The Vatican Tapes

I'm sure most horror fans with an interest in religion/exorcism based films will find something to enjoy here.

Sure it's nothing new, but it's well acted and stylishly executed in terms of cinematography.

There's not really any wasted time on screen, and it rattles along at a good pace.

So many horror films these days have a cheap feel, this doesn't. It's not a classic like The Exorcist, or The Omen, but it's a heck of a lot better than most being made nowadays.

One would expect a rich cultural or more in-depth take of possession premise with a title such as The Vatican Tapes. Unfortunately, it's nothing more than mediocre horror with barely anything new. Not to mention it's trapped between forced found footage style for some parts and shaky cam for the rest.

It's the story as old as the supposed entity possessing the poor victim, in this case Angela (Olivia Taylor Dudley). She begins showing weird behavior and it eventually attracts the attention of Vatican. For acting department, there are actually some decent names here such as Michael Peña, Djimon Hounsou or Dougray Scott. They all have worked in bigger movies or played different roles, and there's a visible effort here, but the material is so thin their characters feel lackluster.

Pacing is also another issue. The way it's presented might make the timeline seem odd, it switches back and forth between early stages of haunting and eventual discovery. However, the transition is poor and it doesn't escalate well, although that's partially because of the timid horror. Visually, it's very confusing, often using documentary style such as following character with camcorder perspective or CCTV videos, all of which are unnecessary and only manage to limit the presentation.

As for the creepy parts, they are practically the stuffs of old. If you have seen any similar movie in past couple of years, chances are you've seen this before. A few scenes fare better, although these are also heavily borrowed from other films. There's barely any grand sight or atmosphere of Vatican, in fact the priests from holy city almost like supporting character that pop up in small portion of the movie.

It's all right if the concept is not novel, many other movies have done old concept well. However, The Vatican Tapes relies too heavily on superficial gimmicks and sadly low on thrill.

Here we go again with the negative reviewers. I wonder what's wrong with those people? You are not going to tell me that this is the worst horror movie you ever saw, because then you talk a lot of bull... Okay it's not the best movie about possession or exorcism but it sure ain't the worst one. You can not compare it with The Exorcist because that movie was one of the first one about that subject and for that time it had everyone on the tip of their chair. Linda Blair will probably remain the best actress as a possessed person but it doesn't mean that other actors can't play that role. I thought Olivia Taylor Dudley did a good job with her performance. Looking innocent and then pure evil, to me it all looked real, and that's what's it all about with movies like this one. I surely was entertained and I saw hundreds of worse horror movies then The Vatican Tapes. Don't believe the haters here because they don't know what they are talking about.

Possession films in the past such as "The Devil Inside" have proved to be sick, and freak out the audience with the display of it's demonic possession. PG-13 possession films have proved to be quite sick, and perhaps good as well, hence "The Last Exorcism". This possession film, "The Vatican Tapes" comes out solid, but tends to be quite clichéd.

Starting off with the story of this film, of which seems to be quite simple. Our main character becomes possessed, and it progressively gets worse, and worse overtime. Her family, with the aid of some priests must figure out what's wrong and stop it. It seems very simple, but the way the story is executed in this film was very solid, for what it was, a simple, straight to the point plot. As the story continues, we get more in depth with the demons personality, per say. We get to see what it can do, and how it possesses it's powers to it's advantage. Overall, the story / plot is quite simple, but without spoiling anything, the movie carries it all out solidly, holding it's grasp.

The acting of this film, in my opinion was fine. Just fine. We get some pretty decent actors combining together in this film, which is great and all, but the situations they had to face lead they're acting to be a bit sketchy at points. Some parts of the film, for example when the actors fall back, scared, you kind of stare at the movie asking yourself .. "What?" Parts of which they DO seem serious, just seems funny toward the audience watching. In this case, they SEEM to be overacting when certain points come, but are actually not, instead are seeming that way due to the specific situation they're being put in. But in conclusion to this element, the situations that came to horror [ The scares, exorcism, etc. ] it was fine, not fantastic.

The scares of this movie, is defiantly something to conclude with. It's pretty much clichéd. You've pretty much seen this tactic in many films before. Dose this perhaps ring a bell? A bird flying at the window? Through it? Yea. We've seen this before, at least once. There's also, once again, without spoiling anything some other scares that have been seen before, on top of that, some of them are even horribly placed in time, making a failed attempt at scaring the audience, instead of scaring them, giving them a laugh even. There are also some scares floating around that will make you jump, but then when you realize what it was that made you jump, you'd ask yourself "How did that scare me!?" Either way, the point being there are few, to no scares that will get you deep in the core in this film. In conclusion, if your looking to get scared, from either tension itself, it won't happen. If you want an ear blasting loud noise, here you go! Another cliché method themed film filled with those!

In conclusion. The movie had simple flaws of which are extremely clichéd, however, the movie held grip with a solid execution, as well as some decent demonic possession methods. It dose hold many elements you typically see in other possession films, sure, but it was solid, and managed to keep the audience entertained. One way or another. It wasn't that bad of a film, but it lacked in critical horror elements, like scares, and tension. As there were none. But never the less, this horror flick was not bad at all. Just.. flawed deeply, and held back due to it's PG-13 rating.

It's not really about exorcism, though it is about possession. And I have to admit, that I am surprised by the low rating here on IMDb. It's very well crafted, has an array of good actors in it and the script is solid. While I would agree that it doesn't reach the heights of some of the best horror movies out there, this is certainly a very good movie.

The acting is strong, the story holds up and the ending works too. Yes some characters react strange to our main character, but overall it's not the worst behavior in horror movies (or in the clichés we are used to). I like the mentality of the movie and the director seems to know his stuff. As does the cinematographer (both plus leading actress are on an interesting audio commentary on the disc) too. I was pleasantly surprised by this and maybe you will be too