Movies
‘The Vatican Tapes’ Is Yet Another Generic Possession Film
The problem with doing a possession movie nowadays is that the sub-genre has been done to death. When I was catching up on 2014 horror movies back in December, I watched no less than seven possession films (The Possession of Michael King, The Taking of Deborah Logan, Deliver Us From Evil, Devil’s Due, The Quiet Ones, Asmodexia and At The Devil’s Door). Watching that many possession films in the span of two weeks really made me realize that these movies aren’t even trying to do anything different with the sub-genre. Lionsgate’s new horror film The Vatican Tapes, out this weekend, is no different. It is yet another generic possession film with barely any surprises.
Angela (Olivia Taylor Dudley) is celebrating her birthday with her boyfriend (John Patrick Amedori) and father (Dougray Scott) one day when she cuts her finger on a knife. After going to the hospital to get stitches, she begins acting strangely. Ravens start flying close to her, people injure themselves after talking to her, she contorts her body, attempts to drown babies, etc. After seeking counsel from a priest (Michael Peña), they begin to suspect that she is possessed by a demon or the Devil Himself.
Sound familiar? It’s not that The Vatican Tapes is actively bad. On the contrary, it’s actually competently directed and has decently acted (though some of the actors look bored). It’s just so dull. There is nothing here that you haven’t seen in plenty of other possession films many times before.
Also, I’m not one to hound on a horror movie for being PG-13. Movies need to be seen by a wide audience to make money. I get that, but it bothers me when the rating takes you out of the film.
***MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD***
There is a scene in The Vatican Tapes where a character grabs two light bulbs and jams them into his eyes. The camera is focused on this character’s torso the entire time, with no blood dripping or blood stains on the character’s hands. It was so obviously shot and edited to keep the PG-13 rating that it takes you out of the film. It just felt staged
***END SPOILERS***
Olivia Taylor Dudley does get some creepy moments in the film, one of which being an extended sequence where she is whispering to a wall, but she’s no Linda Blair, Jennifer Carpenter, or even Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism). There’s an unintentionally hilarious moment involving Angela regurgitating whole eggs that looks like it was taken right out of Airplane! Dougray Scott also gets some good moments as her worrying father. Both Michael Peña and Djimon Hounsou are serviceable, but not much is asked from either of them.
One thing The Vatican Tapes has going for it is its ending. The final five or ten minutes show such potential for a better sequel (yes, I said it) that it just reinforces how bland everything that came before it is. What would have made The Vatican Tapes better is if the first 80 minutes were relegated to a prologue, and then the last ten minutes expanded into a full-length feature. What we get instead is The Vatican Tapes in its present form, and if you can manage to keep yourself awake throughout the whole thing then you deserve a medal.
With this, The Gallows and the Poltergeist remake, it’s been a pretty bad summer for horror movies. Let’s hope Sinister 2 can pull an 11th hour home run for the genre next month.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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