You almost never see God, but the devil makes his presence known . . . daily
Swift shot: The Vatican does not authorize the recording of any exorcisms, this was the film’s disclaimer, and at my screening they actually had priests handing out the Prayer of Saint Christopher on little slips of paper. Right before the film started, those same priests reminded us that while the devil is real, we have free will. Nice touch, and it added a little bit of creepy atmosphere to the whole experience. I wasn’t scared while watching this film; it played out as a mockumentary, and it was handled well, albeit a tad predictable in places, but I would see it again if someone else paid or once it is on cable. Running just under 91 minutes, it had a great knack of keeping my attention the entire time and never became boring.
It’s 1989, South Hartford, Connecticut, and we are led on a police CSI type video walk-through of a crime scene of pure graphic, gory horror. In what looks like a quaint, normal, suburb home, we see up close and personal the cadavers strewn about the house . . . all with one thing immediately in common, they are members of the clergy, or more to the point, were. The classic film-footage was excellent, I think they may have actually borrowed some from an actual multiple slaying crime from that area and time. It had the right amount of grain to make me think I was back in 1989. As we see the footage, the police are escorting a frail looking house-mother into the back of a police cruiser, it’s Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley).
Now it is 2009, twenty years later, and we meet Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade), who lived her life thinking her mother was deranged, but just three days before her father dies, he tells her why her mother was moved from the states to Rome, Italy. Turns out when her mother killed all those people of the cloth, they were conducting an exorcism on Maria. Now a young woman, Isabella is driven to find out the truth about her mother and enlists the help of a film-maker to foot the bill and capture the results of her endeavors on camera. She hasn’t seen her mother since she was eight years old, probably just as well.
To add some substance to the documentary, film-maker, Michael (Ionut Grama) manages to get his camera in some pretty restricted areas. Isabella and he are invited to film a session at the Vatican School for Exorcism, which was also featured in “The Rite”. They are permitted film access to the Centrino Hospital in Rome that now houses the disturbed Maria Rossi. But, as her doctor explains, it has been years since her last violent outbreak, because they have a strict no religion and no excitement policy when it comes to Maria. But, just in case, her outer cell containment area is emblazoned with several crosses.
After the class, Isabella meets two priests that are, in fact, rogue exorcists that are not sanctioned by the Vatican . . . or are they? Father Ben (Simon Quaterman) is young and ambitious and disagrees with the Vatican’s revision to permitting exorcisms which was released in 1999, essentially it makes it impossible to exorcise anyone, because the signs needed to require an exorcism aren’t typically present until the exorcism is actually happening. A nice little, Catch-666 if you will permit me. His fellow rogue is Father David (Evan Helmuth) who wants to help, but he doesn’t want to sacrifice anything real to help people. Ben wants to save the world from the devil, and Isabella just wants validation that her mom isn’t crazy, because Dissociative Identity Disorder is genetic. So, if her mom is possessed, she won’t have to worry about being a psycho herself.
The film reminds us that there are four signs needed to declare a bona fide possession: Preternatural strength; aversion to holy relics and symbols; speaking in foreign tongues; and objects moving by themselves while near the victim. But, while few of us know anyone who has ever been possessed, we all know of a story not too far from home where a seemingly normal person slaughters his/her whole family. It happens especially during the holy months, so while this film didn’t scare me as I watched it, it reminded me of the real horrors people commit every day that sometimes defy science and nature. I was reminded of the chilling Yates case, where the Texas mother violently drowned all of her children because “God told her to do it”. Who needs Hollywood to scare you, whether the devil is real or not, people can be manipulated by all manner of forces, light and dark. Say your prayers tonight that you don’t start hearing little voices telling you to get creative. If you want real terror, just turn on the news for more than twenty minutes . . . you will find the devil.
The film was worth the trip, gas and ticket price, but I think it is better watched at home with some open-minded friends who scare easily, because ten minutes after the film you can roll your eyes back into your head and start speaking Latin to them . . . all the better if you have mastered climbing the walls like a cockroach.
