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In his original 1973 review of " The Exorcist ," Roger Ebert wrote about how right it was to cast the role of the older priest battling evil with the great character actor Max von Sydow: "He has been through so many religious and metaphysical crises in Ingmar Bergman ’s films that he almost seems to belong on a theological battlefield the way John Wayne belonged on a horse."

"The Pope's Exorcist" combines those two images by casting Russell Crowe in the lead role of Father Gabriele Amorth , a theologian, journalist, book author, and the pope's designated exorcist. Amorth is a sly, tough, wisecracking priest who approaches each new mission like a gunslinger. Instead of pistols, rifles, and hunting knives, he has an exorcism kit with crucifixes and holy water that he carries around in a case the size of a saddlebag. His horse is a red-and-white scooter that's too-small for Crowe's let-it-all-hang-out character-actor body but makes a perfect, wonderful sight gag for that reason. Amorth even has a tiny whiskey flask that he insists that he carries to ease his scratchy throat. He's written and performed like one of those wry, hard-bitten bad-asses that used to be played in 1960s Westerns by aging but still-popular action stars like Burt Lancaster , Kirk Douglas and (yes) John Wayne. Their characters pointed out the hypocrisies of so-called civilization but defended it anyway. They'd seen it all, but could still be shocked.

Directed by Julius Avery ("Overlord")—and very, very, very loosely inspired by a real priest whose story was told in a documentary by "Exorcist" director William Friedkin —the film follows Amorth to a decrepit abbey in rural Spain to drive a demon from the body of a young boy. It has been marketed as a horror film, but it's more busy and impatient than creepy and scary, especially when it's cross-cutting between parallel lines of action happening in the abbey and back at the Vatican (where Franco Nero plays the pope, who knows there's more going on than a garden-variety possession). It's ultimately a theological action flick with overtones of an old-fashioned Western about an aging gunslinger who teams up with an earnest but untested younger partner (Daniel Zovatto's Father Esquibel) to save women and children from a monstrous enemy.

Alex Essoe costars as Julia, a widowed mother of two whose husband died in a car accident two years earlier, leaving her the aforementioned abbey, which she hopes to refurbish to sell and pay off family debts. Julia has a teenaged daughter named Amy (Laurel Marsden) who is rebellious in a way that would've been called "loose" at one time, and a 12-year-old son named Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) who ends up a host for supernatural evil, which manifests itself in pretty much the same way it has since Friedkin adapted William Peter Blatty's source novel: profanity, blasphemy, open sores, vomit, biting, levitation, bodies twisting in anatomically impossible ways. etc.

The opening sequence is the most original thing in the film: Amorth handles what amounts to an appetizer exorcism by trash-talking evil, inflaming its arrogance to trick it into defeating itself. The scene is just engaging enough to get our hopes up that we've been introduced to a rare original character with endless franchise potential: think James Bond in a turned-around collar, or a theological cousin of Detective Columbo, whose odd mannerisms and disheveled appearance make suspects underestimate him. There's even a postscript that makes it seem as if Amorth is joining an exorcist version of the Avengers Initiative. The producers blew an easy opportunity for applause by not ending the film with a printed title card promising "FATHER AMORTH WILL RETURN."

Unfortunately, “The Pope’s Exorcist” is a watchable but far-from-special rehash of exorcism movie cliches, with detours into a Vatican conspiracy plot that has been compared to Dan Brown's novels but half-assedly connects with church atrocities and scandals. The punchline is so convoluted and ridiculous that it seems to let the Church off the hook for the Inquisition and the pedophilia cover-up by saying, in essence, "The devil made them do it."

Crowe makes the movie worth seeing. He plays Amorth as a prideful cut-up, greeting vile taunts with a deadpan smirk and snappy answers. When the demon growls that he's Amorth's worst nightmare, Amorth replies, "My worst nightmare is France winning the World Cup." Crowe plays the character's dry, needling wit just right. He's even more appealing when he lets the audience see insecurities that the priest keeps hidden. When Father Esquibel tells Amorth that he's read his articles about possession in magazines, Amorth mentions that he writes books, too, then softly adds, "The books are good." When Avery cuts to traveling shots of Amorth puttering on highways and country roads on his scooter, the frock, collar, fedora, and sunglasses make the character iconic: coolly ridiculous, ridiculously cool.

One can imagine rewatching bits and pieces of the movie just to savor Crowe's performance and his co-stars' awed responses to it. Crowe has been so good for so long that he glides through this role as if he has nothing to prove (even though the character does). He goofs around and adds surprising little gestures and reactions to enliven a scene. But he never goes so far that he seems to be making fun of the movie. When Amorth discloses his own spiritual torment in a series of flashbacks, Crowe plays it straight, suffering and writhing as if he's imagining that he's in an Ingmar Bergman movie. He seems to be at roughly the same career point that Paul Newman arrived at in the early 1970s when his hair went silver and he lost most of his vanity. He's not suffering for his art anymore. Even when a scene is serious, he's having fun.

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Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Rated R for violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity.

104 minutes

Russell Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth

Daniel Zovatto as Father Esquibel

Alex Essoe as Julia

Franco Nero as The Pope

Laurel Marsden as Amy

Cornell John as Bishop Lumumba

Ralph Ineson as Demon (voice)

Julius Avery

Writer (based on the books 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' and 'An Exorcist: More Stories' by)

Gabriele Amorth

Writer (screen story by)

R. Dean McCreary
Chester Hastings
Michael Petroni
Evan Spiliotopoulos

Cinematographer

Khalid Mohtaseb

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The pope's exorcist, common sense media reviewers.

Crowe saves bloody but routine demon possession movie.

The Pope's Exorcist Movie Poster: Russell Crowe, as Father Gabriele Amorth, is framed by a doorway

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

While movie argues that pure evil (i.e., demons) e

Based on a real person, Father Gabriele Amorth is

While most characters are White, they come from al

A naked person covered in blood explodes in a huge

Topless women shown briefly, in two scenes. Teen g

Several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "c--t," "oh m

Teen smokes briefly. Priest sometimes sips whiskey

Positive Messages

While movie argues that pure evil (i.e., demons) exists, it also shows that humans are more nuanced than that. Sometimes what appears to be evil is just a mistake, a misunderstanding, or a moment of weakness. These things can be understood and forgiven.

Positive Role Models

Based on a real person, Father Gabriele Amorth is brave and clever, maybe even heroic. He's like a superhero demon hunter who knows his stuff but doesn't mind a joke now and then. He has his flaws and his quirks (he walks away from a disciplinary committee hearing, he sometimes sneaks a sip of whiskey, etc.), but he also promises the family that he won't leave them until he saves their boy, and he's a man of his word.

