creativejamie
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 Godless: The Exorcism of Lara Levonde Movie Explained
Lara (Georgia Eyers) hasn't been feeling well for a while. She keeps having hallucinations and no longer knows what she is doing or who she is. For her strictly religious husband Ron (Dan Ewing) it is clear that the woman must be possessed by some demon and only a thorough exorcism can help her now. To do this, however, he needs the consent of his psychiatrist, Dr. Marisa Walsh (Eliza Matengu) so that the Catholic Church can take action. And she doesn't want to know anything about it. In his search for answers, he eventually meets Daniel (Tim Pocock), who leads his own religious community. People are much less squeamish there. When it comes to fighting evil, every means is permitted...
Fight against demons
Even if one would think that exorcism is not really an issue these days, such films are very popular in the horror genre. New titles are constantly appearing. Even Hollywood is occasionally getting involved, with the films The Pope's Exorcist and The Exorcist: Confession being released last year. But people are particularly productive in the no-name sector, where you can't complain about a lack of supplies. The latest example of this is Godless: The Exorcism of Lara Levonde, which was shown at some major film festivals, but is released directly for home cinema.
There it is advertised as being inspired by true events. This always works as a selling point, even if it is a bit questionable in the horror sector. If there were properly documented examples of demonic possession, recorded objectively, word would eventually get around. In this respect, one could be a little suspicious here. With Godless: The Exorcism of Lara Levonde, it ends up working better than expected, as the theme isn't so much the spiritual battle against supernatural beings. Rather, the Australian film tells the story of invasive people who want to impose their world views on others.
Victims of patriarchal systems and religious fanaticism
This then amounts to an always popular duel when religion and science are incompatible. The film is not that dissimilar to In the Fire, which we released at the same time. Both titles have a psychologist who relies on rationality on one side and a slavering clergyman on the other. What is also common is that gender roles and the associated power imbalances are addressed. While the colleague above was about a disdain for professional competence, in Godless: The Exorcism of Lara Levonde the supposedly possessed woman is the target of oppression. Here it is two men who decide over the woman's head what is best for her. The film is a very blatant criticism of patriarchal systems and religious fanaticism.
As such, this is not ineffective. Instead of focusing on demonic threats, the monster here is humans, which can be scarier than any mythical creatures. But you shouldn't expect a lot of depth. There's not much to be gained from the characters. It's not like the plot is overly surprising, especially when the actual horror is on the agenda. Nevertheless, in the flood of thematically similar films, Godless: The Exorcism of Lara Levonde stands out because it focuses more on people and what it means to carry out such an exorcism than other genre entries.
Read also: If You Were the Last Movie Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?
“Godless: The Exorcism of Lara Levonde” initially sounds like any occult horror film. This is only partly about demonic possession, but rather about invasive people who subject others to torture in order to confirm their own worldview.
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03-07-24 10:36AM
