THE VATICAN TAPES
DIRECTOR: Mark Neveldine
CAST: Olivia Taylor Dudley, Michael Pena, Dougray Scott, Djimon Hounsou
CLASSIFICATION: 13 V H
RUNNING TIME: 91 minutes
RATING: *
Forty-two years after William Friedkin’s horror classic The Exorcist, it’s hard to get worked up over another cinematic depiction of demonic possession. Especially when, as in that 1973 film, the victim is a young woman and the tag-team exorcists include a young priest and an older priest.
And yet that’s what we get with The Vatican Tapes, the solo directorial debut of Mark Neveldine. This retread of tired material offers little to recommend it while squandering the talents of Djimon Hounsou and Michael Pena.
The film begins with a Vatican priest (Hounsou) examining video footage of incidents of demonic possession, occasionally freeze-framing the action to spot images of the offending anti-christ.
We’re then introduced to Angela (Olivia Taylor Dudley), a seemingly normal 27-year-old with a loving father (Scott) and an attentive boyfriend (John Patrick Amedori). Her trouble begins when she slices her finger while cutting her birthday cake, leading to a quick trip to the hospital. While travelling home, a raven bursts through a bus window and attacks her hand, causing further damage. Later, she gets into a car accident and lands in the hospital in a months-long coma, attracting the interest of Iraq War veteran priest, Father Lozano (Pena).
Given up for dead by her doctors, she eventually flatlines, only to miraculously come back to life. And that’s when all hell breaks loose, with Angela nearly drowning a baby; whispering something to fellow patients that causes them to become violent; inducing a detective to kill himself and causing the roof to fall in on a hapless orderly.
The mayhem leads to the inevitable exorcism, performed by Lozano with the assistance of a veteran Vatican cardinal (Peter Andersson) who knows from exorcisms since he was once possessed himself.
The familiar tropes are there: vomiting (although not of the projectile variety), guttural speaking in a foreign language – as well as some new ones, including Angela displaying the signs of stigmata and coughing up three perfectly formed eggs.
Neveldine has staged the proceedings with little tension, with the exorcism being not much more exciting than watching your local priest deliver communion. Everyone involved seems thoroughly bored, especially Pena.
– The Hollywood Reporter
If you liked The Gallows, you will enjoy this.