Diverse Representations

While most characters are White, they come from all over the world. Crowe (from New Zealand) plays an Italian, Zovatto (from Costa Rica) plays a Spaniard, Nero (who plays the Pope) is Italian, Essoe (who plays Julia) was born in Saudi Arabia to Canadian and American parents, Laurel Marsden plays the headstrong teen Amy, etc. Black British actor Cornell John plays a bishop who's a friend to Amorth and holds a position of some power.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A naked person covered in blood explodes in a huge pile of gore. Flashback to WWII shows soldiers being shot and killed; bloody wounds. Flashback to child in car accident and an adult impaled by a tree branch ("he saw his father impaled"). Child claws at own face. Possessed character coughs up dead bird. Possessed characters have violent convulsions, skin wounds, demonic eyes, scary voices, etc. Characters are hurled across rooms, crashing into walls, mirrors, etc. Woman's head bashed on bathroom sink. Characters spew blood, black bile from mouths. Ear bitten off. Character's neck twisted halfway round. Character jumps to her death; two huge pools of blood under her body. Characters hang by neck. Pig shot in head, with blood spurt. Character bites head off of bird. Explosions. Minor characters burned. Things crawl under skin. Mouths stretched out to horrific lengths. Suicide attempt. Mummified bodies, skulls. Threats. Peril. Jump scare. Nazi symbols.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Topless women shown briefly, in two scenes. Teen girl wears short-shorts and a skimpy top. (Her mother says "you can't dress like that anymore.") She removes her sweater, revealing a tank top, while flirting with a man. Woman shown in panties and tank top. Possessed child touches mother's breast, asks to be breastfed. Sex-related dialogue.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "c--t," "oh my God," "bitch," "whore," and uses of "damn" and "hell," both as swear words and as faith-based terms. Middle-finger gestures.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teen smokes briefly. Priest sometimes sips whiskey from a silver flask.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Pope's Exorcist is a horror movie based on nonfiction books by Father Gabriele Amorth (played here by Russell Crowe ). Violence includes moments of intense blood and gore, a child in peril, a child suffering from trauma, characters getting shot, bloody wounds, demon possession imagery (violent convulsing, scary voices, etc.), characters being thrown across rooms and crashing into walls, biting, head-bashing, bile-spewing, animals getting killed, and more. Women are briefly shown topless, a teen girl wears a skimpy outfit, and there's some sex-related dialogue. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "c--t," and "bitch," plus "damn" and "hell" both as swear words and faith-based terms. There are also two middle-finger gestures. A teen briefly smokes, and a priest sometimes sips whiskey from a flask. The movie's demon possession stuff is standard issue, but the interesting backstory and Crowe's likable performance make it worth a look for mature horror fans. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (3)
Kids say (2)

Based on 3 parent reviews

It has some violence and lanaguage in a not so terrfying exorcist movie!

What's the story.

In THE POPE'S EXORCIST, Father Gabriele Amorth ( Russell Crowe ) is shown to be a controversial figure in the church, using unlikely methods to treat people who don't actually need a real exorcist. But when widow Julia (Alex Essoe) and her two children -- teen Amy (Laurel Marsden) and younger brother Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) -- move in to a grand Spanish abbey that was left to them by Julia's late husband, real trouble is unleashed: A demon takes over Henry's body. Amorth is summoned, and, along with Spanish priest Father Esquibel ( Daniel Zovatto ), begins the exorcising rituals. But this demon is unexpectedly powerful, with the ability to see the sins and guilt of the priests and knock them off balance. They must find the secret of the old abbey -- and the name of the demon -- before it's too late.

Is It Any Good?

The demon possession elements all feel quite familiar, but this film gets a pass for Crowe's committed, not-too-serious performance. His Amorth is cool and in charge, but also sometimes charmingly goofy. Based on books by the real-life Amorth, Julius Avery 's The Pope's Exorcist misses a chance to capture the "based on actual events" eeriness of The Conjuring , preferring generic horror movie ingredients instead. There are satanic voices emanating from children, crosses that turn upside down, people getting thrown across rooms, demonic writing on flesh, etc. (There is, however, a fascinating twist explaining the reason behind the Catholic Church's involvement in a certain period of history.)

Yet the A-list casting of Crowe makes this worth a look. Recapturing some of the same energy of his Captain Jack Aubrey in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World , Crowe's Father Amorth is immensely likable and comfortable in his own skin. He emits cool while riding his moped in his flowing robes and black fedora. He even finds time to crack little jokes, including in the face of danger. While the wrap-up of The Pope's Exorcist may feel a little too rushed and a little too neat, it at least leaves open the possibility that we'll see Amorth again someday.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Pope's Exorcist 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

Is the movie scary? What's the appeal of horror movies ? Why do people sometimes like to be scared?

Do you consider Father Gabriele Amorth a role model ? Why, or why not?

Given that Amorth is a real person, does that mean that demon possession is real too? Why do you think so?

What's the appeal of movies about demon possession? How is this one different from some of the others? How is it similar?

Movie Details

In theaters : June 13, 2023
On DVD or streaming : June 13, 2023
Cast : Russell Crowe , Daniel Zovatto , Alex Essoe
Director : Julius Avery
Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Female actors
Studio : Sony Pictures Releasing
Genre : Horror
Topics : Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
Run time : 103 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : violent content, language, sexual references and some nudity
Last updated : June 21, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ Review: A Head-Spinning Genre Mash-Up

The buddy-priest action-comedy-horror hybrid we didn’t know we wanted has finally landed.

Share full article

A darkish, blue-toned scene from a movie: Two men dressed as priests stand in front of a window and look at something off-camera; one holds a cross and has his mouth agape. Papers flutter in the foreground.

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

It’s hard to pick the most surreal part of Julius Avery’s new horror film. It could be that the main character is based on the very real Rev. Gabriele Amorth , who used to be the Vatican’s chief exorcist (in a head-spinning twist, William Friedkin, the director of “The Exorcist,” once made a documentary about him ). Or maybe it’s that Father Amorth is portrayed as an espresso-drinking, scooter-riding maverick by Russell Crowe in one of his most engaging performances in years. He is dispatched by the Pope (the cult Italian actor Franco Nero) to an isolated Spanish abbey where a young boy, Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), has started producing ungodly growls, changing colors and shapes, and making inappropriate moves on his mother (Alex Essoe, a Mike Flanagan horror regular).

Amorth has his work cut out for him, but luckily he is paired with the inexperienced but game Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto), which adds a dollop of buddy-priest action comedy to an already genre-full plate. The two men have excellent, er, chemistry with the ancestral evil figure who has taken over Henry and is magnificently voiced by Ralph Ineson. Avery (“Samaritan”) drives the film at a pace as caffeinated as Amorth himself, and manages to incorporate legitimate scares into a plot halfway between Indiana Jones and a Dan Brown potboiler, with camp touches worthy of Ken Russell.

“The Pope’s Exorcist” ends with a shameless suggestion that there is room for a sequel or even an entire series. It is not an unwelcome prospect.

The Pope’s Exorcist Rated R for demon-induced expletives and glimpses of naked ladies. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters.

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The Pope's Exorcist Reviews

One of the wildest movies i’ve seen in a while…also complete shlock…and also camp!

Full Review | Apr 24, 2024

Its was a wild wacky time

…it seems unfair to penalise Crowe and Nero for their work here, since their performances are the only things that make this rehashed supernatural gumbo watchable…

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 6, 2024

Rather than a potentially intriguing biopic of its true-life subject focusing on his methods and beliefs, this uninspired thriller is merely a compilation of effects-driven calculations and threadbare genre tropes.

Full Review | Feb 23, 2024

Crowe's performance is what elevates this film above most horror films while it now has to be said that Julius Avery is now one of the most exciting current day filmmakers.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 23, 2023

The Pope’s Exorcist rides almost entirely on Russell Crowe’s shoulders.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 13, 2023

Director Julius Avery uses every horror genre cliché and tropes to create an eerie and atmospheric mood, but it all ends up being more cacophonous than chilling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 27, 2023

No matter how much zany wackadoo nonsense you think it has flung at you, it still finds surprises and ways to remain fresh and unpredictable, quite literally up until the very last scene.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 28, 2023

A solid performance from its leading man in a story which freshens up the delivery and messaging of an exorcism film delivers an overall decent horror flick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 2, 2023

Russell Crowe has an inordinate amount of fun in his horror film debut

Full Review | Aug 27, 2023

A devil of a film.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 20, 2023

Without Crowe getting to deliver lines like “A demon once tried to put a crucifix through my eyeball” with a twinkle in his eye this movie would be DOA.

