4 stars for this disturbing anti-christ horror tale.
“For 2000 years the Vatican has investigated occurrences of unexplained evil. Since the early 1900s these cases have been captured on film and video and the evidence catalogued.”
The Vatican Tapes is written by Chris Morgan (Fast and Furious 6, Wanted) and Christopher Borrelli (Eloise, Whisper) and directed by Mark Neveldine (Crank, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
Just in time for Halloween, this is a creepy and terrifying tale of possession and exorcism. Angela Holmes (Olivia Taylor Dudley – Transcendence, The Chernobyl Diaries) seems to be a perfectly normal young woman. She lives with her father, Roger (Dougray Scott – My Week With Marilyn) and her doting boyfriend Pete (John Patrick Amedori – The Last Stand).
Although Pete and her father don’t really get on, they all muddle through together. One day, at her surprise birthday party, she cuts her hand badly while cutting the cake and from then on things begin to change. She starts to exhibit disturbing alterations in her behaviour and attitude, which Roger and Pete struggle to deal with and when she finally snaps and causes a terrible crash, she falls into a coma and due to her antics upon waking up, finds herself a guest at the Sacred Heart Psychiatric Unit.
The Chaplain from St. Mary’s Hospital, Father Lozano (Michael Peña – End of Watch, American Hustle) goes along too, he has his suspicions about what is going on and when Dr. Richards (Kathleen Robertson – Down The Road Again, Losing Control) declares that they will make no further attempts to heal her after her highly disruptive behaviour, he decides that the time has come to turn to the Vatican to help. They respond by sending out the big guns in the form of Cardinal Bruun (Peter Andersson – Ego, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).
The way that The Vatican Tapes is filmed is interesting, you have the main narrative, which is interspersed with footage taken from the cameras of all the various establishments in which she was held. The special effects are excellent and quite gory in places and the story is very compelling and is taken way further than I expected it to be.
Very good, not cliched like most exorcism tales these days and I would heartily recommend it.
“I don’t know how to explain it. Something is coming together, coming together somehow. Something bad is gonna happen. And I don’t know what it is. I feel like something is fighting me to be me.”
The Vatican Tapes is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray now.
| Director | Mark Neveldine |
| Genre | Horror |
| Starring | Michael Peña, Olivia Taylor Dudley, Dougray Scott, John Patrick Amedori, Peter Andersson |
Available to buy on :   | |