3. The Rite
As a movie, while the film itself was pretty derivative, the story behind the movie is particularly interesting. The Rite was based on a book called The Making of a Modern Exorcist and was written by Matt Baglio. To do research for the book, Baglio participated in a Vatican-sponsored seminar on exorcism. There he met a priest named Father Gary Thomas of California, one of only fourteen Vatican certified exorcists in the United States. Baglio got permission from Thomas to then go on and observe him perform twenty exorcisms.
According to Father Gary, The Rite actually depicts exorcisms very realistically and while he says most people seeking exorcisms are actually suffering from mental illness, demonic possession is very real. Here’s one account from an L.A. Times interview he gave in 2011.
Thomas recalled an occasion when he was visited by a young Venezuelan woman who had been involved in palm readings for several years. “I was beginning to do some deliverance prayers. Within a few minutes she began to tremor and her facial countenance began to change. You saw a snake. She began sticking her tongue out like a snake and hissing and rolling her eyes. She coiled herself up.
“Her mother and father began to restrain her a bit. I went to get the Eucharist. The woman almost jumped out the window [at the sight of the Eucharist]. Her parents held her down. One minute you could see the demon, the next minute it was her. She kind of came back. I said, ‘Can you take the Eucharist?’ She said, ‘I’m not sure, but I’ll try.’ As I offered it to her, she resisted. I said, ‘Just open your mouth.’ All I had to wash it down was holy water.”