Full Review | Aug 17, 2023

The Pope’s Exorcist is not just another bad horror movie. It is a dangerous one.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Aug 15, 2023

The Pope’s Exorcist has a few original ideas but overall it is just a rehashing of previous exorcism films.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Aug 9, 2023

Although pretty formulaic and full of the scares you'd expect, the lead performance from Russell Crowe and the horror visuals make it worth the watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 24, 2023

Crowe’s refreshing performance transforms a formulaic possession film into a fun romp. The Pope’s Exorcism is silly, dumb, and entertaining.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 2, 2023

Boilerplate blather, with the final battle an orgy of damning CGI satiety.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 17, 2023

The film's worst sin, though, is that it forgets it's supposed to shock us.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 1, 2023

Lost me the second it involved an American family with no money moving to Spain to renovate a centuries old abbey they inherited to sell with their 0 dollars. Other than a fun Crowe performance, this was cookie-cutter bland.

Full Review | May 31, 2023

It’s a junky pulp director’s movie, disposable and thoughtless and chucklesome. The scariest moment comes in the coda, with a painfully obvious bid for a sequel and a franchise. God forbid.

Full Review | May 29, 2023

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

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The Pope’s Exorcist Review

14 Apr 2023

The Pope’s Exorcist

Imagine a buddy cop movie in which a grizzled maverick detective, whose quippy exterior masks a past trauma involving a shoot-out gone wrong, is paired with a rookie cop on a new case turning out to involve corruption going to the very heart of the establishment. Oh, and he’s also in trouble with those pencil pushers up at city hall who have no time for his unorthodox methods. Got it? Okay, now imagine it’s not cops, it’s priests. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti , you are now watching a buddy priest movie.

Russell Crowe has a lot of fun playing the eponymous exorcist, and director Julius Avery’s movie essentially stands or falls by how on board you are with this central performance, which requires Crowe to speak in either Italian or Italian-accented English throughout, and recalls that bit in The Simpsons where Homer fantasises about living the life of an organised crime boss (“Molto bene!”). Attention, Universal Studios: next time you decide to reboot Super Mario Bros. , don’t call Chris Pratt , get Big Russ and his little scooter on board.

This papal pulp fiction is too daft to experience with anything other than amused incredulity.

The rest of the cast are of variable quality (shout out to the porcine performer whose presence enables Crowe to below “possess the pig!”), but there’s no denying Ralph Ineson ( The Green Knight ) as the voice of Asmodeus the demon, and there’s definitely a certain logic to casting Franco Nero (star of dozens of gialli and poliziotteschi films) as the Pope. Still, it’s essentially the Crowe show, and engagement tends to sag when he’s not around, nor are the majority of the narrative beats surprising if you’ve seen at least one exorcism film before. There’s perhaps one image that doesn’t feel cribbed from the canon, and in the interests of avoiding spoilers, we’ll simply say “nude blood explosion” and leave it at that. At least the filmmakers have had the decency to assemble a nice little 1980s playlist for the soundtrack with an appropriate faith-flavoured feel to it (choice cuts include The Cult’s ‘She Sells Sanctuary,’ ‘Gone Daddy Gone’ by Violent Femmes and ‘We Care A Lot’ by – who else? – Faith No More).

It could be argued that the film functions as an endorsement of the questionable career of the real life Father Gabriele Amorth, a man who denounced yoga as Satanic and claimed to have performed over 70,000 exorcisms during his career, mostly on women, who he believed were more vulnerable than men because “the Devil wants to use them to get at men like Eve did to Adam”. If the film wasn’t so hugely ridiculous, the script’s repeated positive references to Amorth’s autobiographical works might leave a sour taste. But ironically for a film that’s sorta, kinda about belief, this papal pulp fiction is too daft to experience with anything other than amused incredulity.

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Russell Crowe has fun dancing with the devil in this twist on The Exorcist

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The Pope’s Exorcist ★★★ (MA) 103 minutes

It came as something of a shock to learn the Vatican’s hierarchy includes a Chief Exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. It set me wondering if William Peter Blatty’s 1971 frightener, The Exorcist , had been anointed as a theological text without me noticing.

As far as I know, this is yet to happen, although some prominent Catholics have come out in the novel’s defence in recent times. Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s exorcist before his death in 2016 at the age of 91, was one of them. William Friedkin’s film of the book may have been guilty of exaggeration, but Amorth liked it because it gave everybody an idea of what his job entailed.

Russell Crowe as the Vatican’s real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist.

His series of memoirs set out to do the same. Drawn from his experiences over 30 years and, we’re told, 100,000 exorcisms, they were bestsellers. Now they have been adapted into a film with Russell Crowe as Amorth and an Australian, Julius Avery, as director.

Wisely enough, the film doesn’t bring a wide-angle view to Amorth’s career, in which he claimed to have had daily conversations with the devil, partly in Latin, partly in Italian. Instead, it stuffs all the horrors that an exorcist could conceivably, and inconceivably, encounter into the story of a single case.

Julia (Alex Essoe) has been widowed by the death of her husband in a car accident and she’s left the US to make a new life in Spain with her children, 12-year-old Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) and his teenage sister, Amy (Laurel Marsden). Their home is to be an old church abbey in Castile, which belonged to her husband’s forebears, and it’s plain to anyone who has ever heard the words “haunted house” that it has all the credentials.

Russell Crowe has said it was Amorth’s flair for gallows humour that attracted him to the role.

Graced with Gothic towers, turrets and arches, together with centuries of grime and dry rot, it looks like the ideal home for an entire dynasty of demons. And we’re still to find out about the skulls in the cellar.

Crowe has said it was Amorth’s flair for gallows humour that attracted him to the role and he does have some fun with it. One of his great gifts as an actor is the strength and suppleness of his voice and Amorth’s Italian accent turns out to be another asset. But the film’s climactic horror show, in which Amorth and his young assistant, Father Esquibel (Daniel Zavatto), get to grips with the devil possessing poor Henry, puts paid to any hint of subtlety.

Avery stops short of reproducing the 360-degree head-spin that distinguished Friedkin’s Exorcist , but the idea is the same, with the horrors hinging on the nastiness of watching a child transformed into a ghoul.

It’s an incredibly versatile ghoul, too, able to possess more than one person at a time while sending large pieces of furniture spinning through the air along with half the cast members. Telekinesis is a major demonic talent. But in the end, excess wins with horror overwhelmed by hokum.

The Pope’s Exorcist is in cinemas from April 6.

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Russell Crowe

The Pope’s Exorcist is Devilish Fun, Despite Itself

Russell Crowe has a ball of a time, elevating an otherwise lukewarm horror entry.

There isn’t much you can do with the exorcism sub-genre that hasn’t already been done before — or done better by William Friedkin’s The Exorcist nearly 50 years ago — but director Julius Avery lets the chips fall where they may with The Pope’s Exorcist .

Led by a mischievous Russell Crowe , who practically guides its tone in every scene — whether it aims for tension, levity, or emotional grounding — the result is rarely scary, or even particularly unnerving. But The Pope’s Exorcist is an enjoyable watch whenever Crowe appears as Father Gabriele Amorth, a real priest who may as well be a loose inspiration for Crowe’s smooth, so-silly-he-ends-up-kind-of-cool conception of the real-life lawyer and theologian. The film is by no means terribly assembled — it’s a significant step up from Avery’s previous effort, the sluggish superhero movie Samaritan — but Crowe makes The Pope’s Exorcist entirely worthwhile.

Writers Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, who adapt elements of Amorth’s own books An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories , take a distinctly Conjuring -like approach. They transform a figure who was likely a fraud — or at best, a racist doofus who claimed yoga and Hinduism were paths to Satan — into a heroic figure because it makes for some rich material. Right from its opening scene, The Pope’s Exorcist crafts an intriguing portrait, mostly thanks to Crowe’s subtly wry approach to his calculated saunters and bouncy dialogue (in either Italian or Italian-accented English), as Amorth engages in a ritualistic exorcism to solve a possession in which he clearly doesn’t believe. Why, then, would the Vatican’s chief exorcist even keep this job? This question is answered shortly thereafter when he’s asked to explain himself to an investigative panel of bishops, to whom he confesses that although he thinks 98% of possession cases have rational explanations, the remaining 2% keep him up at night.

