An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
No spoilers! If you would like spoilers – check out the Spoiler 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.
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.
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, a lot of the questions and plot points of the movie are never explained which leads to frustration. The movie doesn’t stick to it’s logic because it doesn’t create a logic and things just happen.
While the acting is good especially Bethan Waller as Lucy, the characters aren’t fleshed out well enough. Characters change personality seemingly only because the movie requires it and not as a believable change.
Weirdly the movie is fast and slow paced. At times the movie is moving pretty slow with some inconsequential scenes and at times it’s burning through every possession horror movie trope you can think of in minutes.
Overall The Last Rite is not bad and it’s 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