her to wake up. A woman in white then walks past the door and Lucy follows after.
Following her into the backyard, there are now rows and rows of clotheslines and the woman stops at the end. Instead of nopeing out of there, Lucy continues forwards assuming the woman is her grandma.
Good news and bad news. As Lucy reaches her, it is revealed to be her grandma. Unfortunately, her grandma smiles and thanks Lucy for letting him in as her face distorts.
Lucy runs inside where the man in the hat is waiting for her. Appearing to be frozen in place, she can do nothing as the man in the hat gets closer and reaches her. Hard cut to Lucy waking up in bed, sweating and unable to move.
Suffering from sleep paralysis, Lucy watches as the bedroom door opens on its own, heavy footsteps are heard making their way to her bed, and her covers are pulled off. An invisible force starts to choke Lucy who tries to fight it the best she can while being paralyzed. The invisible force eventually lets her go and she curls up into a corner, crying.
The next morning at breakfast, Ben is back, and the two start to argue about his choosing to not come home the night before. Lucy reveals to Ben that when she was a child she was terrorized by unexplainable things and things she couldn’t see.
Her parents, believing she was tormented by demons, would drag her outside naked in the middle of the night and splash holy water on her while praying. Lucy eventually ran away and was taken in by her grandmother. After this, all the unexplainable things stopped, until recently.
We next see Lucy at a church where she takes the number of a priest from a poster and gives him a call asking to meet immediately. That night while Lucy is in the bath, Ben offers to get her some hot chocolate leaving Lucy alone in the bathroom.
Lucy slips underwater and when she opens her eyes, she sees the man in the hat hovering over her. Worse still, it appears as if the man in the hat is pinning her underwater. After struggling for some time, she breaks free just as Ben returns, and the man in the hat disappears.
The following day Lucy meets with the priest, the one from the beginning, and she tells him about the attacks. The priest, Father Roberts (played by Kit Smith) says he doesn’t want to patronize her and then patronizes her by basically saying she’s imagining things.
Lucy remains adamant something is happening and Father Roberts offers to bless the house as a way to help. After telling him her address, Father Roberts asks her to write it down but as she starts, something in the distance catches her attention. We don’t see what it is but we can assume it’s the man in the hat. Lucy puts down the pen and paper and runs off.
Later, Father Roberts shows up at the house and asks Ben if Lucy is alright since she left in a hurry. Ben, who appears shocked he’s there, tells her she’s fine and tries to send him away. This adds to my theory that Ben is being influenced by the man in the hat!
Before he can leave, Lucy comes to the door and invites Father Roberts in. As Father Roberts and Lucy talk, it’s clear Ben is not happy and starts to laugh dismissively when Lucy tells Roberts she feels a presence in the house. After calling it all “spiritual ghost crap” Ben eventually shuts up when Lucy says she needs him for support.
Father Roberts hands Lucy the paper where she was writing her address earlier and we see that Lucy wrote something in Latin but, she doesn’t remember writing it.
Roberts tells Lucy it’s in an old Latin text that translates to ‘I have her now’. Ben calls bullshit and insinuates someone else wrote the note since Lucy claims to not know Latin. Probably to avoid the awkwardness, Roberts asks to use the bathroom upstairs. After using it he feels a presence in the nearby bedroom and sees multiple shadows walking past.
That night as Lucy brushes her teeth, she starts bleeding profusely from her mouth but it’s revealed to be a hallucination. After this she looks into the mirror and smirks a bit, hinting that she’s been possessed.
A few minutes later Ben finds her standing in the guest bedroom. When he tries to enter the room, the door slams shut and Lucy starts to scream. Forcing the door open, he finds Lucy in a corner and although we can’t see it, it sounds as if she is cutting or peeling the flesh off of her arm.
Possessed-Lucy turns and screams towards Ben causing him to fall back in shock. She then jumps on all fours and crawls to him.
Lucy speaks in a distorted voice and, in Latin, recites the ending of a Hail Mary prayer before screaming ‘amen’ at the tops of her lungs. She then falls unconscious.
Deciding the weird shit that just happened maybe wasn’t in Lucy’s head, Ben decides to call Father Roberts and begs him to rush over. Father Roberts agrees and shows up an hour and a half later, so either he lives really far away or he doesn’t know the meaning of ‘rushing over’.
This scene directly ties into the beginning of the movie and we finally see what happens when Father Roberts heads upstairs. Before he does upstairs though, we see that Ben refuses to go with him because he’s scared. Ben sucks.
Entering the room, Roberts finds Lucy sitting on the edge of the bed. In a distorted demonic voice, she asks him in Latin what he wants. Roberts recites a few prayers and the demon responds that Lucy is theirs. Lucy then appears to break free from the possession long enough to beg for help.
We hard cut to Father Roberts asking his higher-up to approve an exorcism. She vehemently denies one without even listening to the recording. Even God has bureaucracy apparently. At the church, Roberts meets with an old friend and former priest, Ray (played by Ian Macnaughton)
Roberts has decided to go all wild card and perform the exorcism without approval and wants Ray’s help. This is something Ray can apparently help with despite him no longer being a priest and having denounced God after losing his wife.
Although Ray refuses to help, Roberts leaves the recording with Ray just in case he decides to listen to it and change his mind. In the very next scene, Roberts receives a call from Ray agreeing to help. We also hear Roberts tell Ray it takes 20 minutes to get to Lucy’s home, so what the fuck was he doing for the other hour and ten minutes when he “rushed over”?
Back at Lucy and Ben’s home, Ellie is there with Ben and the two argue about how Ben is handling the situation. She goes upstairs to check on Lucy and the music gets all horror-y so something bad is about to happen.