The movie is, of course, about a fictitious case belonging to that latter group, which sees an American widow, Julia (Alex Essoe), move into the Spanish abbey owned by her late husband, along with her moody teenage daughter Amy (Laurel Marsden) and her sweet but silent tween son Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), reluctant outsiders ripe for demonic shenanigans. The local construction workers dig a little too deep while repairing the abandoned abbey, releasing some foul-smelling, flammable gas, and something sinister lurking in the dark. Before long, Henry begins tilting his head sideways and speaking in the voice of Ralph Ineson ( The Green Knigh t himself). This leads to Amorth being assigned to the case by none other than The Pope, played with panache and gravitas by Spaghetti Western legend Franco Nero, who doesn’t so much portray Pope John Paul II as he does the nebulous idea of a Pope (the way Hollywood action movies feature fictitious U.S. presidents).

The possessed boy in The Pope’s Exorcist .

At times, it feels like Amorth traveling between locations ought to have made up a more significant chunk of the film’s 103-minute runtime — not because they offer any particular insight, but because the ridiculous image of a bearded rotund Crowe in his Orson Welles era, clad in black while astride a red and white Ferrari moped , becomes especially delightful when it’s made to clash with Jed Kurzel’s eerie, booming score. What tuxedos and shaken martinis are to James Bond, a top hat and holy water soon become to Amorth whenever he casually prepares to meet the Devil, quipping and joking along the way as nearby families undergo the worst days of their lives. Amorth is clearly a man burdened by the past, but the way he constantly stays afloat using humor as a life raft is often jaw-droppingly funny. What he says is never inappropriate — he playfully cuckoos at children and young nuns in training, like a harmless, quirky uncle — but his timing is never opportune (he finds the worst possible moment to ask a traumatized character for a cup of coffee).

Assisted by a young Spanish pastor, Father Esquibel — played with a more straightforward, sincere grace by Daniel Zovatto — Amorth engages the mysterious demon co-opting Henry’s body and soon begins to discover the true power with which he’s dealing. As he lays out the film’s exorcism rules, he also touches on hidden elements of his and Esquibel’s past, which become prominent fixtures of the film when the aforementioned presence forces each man’s lingering guilt to take physical form at one point or another. The buried past resurging is a central theme, with the film going as far as to touch on not only the Catholic Church’s long-standing covers ups of sexual abuse, but the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition — neither of which are delved into in much detail, but both of which end up woven into the film’s mechanics.

Russell Crowe is the real saving grace of The Pope’s Exorcist .

There’s the requisite amount of screaming and limb-twisting one might expect from an exorcism story, not to mention hallways that are appropriately dingy whenever the camera lingers a few seconds too long, conjuring mental images of what might pop out from the shadows. However, while every other actor ends up engaging seriously with the material as it’s written — even when it gets lost in the weeds if its own winding lore — Crowe transforms it, elevating it from a rote horror procedural into a film about a jovial figure weighed down by an unseen past. Where everyone else is running from demons, Crowe’s Amorth is running from himself. What’s technically at stake might be the life of a young boy, but the film’s real drama is born in the moments Amorth is forced to take things seriously, and the light drains from Crowe’s face as he confronts both past and present horrors.

Whoever else may perish during the proceedings, Amorth is such a richly-formed and immediately familiar character that as long as Crowe makes it to the end credits, it’ll feel like all is well. Few horror films have so benefitted from the presence of such a genuine, effortless star.

This article was originally published on April 14, 2023

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‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ movie review: A brilliant Russel Crowe in a straightforward exorcism story

Julius avery’s film moves rather jerkingly from one point to another but that doesn’t stop russel crowe from having lots of fun in his horror film debut.

Updated - April 07, 2023 04:19 pm IST

Published - April 07, 2023 03:18 pm IST

Russel Crowe in a still from ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ | Photo Credit: Sony Pictures

Russell Crowe has an inordinate amount of fun in his horror film debut. Based on Gabriele Amorth’s memoirs, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories , The Pope’s Exorcist is set in 1987, Castile. A grieving widow Julia (Alex Essoe), her rebellious daughter Amy (Laurel Marsden), and her traumatised son Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) take up residence in an abandoned church in Castile, which is the only thing Julia’s husband Roberto Vasquez (Santi Bayón) left for the family.

The Pope’s Exorcist (English)

Julia’s idea is to renovate the church, sell it and return home to the US. The local priest, Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto), is helpful and supportive. Naturally, things go bump in the dark, which is pretty much all the time in the gloomy interiors.

Henry, who was in the car with his father when he died, has not spoken since the accident. Instead of going out in the sunshine and taking in the astounding views, Henry goes about poking in the dark — why do people always go to dark spaces in horror movies? He finds some scary things and then awful things begin to happen.

Father Gabriele Amorth (Russell Crowe), an Italian Catholic priest and exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, who we saw in action earlier, casting a demon from a young man into the body of a pig, is called in. In Rome, though the Pope (Franco Nero) is supportive of Amorth and sees his work as essential, there are others including Cardinal Sullivan (Ryan O’Grady) who feel exorcism and demons are dreadfully old-fashioned and do not serve the image of a modern church.

There is a perfunctory discussion on the nature and existence of evil and off Amorth goes on his Vespa (inspired by seeing priests ride around on a Vespa, Crowe apparently insisted on Amorth riding one) to deal with the latest of the devil’s minions.

The demon (Ralph Ineson) possessing Henry knows things about Amorth, which proves he is the real deal and also rather powerful. Amorth tells Esquibel that the demon would use their guilt against them and that they should stay strong by praying in Latin.

Amorth carries the burden of survivor’s guilt and the failure to save a young woman in distress while Esquibel chose the church over love. Apart from the swearing, upside-down spider-walk on the walls and regurgitating red cardinals instead of the good old projectile green vomit, there is a conspiracy involving the Spanish Inquisition.

A recent re-reading of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist (1971), which was the inspiration for the hectically successful 1973 William Friedkin film (50 years ago on December 26), proved thrilling and troubling in equal measure. The novel is thrilling for the gradual reveal of the cause of Regan’s bizarre behaviour, as well as the battle between a guilt-wracked Father Damien Karras and the powerful demon, and troubling for the novel’s obviously misogynist stance.

The Pope’s Exorcist is not derailed by any such subtext. It is a straightforward possession story with the Spanish Inquisition twist added by screenwriters Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos ( The Unholy ). The film seems to have been cut quite a bit by the censors, as it moves rather jerkily from point A to B. That however does not come in the way of enjoying Crowe as Amorth, sailing hither and thither on his little scooter guzzling double-shot espressos or whiskey and chirping “Cuckoo”.

The Pope’s Exorcist is currently running in theatres

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‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ Review – Russell Crowe Is the Saving Grace in Generic Exorcism Horror Movie

The Pope’s Exorcist draws basis from the books An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, penned by Catholic priest and exorcist Gabriele Amorth. Screenwriters Michael Petroni ( The Rite ) and Evan Spiliotopoulos ( The Unholy ), along with director Julius Avery ( Overlord ), eschew the biopic approach when exploring Amorth’s tenure as an exorcist in favor of a by-the-books horror movie. Russell Crowe is the sole saving grace in this diluted and often silly entry in exorcism horror.

Avery’s latest introduces his rebellious Gabriel Amorth (Crowe) in a rural village in 1987. Amorth walks in with remarkable confidence and jovial mischief in his eyes as he quickly exposes a case of psychosis, not possession, leaving the local priest splattered in blood and the family shocked. Amorth barely has time to cuckoo at nuns and get scolded by higher-ups at the Vatican before he’s summoned to a crumbling abbey in Spain. There he meets American mom Julia ( Alex Essoe ), teen daughter Amy ( Laurel Marsden ), possessed son Henry ( Peter DeSouza-Feighoney , and demonically voiced by Ralph Ineson ), and novice local priest Father Esquibel ( Daniel Zovatto ).

