Discussions on exorcism were something that most people were
never aware of, more often than not something loosely tossed into a story of
some horror film. And then in 1973 that all changed when William Peter Blatty’s
novel THE EXORCIST was brought to the screen. Suddenly we had numerous movies
concerning exorcisms being done around the world. But none of them ever
captured that sheer terror we found in the original. With THE VATICAN TAPES
that record remains.
Angela Holmes (Olivia Taylor Dudley) is a young woman about
to be married. Her father Roger (Dougray Scott) is a military man who comes
home to visit on her birthday. An injury at her party leads to a trip to the
doctor where she begins to act strange. Conveniently a Father Lozano (Michael
Pena) is on hand to witness some of the thing that happen. As the days go by
and he sees more of Angela, he becomes convinced she is possessed. Security
footage is smuggled to the Vatican, who apparently have an archive of such
footage from around the world, and the eventual decision that only an exorcism
can save this girl comes to be.
The pacing of the movie is slow enough that while it should
be developing suspense it actually bogs down what’s going on. I mean face it,
we know from the title that an exorcism is eventually going to happen. And
we’ve seen enough of these movies to know that the priests involved will have
something in their history that makes their involvement either a hindrance on
what they are doing or leads to their demise. But this movie takes its time
getting us to that point where the exorcism takes place.
It isn’t until the final third of the film that things begin
to move in this direction. The background stories aren’t presented well enough
to make them memorable. I watched this movie less than a week ago and honestly
can’t recall much about them. But the exorcism happens and things make noise,
furniture bounces and backs bend in unnatural ways on the possessed human. Been
there, done that. They do add a twist here at the end that changes things up a
bit but by then most of us will have lost interest. I know I did.
I won’t say I hated this movie but come on, let’s do
something new here. Let’s make it different than the hundreds of movies in the
genre that have come before. Yes the production quality and the acting were
better than low budget movies done on the same topic but there are no scares
here and nothing to make anyone find their faith again. Even THE LAST EXORCISM
brought something fresh to the table.
If clichéd items are fine with you then you might enjoy
this. If you’re a fan of every exorcism movie ever made then have at it. For me
I can’t recommend this one to anyone. All it made me do was feel sorry for
Dougray Scott who made the wrong career move when he decided to not take on the
role of Wolverine in the first X-Men movie. Then again perhaps Hugh Jackman’s
good fortune was better for us all.
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