Entering the guest bedroom where Lucy is asleep, the door slams on its own trapping Ellie inside. Ben runs upstairs but is unable to open the door. Behind Ellie, the man in the hat appears and we cut back to Ben who finally is able to push the door open.
Ben finds Ellie cowering in a corner repeating that she’s seen the man in the hat. But, overall she seems fine. The two hear a sound from downstairs and Ben grabs a bat because he never learned that ghosts are incorporeal. Before he can go downstairs, he’s stopped by Lucy creepily laughing at the edge of the bed.
Possessed-Lucy throws herself back onto the bed and starts to convulse violently with blood spewing out of her mouth. Hard cut to Lucy waking up in a bed in the middle of a forest. Confused, she walks around and doesn’t see the man in the hat directly behind her.
Feeling his presence she looks behind her but he has a sense of humor and has already disappeared. When looking forward the man in the hat appears in front of her and possessed-Lucy wakes up back in the room.
So it appears the forest is a metaphor for Lucy’s mind where she and the man in the hat each try to win control, though Lucy doesn’t seem to know what’s going on.
We see it’s now a day later and Roberts is in the room with Ray starting the exorcism. Ellie and Ben are beside him but are instructed not to talk to Lucy as it isn’t her. The four recite prayers, reading from the bible which appears to hurt Possessed-Lucy.
Roberts demands the demon reveal itself but Possessed-Lucy screams causing the cross on the wall to turn upside down. She looks over at Ray which scares him enough that he apologizes to Roberts and runs out of the room. I guess he doesn’t believe in having a spine either.
Roberts once again demands the demon reveal its name and this time the demon tells them that it is the bearer of darkness, Legion. The revelation causes the power and the candles to go out because of the whole bearer of darkness thing.
Legion-Lucy breaks free of her restraints and runs out of the room. No one follows after her or even attempts to stop her. It was a weird, somewhat funny scene. Legion-Lucy runs out of the room and everyone just watches her do it like it’s perfectly fine, no one even flinches!
Roberts orders Ben and Ellie to stay in the room and he heads downstairs on his own with his bible and a flashlight. Finding her in a corner, Roberts commands Legion to leave Lucy but Legion-Lucy simply screams causing the flashlight to go out.
Legion-Lucy pushes Roberts to the ground and crawls atop him snarling in his face. Roberts, showing no fear or emotion, tries to reach out to Lucy telling her to resist the spirit. This doesn’t work.
Ray shows up, probably because he couldn’t figure out the lock, and commands Legion to leave Lucy in the name of the lord. Legion-Lucy jumps back in pain and Roberts joins Ray in chanting their prayers. Legion-Lucy screams out in agony and Legion appears to leave Lucy as she collapses on the ground.
Later as Ray and Roberts get in their car to leave, Roberts looks back at the house and tells Ray to stop when he sees the man in the hat standing at the window. He looks again and sees the man in the hat has disappeared so he tells Ray to keep going.
WHAT?!
In the house we see Ellie and Ben caring for Lucy at her bedside. The film ends as we see a clock strike 3 am and the power goes out… or maybe they just turned off the lights?
Review:
The Last Rite is just okay. The story falls short of being different from a run-of-the-mill demonic possession movie. It feels like they were going for some kind of deeper meaning or metaphor but never really dedicate themselves to it, or they just fail at it.
At times I thought the demon was meant to be a metaphor for stress or depression or something along those lines especially since it sticks around in the end but, it doesn’t make sense overall. If it was meant to be a metaphor for a long-term condition why does it possess Lucy? If it wasn’t meant to be a metaphor then why didn’t it possess Andrews?
But even as a run-of-the-mill demonic possession story, it falls short of making sense if you think about it for too long. Annoyingly, the “letting the demon in” is never explained. Lucy never lets it in, she sees a ghost of her grandma and investigates it.
The demon was in her house before so letting it in, doesn’t refer to letting it in the home. Is it because she touched the ghost? Because she saw it in her home? Because she saw it in a dream? Who the hell was that random woman in the bathroom who knew Lucy saw the man in the hat? The movie doesn’t stick to its own logic because it doesn’t create a “logic”, things just happen.
While the acting is good especially Bethan Waller as Lucy, the characters aren’t fleshed out well enough. Ben is a total dick and while his weird shifts in personality from nice to aggressive/abusive are supposed to emphasize Lucy’s stress at home, it happens so suddenly that I assumed he was being influenced by the demon.
You then have to ask yourself ‘Why is Lucy with him?’. Of course, there are unfortunately relationships with that dynamic but Lucy is never shown to be someone who won’t leave him. She even contemplates it when Ellie tells her she should. Had Lucy’s character been fleshed out more or Ben’s transition to total dick be more gradual with an actual inciting event then it would have all been more believable.
The final act of the movie also shifts focus onto Father Roberts to the point where he becomes the main character and not Lucy. It felt like there was a whole movie that could have been made with his going against the church and performing the exorcism with Ray at his side.
Weirdly the movie is fast and slow-paced. At times the movie is moving pretty slowly with some inconsequential scenes and at times it’s burning through every possession horror movie trope you can think of in minutes. Seriously, here are just some of the tropes the movie features:
- Reflection ghost
- Bedroom door opens on its own behind someone
- Evil things happening at 3 am
- Cold room for no reason
- Mirror hallucination with blood
- Hanging crosses turning upside down
- Crows flying into a window
- Latin
- All drawers open
- Evil thing in the background of pictures
- Something scary behind clotheslines
- Exorcist reference
- Last minute save by someone who left earlier
Overall The Last Rite is not bad and its negatives are only really noticeable if you think about it too long (like I did). While this wouldn’t be a top recommendation, it’s definitely on my ‘recommend if you have nothing else to watch’ list.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
Metacritic – No Page