Amorth’s bid to save the child winds up uncovering a long-buried Vatican secret, putting them all in jeopardy.

Straightaway, Russell Crowe establishes an awareness of what type of horror movie he’s in with a disarming sense of humor. Crowe’s version of Amorth asks for espresso when being scolded by Church members or cavalierly tosses found skulls at colleagues while the soundtrack plays on the nose bops from The Cult, The Saints, and Violent Femmes. But the energetic music cues cease quickly as the protagonist gets shoehorned into a generic exorcism formula that only occasionally teases something far more interesting.

The script quickly bypasses the setup to get straight to the possession. The clunky dialogue exists solely to drive the plot forward, characterization be damned. That means the family at the center of Amorth’s latest case operates as stock characters to further the Exorcist’s journey. Like the demon antagonist, the script only has eyes for Amorth. The well-trodden possession tactics get employed as Amorth, and Father Esquibel, work through their past sins.

The Pope’s Exorcist does give a brief respite from the generic exorcism with a sharp detour into an archeological adventure deep in the abbey’s bowels. It’s this inspired stretch that introduces some of the film’s most compelling ideas and imagery. Unfortunately, The Pope’s Exorcist quickly abandons them to explore Amorth’s sin: pride. It uncovers a daring critique of the Church through this but promptly gets cold feet and abandons the thread altogether in favor of a standard ending, albeit one with more blood and nudity than usual.

Director Julius Avery employs a lot of over-the-top dramatic flourishes that faintly broach camp, from loud stingers to melodramatic camera swoops, but everyone plays their roles with a stone-cold seriousness. Everyone, except Crowe, of course, who’s having a grand time winking at the audience. The logic gaps, the narrative shortcuts, and the conventional approach hinder him, though. The Pope’s Exorcist might’ve been better served removing any basis in fact, albeit very loosely, unshackling the restraint that kept Avery from fully leaning into the silliness of it all. What could’ve been an entertaining B-movie riffing on exorcism horror and the Church itself instead plays it too safe, resulting in a primarily bland affair. At least Crowe’s instinct for hamming it up absolves him from the generic exorcism feature he’s found himself in.

The Pope’s Exorcist is now playing in theaters.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Ryan Coogler Producing ‘A Vicious Circle’ Movie Adaptation

Creator Mattson Tomlin’s ( Terminator Zero ) comic book series A Vicious Circle is getting a movie adaptation, with THR reporting that Ryan Coogler ( Black Panther ) will produce.

The project is set up at Universal Pictures, with Tomlin on board to write the script. The Hollywood Reporter describes the project as being “ John Wick meets Looper .”

In the comic series from BOOM! Studios, “Shawn Thacker is a trained assassin from the future who seeks revenge on the only other man with his affliction—each life they take forces them both to involuntarily travel between vastly different past and future eras. Spanning from 22nd century Tokyo to 1950s New Orleans to the Cretaceous Era and beyond, the two mortal rivals are locked in a battle of wills that spans millions of years, all to alter the course of history.”

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The Pope's Exorcist 2: Confirmation & Everything We Know

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Scary, funny, violent, and probing, The Pope's Exorcist tells a familiar story with added flare, thanks to Russell Crowe's fantastic performance as Father Amorth.
The film explores historical themes like the Spanish Inquisition to create a real-life feel, although reviewers have mixed opinions on how well the scares, humor, and story blend together.
Despite some generic elements, The Pope's Exorcist is worth watching for Crowe's captivating portrayal of the cool and witty priest, with many critics praising his performance as the highlight of the film.

The Pope's Exorcist reviews have a lot to say about Russell Crowe's devil-fighting priest. Premiering in 2023 from director Julius Avery, The Pope's Exorcist follows Father Gabriele Amorth (Crowe), the Pope's personal exorcist. A cavalier and insubordinate priest, Amorth is a talented exorcist, but he's constantly fighting the Catholic Church's bureaucracy and censorship. When Amorth is asked to come help a young boy who may be possessed, he uncovers a horrible secret. Franco Nero, Daniel Zovatto, and Alex Essoe also star in the film based on the real-life Father Gabriele Amorth .

Scary, funny, violent, and probing, The Pope's Exorcist tells a familiar story with some added flare, not least because of Crowe's fantastic performance at the center. The Spanish Inquisition plays a big part in The Pope's Exorcist and historical themes are used to make the story feel more like a real-life event. Reviewers are divided on how well the scares, humor, and story work together, but fortunately, there are plenty of ways to watch the film, so if viewers do decide to check it out, it won't be hard to find.

A composite image of Father Amorth holding a cross with Amorth bursting through a wall in The Pope's Exorcist

After the success A Pope's Exorcist had in theaters and on streaming, a sequel is officially happening, and here's every The Pope's Exorcist 2 update.

Everything You Need To Know About The Pope's Exorcist

Father Amorth meets a host of interesting characters in The Pope's Exorcist , as he travels to an old Spanish abbey where an American mother, Julia Vasquez (Essoe), her daughter Amy (Laurel Marsden), and her son Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) are trying to rehabilitate the building. They inadvertently release an ancient demon named Asmodeus who possesses Peter. Over the course of the exorcism, Amorth's own failings are put on display, and the brutal history of the Catholic Church is reckoned with. The film premiered in the US on April 14, 2023, and earned $77 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo ).

Why You Should Watch The Pope's Exorcist

Rosaria with a sinister expression in The Pope's Exorcist

Despite the generic religious story and mediocre scares, The Pope's Exorcist is worth watching for Crowe's performance alone. Jocular, oddball, witty, and dangerously intelligent, Father Amorth is one of the coolest priests in movies. The Pope's Exorcist is smart in keeping him in the center frame for most of the film, as every scene Crowe is in is elevated by his acting. Riding around on a tiny Vespa, Amorth is fascinatingly hip in the best way. When the film grows serious, Crowe is more than capable of using his imposing build and powerful delivery to match the intensity of the story.

What The Critics Thought Of The Pope's Exorcist

A young boy lies propped up in bed, his complexion greenish and supernatural, his face covered in scratches, his eyes glaring demonically

The Pope's Exorcist has a 49% on Rotten Tomatoes , making for an even split between critics who liked and disliked the film. Those who didn't think much of the movie pointed to the choppy dialogue and basic plotting as its main failures, with one reviewer from Vulture saying, " It tries to make up for its lack of mood and suspense with busy intercutting and an overreaching plot that promises much but delivers little ."

However, nearly every review praises Crowe's performance, with many suggesting that it alone makes the film worth seeing. A review from The Austin Chronicle says, "... it is delightful to see the Oscar-winner chew through the scenery as he did in the earliest days of his acting career ." Crowe clearly enjoyed playing Amorth and that alone has won over many critics.

Where To Watch The Pope's Exorcist

Daniel Zovatto in priest garb looking sideways in The Pope's Exorcist

For those wanting to watch The Pope's Exorcist , it is available to stream on Netflix. For those not subscribed to the service, there are plenty of options to rent or buy the film. As a newer movie, the purchase price is expensive, but renting is still an affordable alternative. Here's an official breakdown for those looking to rent or buy The Pope's Exorcist :

Apple TV - $5.99 rental (4K); $19.99 purchase (4K)
Amazon Prime Video - $3.99 rental (4K); $19.99 purchase (4K)
Microsoft Store - $3.99 rental (4K); $19.99 purchase (4K)
Google Play - $3.99 rental (4K); $19.99 purchase (4K)
YouTube - $3.99 rental; $19.99 purchase (4K)
VUDU - $3.99 rental (4K); $19.99 purchase (4K)
DirecTV - $5.99 rental (4K); $19.99 purchase (4K)
Spectrum - $3.99 rental (HD)
AMC Theatres On Demand - $24.99 purchase (HD)

Watch on Netflix

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Why Is Russell Crowe Playing a Whiskey-Guzzling Italian Exorcist?

