The Last Rite (2021) Review
The Last Rite (2021) Review
This supernatural horror stars newcomer Bethan Waller as Lucy, a medical student suffering from sleep paralysis, soon after moving in with her boyfriend. She finds herself plagued by a demonic entity, hell bent on ripping her apart. With time running out and the dark force consuming her from within, Lucy is left with no alternative but to seek help from a local priest, But Father Roberts has a dilemma – does he obey orders or help Lucy by conducting his own exorcism against the will of the church?
The inspiration for THE LAST RITE – the debut feature of Leroy Kincaide, who directs, produces, writes, edits, shot and provided additional sound design for – came from his personal experience of both sleep paralysis and paranormal experiences as a child. He also drew inspiration from the horror movies that he loved growing up in the Eighties and Nineties, although arguably it’s the Seventies classic THE EXORCIST that weighs in the heaviest as an influence.
It’s been a common complaint of mine lately that there’s little in the way of new ideas reaching our screens recently, especially within the horror genre. With THE LAST RITE there’s everything from a crow hitting a window, a ‘who’s that behind you?’ internet chat moment, next to no one believing a word that our lead character says about supernatural occurrences and there’s also a sinister figure who pops up that appears to have borrowed THE BABADOOK’s hat.
Between the all-too familiar scares poor Lucy, our lead character, has to endure the kind of amateur dramatics that feel better suited to the likes of TV’s miserable soap-opera EASTENDERS. It’s difficult to have any empathy or sympathy for someone that choses to move in with a boyfriend that is such a constant asshole to her.
Never at any point do we see a glimmer of what might have attracted her to be with saod boyfriend in the first place, let alone want to move in with him. But you know, the plot needs Lucy to be stressed as the entity in question is drawn to those that are highly stressed so Lucy living with a grumpy twat is where she’s at. Even the entity expert that Lucy seeks out for advice is gruff and gnarly with her from the word go – does anyone talk nicely to anyone else in this film?
The tone aims for ‘sombre’ but hits ‘dull’ instead. Both the dialogue and characterisation are flat and one-dimensional, it’s also heavy on exposition and there’s just one decent scare, lost amongst an uneven pace and a need to talk the viewer to death. Dialogue scenes are fine if the dialogue is worth tuning into. Unfortunately it isn’t. THE LAST RITE is well-intentioned but falls short of the marks it aims to hit.
Finally, and on a more personal note, having the wording ‘Property of Nocturnal Pictures’ too prominently displayed across the screen throughout proved distracting. My eyes kept going to this instead of what was rather than the film. It’s a bit like having subtitles accompanying your viewing when you don’t need them.
And yes I get that it’s to prevent piracy but then THE LAST RITE is hardly the next ‘must-see’. It’s not like anyone is gonna seek out an illegal copy of a film no one really knows much about. I felt it also implied that those entrusted with delivering a review are not to be trusted. Admittedly ‘Property of Nocturnal Pictures’ proved less distracting during daytime scenes, however with this being a horror film much of more occurs in the darkness which means that you see little else but the lettering.
THE LAST RITE CAN BE PURCHASED VIA THE LINK PROVIDED BELOW
Official trailer:
Follow the film on twitter – @thelastritefilm and on Instagram – @thelastritemovie
Follow Leroy on Instagram – @leroykincaide
Follow Koch Films on Twitter – @Koch_FilmsUK and on Instagram – @kochfilmsuk
