'The Rite' and 'The Mechanic'

"What did you expect? Spinning heads? Pea soup?"
Anthony Hopkins could be addressing the audience when he poses this question to a visiting seminary student in "The Rite."
They're in the midst of trying to free a pregnant 16-year-old girl from the devil's grasp.
"The Rite," suggested by a nonfiction book about an exorcist in training, has a silly setup. A young American, Michael Kovak (a bland Colin O'Donoghue), flees the family funeral home, run by his widowed father (Rutger Hauer), and goes off to the Vatican to study to become an exorcist.
He ends up with Father Lucas Trevant (Mr. Hopkins), a Jesuit who tells him, "Choosing not to believe in the devil won't protect you from him."
Directed by Mikael Hafstrom ("1408"), "The Rite" was inspired by Matt Baglio's "The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist" about a real-life American priest who went to Rome to be trained as an exorcist.
It starts to dole out some details on demonic possession but spends more time on the money shots of contorted bodies, eyes rolling back, fingers clawing at arm rests, and skin that cracks or becomes streaked with darkness.
Is the movie disturbing? Yes, at times. Does it pander by focusing on a girl and an even younger boy? Yes. And is Mr. Hopkins devilishly good? You don't need divine intervention for that answer.