By Chris Vognar

Chris Vognar

Spinning heads, seared flesh, holy incantations in Latin: could it be… Satan ? We have reached the 50 th anniversary of The Exorcist , William Friedkin’s blockbusting, genre-transforming horror landmark that has been parodied, sequelized (on multiple occasions), and firmly embedded in the collective cultural consciousness. And now along comes The Pope’s Exorcist , a passable little supernatural horror spectacle starring a big, bearded Russell Crowe trying on an Italian accent as Father Gabriele Amorth, apparently a real-life exorcist of some renown.

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The International Association of Exorcists has slammed the movie as “unreliable,” and the coolest thing about this is that there exists an International Association of Exorcists. This fact gets back to that frisson that drove the original Exorcist , and, to a much lesser extent, The Pope’s Exorcist . This, the movies try to suggest, could happen to you. And the realer something feels, the scarier it can get. The Pope’s Exorcist will certainly never go down as a classic of the genre, but it’s better than it has any reason to be. Sometimes, the devil you know gets the job done just fine.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ on Netflix, a Boilerplate Demonic-Possession Thriller Given a Goofy Boost by Russell Crowe

Where to stream:.

The Pope's Exorcist
Russell Crowe

Is ‘The Exorcism’ Streaming On Netflix Or HBO Max?

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The Pope’s Exorcist (now on Netflix) has us wondering if Russell Crowe might’ve lost his mind a little. This grim-’n’-goofy horror escapade finds him brandishing an Italian accent like Maximus with his sword, playing the title character, a wisecracking, heavily caffeinated, Vespa-driving priest who ain’t afraid’a no demon. The story is based on the writings and experiences of real-life Vatican exorcist Gabriele Amorth, although having seen the film, I assume director Julius Avery employed artistic license generously, since it’s hilarious and nonfictional exorcism is surely NO LAUGHING MATTER. (Amorth said he performed tens of thousands of exorcisms during his 40 years as an Official Exorcist, a claim that seems either dubious or generous in its definition of “exorcism.”) Whether the comedy is intentional or not is beside the point; the real question here is whether it helps elevate the movie above the usual scary-flick nonsense.

THE POPE’S EXORCIST : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: We meet Gabriele (Crowe) in his early days as [INSERT MOVIE TITLE HERE]. It’s 1987. Gabriele arrives with his assistant and a pig on a leash. A man in a bed looks like he has the entirety of Hell inside his guts – you know, yellowish-pale skin, horrid teeth, bloodshot eyes – and one assumes a demon is inside him, or maybe just some putrefactive Taco Bell. The man opens his mouth and an otherworldly overdubbed disembodied monster-voice comes out of it, stopping just shy of commenting on anyone’s mother’s sexual prowess. Gabriele taunts the beast, tricks it, outwits it. It leaps invisibly from the man to the pig, and the assistant blasts its brains out with a shotgun. Looks like pork chops for dinner, maw! Another day, another demon vanquished; time for Gabriele to take a celebratory swig of whiskey and be admonished by his young inexperienced stupid-moron superiors, who don’t approve of his tactics, and might not even believe in the existence of evil. They’re FOOLS, I tell you. FOOLS!

Meanwhile, in Spain: Julia (Alex Essoe) relocates the fam from America to the decrepit abbey left to her by her late husband. She’s having the building restored so they can flip it and make some dough, although considering it’s centuries old and surely historic as all hell, and probably requires specialized attention for unusual features like the torture crypt in the basement and the well full of skulls in the courtyard, one can’t help but wonder how high the banker was when they approved the home-improvement loan. Sullen teen Amy (Laurel Marsden) doesn’t want anything to do with this dump; her little brother Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) hasn’t spoken a word in the year since their dad died. So, quick inventory: Dead father, disturbed kid, creepy-ass building surely populated with ancient, not-very-nice evils. Does the exorcist come with the construction crew, or does it need to be ordered separately?

And as the sun shall rise in the east and set in the west, poor little Henry becomes the vessel for Oogumboogumklagz or whoever, a monster from hell whose first otherworldly overdubbed disembodied monster-voice words are BRING ME THE PRIEST. And he wants not just any priest, but You Know Who. The lean, mean exorcisin’ machine. The priestest with the mostest. The cocky padre who saved your madre. Cue Gabriele in his fedora and frock, putt-putting his Vespa through the Spanish hills to the tune of Faith No More’s ‘We Care a Lot,’ a shot so hysterically surreal, Buñuel couldn’t have conceived it. Gabriele greets the traumatized family and flummoxed local priest (Daniel Zovatto), then drops in on Henry, who gurgles, spews threats and coughs up a dead bird. Diagnosis: Possessed! And so Gabriele rolls up his sleeves and arms himself: Crucifix? Check. Consecrated holy water? Check. One-liners? Check. “Do you know any jokes?” he asks Julia. “The devil does not like jokes.” Good thing we do though, huh?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Pope’s Exorcist could’ve been The Exorcist meets The Nice Guys if Avery didn’t indulge every cliche of the exorcism subgenre like he was trying to ape every generically grim Spanish-language horror-thriller urped up by Netflix.

Performance Worth Watching: Nutty as Crowe’s characterization can be, there’s room for it to be even wackier. Would his jumping even further off the rails have improved the film, or hindered it? Hard to tell. But with a sequel reportedly in the works, Crowe may have an opportunity to go more than, oh, about 68 percent shatbit next time.

Memorable Dialogue: Here’s a fun exchange:

Oogumboogumklagz the demon, via Henry: My name is blasphemy. My name is nightmare! Gabriele: Ah. My nightmare is France winning the World Cup.

Sex and Skin: Naked-lady T&A, sometimes fully covered with blood.

Our Take: In horror films, mediocrity is often more difficult to endure than outright awfulness. And The Pope’s Exorcist is thoroughly and completely mediocre from concept to execution, with the notable exception of Crowe, who pretty much steadfastly refuses to take any of this crap seriously. He can’t make the movie “good,” per se; that’s too much of an uphill climb, especially when there’s little motivation to do so. Why nobody staged a sequence in which Gabriele irritates the demon with a schticky standup comedy routine is beyond me; the film is full of such missed opportunities.

But the veteran star does make it periodically entertaining, which leaves us scratching our heads over why Avery didn’t lean heavier into the glib tone Crowe injects into this slab of dead-serious foolishness. The film characterizes Amorth as a bad-boy cleric-rebel of sorts, haunted by World War II survivor’s guilt, but there’s nothing else to him; he knows his way around incubi and succubi and all the other misc. malignant spirits, and has a sense of humor about it, but this particular narrative doesn’t allow him to convincingly bring the deepest parts of his soul to his life’s work, even while facing down the granddaddy of all evil possessors, whose favorite meal is ham from the hocks of exorcists themselves. And boy does Crowe bring the ham.

Beyond that, there’s a tossed-off declaration that “the construction work must have freed the demon,” which implies what, that Julia’s attempt to capitalize on her acquisition of sacred real estate deserves severe punishment? Eh. Probably reading into it too much. So without any there there, we’re left with the usual grody makeup, haunted-house jump scares, bumpity-scratchity-screechy/disembodied-voice surround-sound design and other well-worn tropes of every demonic-possession flick ever. The film at least moves along quickly until it gets bogged down in Gabriele’s plumbing of crypts for clues, which involves pulling keys from the gas-bloated stomach of a dusty old corpse, and stuff like that (there’s some half-assed lip service given to the many buried sins of the Catholic Church, but trust me, it’s barely worth acknowledging). Without Crowe getting to deliver lines like “A demon once tried to put a crucifix through my eyeball” with a twinkle in his eye this movie would be DOA.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Is The Pope’s Exorcist worth watching for Crowe’s wacky performance? Gah – almost. But almost ain’t enough.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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‘The Exorcism’ Review: Russell Crowe Plays a Fallen Movie Star Playing a Priest in an Exorcist Movie. Is This the Sign of a Career Gone to Hell?

