‘Rite Here Rite Now’ movie review: Ghost deliver blood-pumping hits underscored by a message of hope
“We’re standing here by the abyss, and the world is in flames.” The first time you hear those daunting words, it likely coalesces with everything you might know about Ghost already. ‘He Is’ might be nothing more than one of the band’s typical odes to the occult, similar to the lines they have trodden over and over, but the arrival of Rite Here Rite Now dredges up something different, something hopeful, even in today’s doomed world.
Rite Here Rite Now comes at a pivotal moment for Ghost, who, up until this point, have embarked on a somewhat frustrating game of push-and-pull that almost delivers while rarely quenching the desire of thirst-ridden audiences waiting in poised readiness for the next best thing to come after 2022’s Impera. While anyone can guess why two years is a long time to wait for anything with weighty substance, the difference here is that with Ghost comes two essential strings to the bow–the music and the lore.
By all intents and purposes, Rite Here Rite Now is a concert movie, but its execution is so delectable and unique that it almost feels like a reductive label, one reserved for more traditional outfits whose basis isn’t rooted in the sort of creativity that goes beyond expectation. From the beginning, the movie plays out exactly as you might expect, with all of the same quirks and easter eggs you might already be familiar with had you seen the show live during the global circuit of 2022, but soon enough, lore becomes a necessary thread as we eagerly await any indication of whatever the next chapter of Ghost may look like.
The movie captures Papa Emeritus IV’s final shows of 2023, running over the course of the band’s two sold-out shows at LA’s Kia Forum. This is no doubt a pivotal moment as the frontman struggles to come to terms with soon being replaced by another leader. Of course, Papa Emeritus IV, or as he is lovingly called, Cardi, isn’t ready to pass on the torch just yet and spends the entire show deliberating with his mother and father about his desire to hold the spotlight for just a little bit longer.
As we’ve witnessed throughout the band’s online Chapters series, humour is a necessary part of the movie, which has incidentally always been a natural part of Ghost’s allure. Beyond the fact that their music possesses the technical and musical excellence that only a natural musical virtuoso could deliver, the characterisation of the band and its leader adds to its charm, as do the various pyrotechnics and spectacles which Rite Here Rite Now seems to turn up the heat on even more than previous shows.
Still, there’s a melancholic undercurrent as we follow Cardi’s experience of grief and learning to let go. But, as we learn during one pivotal moment of the movie, that’s the point of it all. Life is filled with ups and downs, sometimes arriving at stark interceptions where you’re unsure how to handle it all. The overarching darkness of the state of the world and the consistent culture wars that play out only serve to fuel the fire, so what are we supposed to do for some respite?
Throughout Rite Here Rite Now, the remedy to such immense ambivalence is clear: laughter and appreciation. According to Cardi, if we can appreciate life when it’s right in front of us and remember the power of joy and humour well, then that’s all that matters. We cannot ignore the suffering of others, of course, but if we improve ourselves, we can better support and look after those around us.
Roky Erickson epitomised the notion that we are all plagued versions of our inner psyche. Perhaps that’s why Ghost initially chose to cover his coveted classic ‘If You Have Ghosts’, or maybe it was the opportunistic temptation of changing the lyric to “If you have Ghost, you have everything,” but Rite Here Rite Now delivers a performance of the song that provides the perfect sentiment in keeping with the movie’s “live for the now” message.
Of course, there are many other moments that align with this, like the gorgeous animated segment soundtracked to ‘Mary On A Cross’ and the blood-pumping hit-filled encore, but where the message resists falling flat is in its contrast with the reality at hand, even when it underscores the more comedic exchanges between Cardi and his father, Papa Nihil.
As a legacy part of Ghost, Papa Nihil’s story features fairly heavily throughout the movie, and it’s revealed that he not only wrote two Ghost hits but three, the third of which remains a mystery until it plays out over the end credits. Nihil’s parental choices may not seem the best—a point touched upon in the movie—but he cornerstones Cardi’s emotional dilemma by encouraging him to throw in the towel and enjoy whatever might be next in store.
A hard-hitting part of this is the subtlety with which the movie holds onto its cultural and societal relevance. The appeal of Ghost lore is universal and perhaps even as eternally resonant as joy and laughter, but at this current moment in time, the fact that multiple wars are playing out in front of our eyes is not lost on the band. One of the most obvious examples of this is the skeleton-filled ‘Twenties’ performance, which touches upon capitalism and the collapse of the financial establishment.
However, Nihil’s song, revealed at the end, delivers a thought-provoking commentary on many of the historical events that have occurred since 1969. ‘The Future is a Foreign Land’ hasn’t been heard before now, but its inclusion is the ideal end to this current chapter of Ghost. We’re still uncertain as to who will be leading the band through the next phase, but at least for now, the curtain can fall on a clear message of self-reflection.
