The Last Rite, written and directed by Leroy Kincaide, follows a woman possessed by a Legion. Human sin is one of the main reasons why we attract dark spirits, but there’s something more that this horror thriller film tends to explore. It’s a pretty straightforward narrative with an excellent performance by Bethan Waller, who plays Lucy, a medical student with a history of sleep paralysis and emotional trauma. Let’s explore further.
‘The Last Rite’ Plot Summary
Lucy Morgan, a medical student, moves into a posh house on 11 Crowell Drive, Concord, with her boyfriend, Ben, an art dealer. While Ben is highly preoccupied with his new deal, Lucy decides to propose to him for marriage. However, due to his constant mood swings and gushes of anger, Lucy decides not to.
Lucy over thinks about her relationship and, at 3:01 in the morning, suffers from sleep paralysis. As the occurrence hits her consciously, Lucy starts imagining a tall black hole of a man in a hat. She informs Ben about her visions and suspects that the house may be haunted. While Ben is unaware of the previous owners’ identities, he refuses to accept the presence of any ghostly spirit in the place.
The demonic spirit, or the legion, starts interfering in the couple’s daily life and haunts Lucy’s sanity. A strange woman in the public bathroom warns Lucy about the demon and requests she not let him in. The demon possesses Lucy’s body, and Ben tries to save her love.
Why did the Spirit in the Black Hat possess Lucy’s Body?
Dr. David Andrews, the author of the book “Walking in the Shadows,” claimed that the shadow man, or the man in the hat, was attracted to a violent atmosphere like marital breakdowns, mental or physical abuse, etc. When Lucy visited Dr. David, he told the same story and mentioned stress and fear attracted the spirit.
Andrews further explained that if the man in the hat had possessed Lucy’s body, it might be because of some childhood trauma, a house, or the land she lives on. The ghostly spirit was like a parasite, always on the hunt for a host body. It thrived on individuals that showed any sign of weakness or harbored negative energy in their souls.
In Lucy’s case, it was a trauma that left an emotional scar on her soul. She told Ben about her traumatized young life with her parents. Her mother and father believed that a young Lucy was tormented by demons, and hence they exercised their faith in her. They would wake her up in the middle of the night, probably at 3:02 to be exact, and splash holy water on her in the middle of the garden. Their stance terrorized young Lucy’s emotional sanity, a scar that never healed. Lucy ran away from her parents’ house and started living with her Nan. Eventually, as she grew up, she forgot about the incident and buried the trauma in the dark realms of her memory.
The black-hat man preyed upon Lucy’s emotional scar, which eventually helped him enter Lucy’s body and possess her soul.
‘The Last Rite’ Ending, Explained
Lucy’s parents put too much faith in her in childhood. Because of their blind faith, Lucy became an atheist. But when she started having visions of the man in the hat and Dr. David Andrews specifically asked her to start praying, Lucy finally decided to visit a church.
From there, Lucy contacted Father William Robert, who scrutinized Lucy’s house and concluded that the demon was already in control of her. He didn’t have the authority to perform a divine exorcism and hence requested the assistance of the Church. The Church commanded Father Robert to follow the mechanical chain of commands and abide by the Church’s rules and regulations. But Father Robert had to get permission from the Bishop to perform the rites of exorcism, but he knew that it would be too late by the time. To save Lucy, Father Robert decided to perform an exorcism on his own.
Without wasting any moment, Father Robert and his friend, Ray, an ex-priest, carried out the last rites. He enchanted the Lord’s Prayer and exorcised the ghost spirit from Lucy’s body. The two priests left the house, believing they had saved Lucy’s life.
However, Father Roberts saw the man in the black hat standing near the window in the end. For a moment, he believed that it was a delusion and left the house, but as soon as the clock struck 3:02, the lights blacked out. The spirit was still inside the house, probably in possession of Lucy’s soul.
Lucy’s demonic possession and night terror might last for a long time because of her childhood trauma that left an incredibly grave scar on her soul. These supernatural phenomena didn’t end with the end of the film.
The Last Rite is a 2021 Supernatural Horror film written and directed by Leroy Kincaide.