Crowe stars in his second exorcist film in a year. His acting isn't bad, but by the end the message seems to be: The power of residuals compels you.

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Reviewed at Digital Arts, New York, June 13, 2024. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 93 MIN.

Production: A Vertical Entertainment release of a Miramax, Outerbanks Entertainment production. Producers: Kevin Williamson, Ben Fast, Bill Block. Executive producers: Padraic McKinley, Scott Putman, Andrew Golov, Thomas Zadra.
Crew: Director: Joshua John Miller. Screenplay: M.A. Fortin, Joshua John Miller. Camera: Simon Duggan. Editor: Matthew Woolley. Music: Daniel Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans.
With: Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpjkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, David Hyde Pierce.

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The Pope's Exorcist Review: The Power Of Crowe Compels

Father Gabriele Amorth looking concerned

A delightfully entertaining, deeply committed lead performance from Russell Crowe
Operates more as a detective-style thriller than an exorcism movie — which helps overcome some of the familiarity with the narrative
Possessed children cursing at adults will always be funny
It isn't remotely scary — it's a very light R-rated movie
The film attempts to grapple with weightier issues of faith, and the darker side of the Catholic Church's history in Europe. These are the moments where it stumbles the most

Some movies, in hopes that they will kick-start a franchise, end on a note that teases a potential sequel. It's a confident move on behalf of both the filmmakers and the studios but is nowhere near as self-assured as "The Pope's Exorcist," which teases 199 potential sequels at the close of its story — and this figure is still just a fraction of the 160,000 exorcisms the real-life Father Gabriele Amorth claimed to have conducted in his lifetime.

Adapted from two separate volumes of Amorth's own memoirs (as the movie jovially highlights, he was nothing if not a shameless self-publicist), director Julius Avery's film makes up in eccentric entertainment what it lacks in genuine scares, distinguishing itself from the rest of this horror sub-genre by approaching the material as a detective story first and foremost. It's a wise decision, considering how "The Exorcist" remains unparalleled when it comes to tales of faith and possession. Avery doesn't even attempt to invoke its memory despite the various, glaringly obvious surface-level similarities between the two (not to mention the fact that William Friedkin, director of "The Exorcist," made his own documentary about Amorth back in 2017).

The Hercule Poirot of exorcisms

Instead, Julius Avery's film characterizes its protagonist — played with hammy glee by Russell Crowe — as the Hercule Poirot of exorcisms, a man who has found unparalleled success in his field by utilizing various unusual methods to lure demons out from within. Unusually for this genre, he's a man of his cloth who remains unconflicted by his faith, although this may be a sign that the film doesn't possess the depth required to truly interrogate these religious themes; even as the story connects to a broader history of crimes committed by the Catholic Church in Europe, you get the sense that Avery is eager to return to the more straightforward thrills. And he would be right to do so: nobody is coming to a film called "The Pope's Exorcist" looking for sincere introspection on what it means to follow the word of God.

The story takes place in the late 1980s, shortly after Father Gabriele Amorth was appointed an exorcist by the Diocese of Rome. However, in this iteration of his life, he's a renegade who has ruffled too many feathers by performing rituals without the blessing of his holiness to do so — something he doesn't see as an issue because he believes that very few of the people he's hired to visit are caught under the Devil's spell. But it isn't long until he comes face-to-face with a very real case. He's called to a mansion under renovation in the Spanish countryside where young Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) is showing signs of transformation, shouting various over-the-top obscenities at his stressed mom Julia (Alex Essoe). And, in the clearest sign of possession, this 10-year-old boy is now voiced by English character actor Ralph Ineson, whose thick Yorkshire accent is the movie's secret weapon.

It's a trope of the exorcism movie to feature a young child screaming all manner of dirty words at their horrified families, and Avery understands that most audience members will still have the memory of Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) telling Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) that his "mother sucks c***s in Hell," a gloriously foul-mouthed insult no possessed child has ever been able to match in the 50 years of exorcism movies since. But in a movie that strives for camp entertainment as much as this one does, it is a trope that can't go unacknowledged — and in realizing that nothing on the page could live up to the immortal screenplay of "The Exorcist," Ineson's voice is instead here to breathe life into the various playground insults littered throughout the screenplay. A priest getting called a "panty sniffer" may have not seemed particularly noteworthy written down, for example, but the delivery makes it unforgettable.

This wouldn't work without Crowe

"The Pope's Exorcist" is a movie that relies on a lot of heavy lifting from its cast, who are all keenly aware of how familiar this material is and the various ways in which it is underdeveloped. This is mostly shouldered by Russell Crowe, the rare Academy Award winner who now feels more at home in this brand of junky cinema; his Father Amorth is the most he's felt like a proper movie star in years, a character who commands such immediate attention that it's easy to overlook Crowe's accent wandering around the entire European continent. Even as his take on this character feels perilously close to Kenneth Branagh's interpretation of Hercule Poirot, it's hard to imagine anybody but Crowe proving as engaging in the role, or embodying the character's various quirks in a way that doesn't come across as insufferable. Then again, it's hard to imagine another actor of Crowe's caliber treating this material with sincerity, refusing to leave it as a paycheck gig and nothing more.

It works as a movie star vehicle for Crowe in a way that Julius Avery's previous film, the immediately forgotten Amazon superhero movie "Samaritan," intended to be for Sylvester Stallone. That film's flaws only become more apparent when seeing the ways in which he works with his cast to enliven a similarly uninspiring screenplay here — Crowe offers the charm and charisma that can make a familiar narrative engaging, whereas Stallone reverted to autopilot, even as the script to that film felt deliberately written as a meta-narrative reflecting his career. All it proves is that a movie star's vehicle is only as good as the movie star chosen to lead it, and Avery has certainly atoned for the sins of his last film here.

If you're coming to "The Pope's Exorcist" praying for a terrifying new addition to the exorcism film canon, then you'll be sorely disappointed. I suspect that, if it weren't for some expletive-heavy dialogue and a couple of brief sequences of blood splatter, this would be a PG-13-rated affair, perfectly suited to a teen audience weaned on silly Blumhouse thrillers. However, that's not to be — and while there aren't any notable scares to mention here, and the exploration of generational Catholic guilt is such an afterthought it barely warrants a mention, it remains frequently entertaining thanks to the power of Crowe's Lambretta-riding protagonist. With him in the lead, it's easy to want every last one of the 199 sequels the ending threatens.

"The Pope's Exorcist" premieres in theatres on April 14.

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The Exorcism review: Russell Crowe makes his second Catholic demon-hunting film in a year worth watching

While this new film lacks the italian-accented camp of 2023’s ‘the pope’s exorcist’, it makes up for it with some decent b-movie thrills... at least until its climax, article bookmarked.

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Personally, I’ve derived great joy from the fact Russell Crowe has played an exorcist twice in the past year . It’s unpredictable and without the calculated air of an actor attempting to renegotiate their public image. Maybe you can draw a direct, logical line between the heartthrob in the leather skirt in Gladiator , through to the slightly beaten down but no less cool detective of The Nice Guys , and on to this new image of him wielding a crucifix and muttering “in nomine patris” while a child levitates over a bed. Maybe you can’t.

But the thing with Crowe is that he commits, whatever the circumstances. There wasn’t a single breath of hesitation in his Italian-accented, scooter-riding priest in The Pope’s Exorcist , even in the face of all that Catholic camp. A visiting demon claims he’s everyone’s worst nightmare. Crowe’s character, in full deadpan, shoots back: “My worst nightmare is France winning the World Cup.”

His new film, The Exorcism , shares almost no DNA with The Pope’s Exorcist . This is satanic horror played with an almost entirely straight face, its aspirations dialled up from B-movie to William Friedkin’s The Exorcist . It’s directed and co-written by Joshua John Miller, whose father Jason Miller played Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist (and, later, The Exorcist III ). And it’s inspired, in part, by the rumours that the set of Friedkin’s film was cursed, following a destructive fire, nine deaths, and multiple injuries.

