Les Dossiers Secrets du Vatican

I was entertained for an hour and a half, and had my expectations subverted - in a positive way (not in a Rian Johnson way, thankfully). It is well shot, using good effects, it has a reasonable script, with on par performances all round.

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.

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.

The Vatican has maintained tapes of possible satanic possessions over the years. Vicar Imani (Djimon Hounsou) shows Cardinal Bruun (Peter Andersson) the case of Angela Holmes (Olivia Taylor Dudley). Two months earlier, her boyfriend Pete Smith (John Patrick Amedori) throws her a surprise birthday party with her father (Dougray Scott) attending. She cuts herself with the cake knife and reluctantly goes to the hospital. Strange things start to happen including her unquenchable thirst. She is hospitalized. There's an incident and the police is called in but Father Lozano (Michael Peña) sees the supernatural. Angela is put into a group home under the supervision of psychiatrist Dr. Richards (Kathleen Robertson).

It's a horror without scares. It's plodding. It has no style and no pace. It has worthwhile actors but not all of them stick around. It should have Father Lozano as the protagonist since he's the most natural point of view. Angela could work if it goes more into the demon world. The story is flat and unoriginal. It's on the slow boil and stays there. It's security camera footage and slow moving plot. There is some attempt at atmosphere. The exorcism doesn't have pea soup but it does have CGI fire. This was released theatrically but it's more fitting as one of the countless VOD offerings.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"The Vatican Tapes" (2015) is a very enjoyable "possession / exorcism" movie. While the plot is not really original, the ending kinda was original, really original. It has not bad mood for this kind of horror movie, and although it has clichés all around, the overall experience was positive.

Michael Peña is totally miscast in this movie, he is one of the most reliable "comic reliefs" in industry at the moment, so it is hard to take him seriously in priest robe with serious face, there were some scenes with him near the end when i just wanted to chuckle - not that he is a bad actor, he is solid one, but at this moment in his carrier this kind of movie is clearly not his strongest side. Djimon Hounsou is also a bit miscast, although this 2 times Oscar nominee is much more believable in this role. Others were OK, nothing special. Directing was also OK, and i kinda liked cinematography and editing, they create this feeling of uncertainty.

Overall, i kinda see why "The Vatican Tapes" has such a lot rating at IMDb (4.5 at the moment) - lots of recent horror movies about possession and exorcism are shoot in "found footage" style, but this one plays straight and its overall look is inconsistent, there are many close ups and shaky camera and some weird shoots, but as a whole i liked this style and as i have mentioned it creates this tension and feeling of uncertainty. Ending was also kinda original in my opinion. While this flick isn't the most original or best in its genre, it was a pretty descent one.