Demons I've faced as an exorcist
Exorcist Father Gary Thomas at the premiere of The Rite
The images are terrifying. Girls scream in agony, their bodies inhumanly contorted. They spit curses and growl in
unknown tongues. Demonic possession, and those who battle it, have been a recurrent theme in films from ’s classic The Exorcist to this month’s thriller The Rite.
But to Father Gary Thomas The Rite is no Hollywood fantasy. It’s his life. The movie tells the story of the clergyman’s own chilling journey to becoming an exorcist, learning all he knows about battling the Devil from a venerable priest, played on screen by Oscar winner Sir Anthony Hopkins.
“I don’t think I’d ever seen Satan until I became an exorcist,” says Father Thomas, who spent a week on the movie set in Hungary as an adviser. “I’m not offended if someone doesn’t believe it. What I’ve described, I’ve seen.” Hopkins plays Father Lucas, based on Father Thomas’s mentor, Rome’s leading exorcist Father Carmine De Filippis. In the film Father Thomas is renamed Michael Kovak, played by Colin O’Donoghue, Irish star of TV series The Tudors.
But as filming progressed, the cast grew nervous of demonic possess
Real-life exorcist talks about his workRead Time 4 min
Later, when the tugging within his heart intensified, he entered the seminary at 25 and was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of San Jose, Calif., when he was 30 years old. He has served the church for 27 years, the last five as an exorcist.
His chronicled real-life experiences as an exorcist-in-training was the subject of “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist,” a book written by Matt Baglio in Starring Anthony Hopkins and Colin O’Donoghue, the movie based on Fr. Thomas’ experiences opens Jan.
Fr. Gary ThomasThe film follows a somewhat skeptical seminary student Michael Kovak (O’Donoghue), sent to study exorcism at the Vatican. Anthony Hopkins plays the part of Fr. Lucas, an Italian priest and veteran exorcist who befriends Kovak and opens his eyes to demonic possession and the need for the rite.
Nothing in his seminary training prepared him for work in dispelling demons, and how he ended up in Rome, as an exorcist apprentice, was one of many of God’s surprises in his life.
“Our bishop was getting more calls back in by people who wanted to discern what was going on in their lives,” Fr. Thomas said i
'The Rite' Gets It All Wrong
In Mikael Håfström’s “The Rite,” a troubled young seminarian named Michael Kovak (Colin O’Donoghue) travels to Italy and turns to the practice of exorcism under the tutelage of the renegade Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins). The film is based on the book “The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist” by journalist Matt Baglio, who shadowed an American Catholic priest in Rome as he took a course at a Vatican-affiliated university in order to become an exorcist. The book, and by extension the film, was intended to challenge the negative stereotypes about exorcism created and perpetuated by contemporary culture and cinema. Ironically, because the film constantly falls back upon horror clichés—enlivened but emphasized by genre master Anthony Hopkins’s participation—it accomplishes the exact opposite, reinforcing the very perceptions the film was intended to combat.
Like many overwrought horror movies, “The Rite” relies on redundant visual cues to signal the psychological mood. There are only two lighting schemes: dark and darker. Even Rome, one of the most colorful cities of the world, becomes overcast and stormy shortly after Michael’s arr
Was The Rite Based On A True Story? The Horror Movie’s Inspiration Explained
Summary
- "The Rite" takes a more authentic approach to exorcism, focusing on the mechanics and practical application within the Catholic Church.
- The film is based on a book by Matt Baglio that documents Father Gary Thomas' training and experiences as an exorcist-in-training.
- After completing his training, Father Gary Thomas became the Director of a pre-seminary preparation program, receiving numerous requests to perform exorcisms.
The Ritestates that it's based on true events despite bolstering its exorcism scenes with predictable Hollywood melodrama, prompting fans to wonder how much of it is based in reality. It follows a skeptical seminary student in Rome named Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) who must attend a Vatican school of exorcism in order to complete his training. He believes possession is the work of a troubled mind rather than demonic influence, but after becoming an apprentice to Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), he encounters a terrifying force under the tutelage of the veteran exorcist that causes him to question his faith.
While many movies about
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