Crowe plays Anthony Miller, an actor recently discharged from rehab, and now on a quest for career resuscitation and spiritual absolution by playing the Max von Sydow role in what is a thinly veiled remake of The Exorcist . Yet, Anthony arrives with the devil already on his back – Miller, who co-wrote the script with his partner and collaborator MA Fortin, heavily implies that Anthony’s issues with addiction stem from sexual abuse by a priest in his childhood. And when he’s repeatedly triggered by a narcissist director (Adam Goldberg) who whispers his worst memories back in his ear, Anthony finds himself pushed in frightening, distinctly demonic directions.

There’s a question, established early on in The Exorcism , of whether Anthony’s behaviour (a lot of blankly standing around and muttering in Latin) is really the work of the ancient sacrificial deity Moloch, or if it’s his religious trauma and interconnected addiction struggles violently bursting back to life. There’s something painfully familiar in the eyes of his estranged child, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), who’s returned home from school after getting kicked out on thematically significant charges. And Crowe sells every inch of a man whose skin is puckered with emotional wounds, but their causes buried deep.

There’s a natural eeriness to the cold, dead, dark spaces of the sound stage, and one particular kill that’s unexpected and nasty. But The Exorcism collapses in on itself by the time it reaches its climactic demon expulsion, and it struggles to resolve the cruelty of Anthony’s past with the kindly guidance of the film-within-the-film’s Catholic advisor, Father Conor (David Hyde Pierce, so disarmingly gentle that it reminds us why he was simply too good for the Frasier reboot). It hints at (but never confirms) a revelation that would fundamentally change the film’s outlook on the church. The film may be ideologically confusing, but Crowe never falters. If exorcisms become a full-time gig for him, you won’t see me complain.

Dir: Joshua John Miller. Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, David Hyde Pierce. 15, 95 mins.

‘The Exorcism’ is in cinemas from 21 June

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‘the exorcism’ review: mixed-bag russell crowe vehicle observes the horror classic from a personal perspective.

Sam Worthington, David Hyde Pierce, Adam Goldberg and Ryan Simpkins co-star in the tale of demonic possession, directed by Joshua John Miller, whose late father Jason Miller played Damien Karras in 'The Exorcist.'

By Justin Lowe

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‘The Exorcism’ Review: Russell Crowe Is Fighting Demons Again But This Time The Devil Is In The Details

By Pete Hammond

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Miller and Fortin are looking for much more here than a standard exorcism film though, and much is made of Tony’s renewed attempts to win back the love and trust of his 16-year-old daughter as circumstances bring them back together and she begins to notice his crumbling condition, helping him not only at home but also on set as a production assistant. Real-life problems merge with reel-life problems as Tony’s immersion into hi character takes on unforeseen dimensions and, well, terror.

Crowe lifts this material significantly, even if it might appear to be a paycheck movie for this celebrated Oscar winner. Just a year after his starring role as a real-life Vatican priest and exorcist in the underrated The Pope’s Exorcist he is back in the genre; but fear not, it is demonstrably different as we watch Tony’s own demons get out of hand. Unfortunately for the latest film, though, it also falls prey to the tropes of the genre and sails out of control in the final third, thereby squandering its intriguing premise and succumbing to the suits who demand the stereotypical frights for this kind of movie.

Goldberg, perhaps morphing into the kind of demanding director the late great Friedkin was rumored to be in making his masterpiece, is fitfully amusing as a filmmaker with only his own needs on his mind, much to dismay of his star. Sam Worthington as Joe, a co-star who plays the sidekick for Tony, is sadly given little to work with here, as is the lively Chloe Bailey as another co-star and musician. David Hyde Pierce is earnest to a fault as the priest hired as a consultant for the film, but the character doesn’t quite seem to jell.

In the end, The Exorcism, despite the best efforts of Crowe and the initial promise of taking the familiar into unfamiliar territory, just doesn’t quite jell itself, but I will give it an Amen for the game effort.

Producers for the Miramax production are Kevin Williamson ( Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer), Bill Block and Ben Fast.

Title: The Exorcism Distributor: Vertical Release date: June 21, 2024 Director: Joshua John Miller Screenwriters: Joshua John Miller and M.A. Fortin Cast: Russell Crowe, Adam Goldberg, Ryan Simpkins, David Hyde Pierce, Chloe Bailey, Sam Worthington Rating: R Running time: 1 hr 33 min

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‘The Exorcism’ Is a Bumpy Ride That Doesn’t Quite Have Faith In Itself

Possession horror movies are typically rather dull affairs, in part because they often try too hard to copy William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) in one way or another. The innocent victim, the troubled man of faith, the coarse supernatural antics of vile entities, the triumphant denunciation of evil. 2023’s The Pope’s Exorcist dodged that bullet by finding a fresh spin, a sense of fun, and real personality — along with a Vespa-riding Russell Crowe — and now Crowe is back in the collar for a wholly unrelated exorcist tale called The Exorcism . Don’t let the bland title fool you, though. This one takes a road less taken too even if its meta footing can’t hold that road nearly as well (as a Vespa).

Anthony Miller (Crowe) is a widower, a single dad, a washed-up actor, and an addict who can still taste the alcohol he gave up less than a year ago. He’s struggling to connect to his teenaged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), who’s recently been suspended from school and refuses to call him dad. A preproduction incident on the set of an upcoming horror remake — it’s never mentioned by name, but the movie within the movie is meant to be a remake of The Exorcist — leaves an opening in the lead role as a priest battling for the soul of a young woman. Miller lands the job and brings Lee aboard as a PA as an opportunity to bond, but joy soon curdles as something evil settles within him. What do you do when it’s the exorcist who needs an exorcism?

There’s enough in that setup to make for a fairly straightforward piece of possession horror, but terrible title aside, The Exorcism isn’t interested in being straightforward. Rather than simply let that story unfold, director/co-writer Joshua John Miller instead takes a more meta approach, both onscreen and off. You see, not only is Miller a past child actor — River’s Edge (1986), Near Dark (1987) — but he’s also the son of actor Jason Miller, who famously played the doomed Father Karras in The Exorcist . The film feels, in many ways, like a defensive attack against the Catholic church and Hollywood, two towering entities known for chewing up and spitting out the innocent. The ideas are unavoidably intriguing, but the devil is in the details.

The script, by Miller and writing partner M.A. Fortin , is something of a surface level riff on the well-documented troubles that faced Friedkin’s film during production. It’s not trying to match the real-life problems they faced, but the director of The Georgetown Project — the film within the film’s title — played here by Adam Goldberg , is portrayed as a controlling, demeaning, and oblivious prick who pushes Anthony in increasingly insensitive ways. Once the actor starts behaving strangely, it’s assumed by everyone that he’s back on the sauce due to the stress and pressure. That they continue to think that even after witnessing his face change before their eyes and his body float in the air, well, Hollywood folks are self-centered and stupid, apparently.

The church, meanwhile, is dealt a two-pronged poke starting with the presence of Father Conor ( David Hyde Pierce ) who’s on-set as an advisor despite being a man long lacking in faith of his own. It’s revealed that Anthony was molested by a priest when he was a child serving as an altar boy, and Miller films the first meeting of Anthony and Father Conor as if their paths had crossed before. Nothing’s done with the implication, though, and the minor age-gap difference between the two actors makes it unlikely anyway, but it’s just one of many threads that feels untethered and flapping in the breeze. Lee is given a romance subplot, a younger actor ( Sam Worthington ) has a dilemma over replacing the declining and unstable Anthony, and Anthony himself is tempted back by the bottle.

Miller clearly has a lot on his mind with The Exorcism , and it increasingly starts to feel as if the horror aspect of it all is actually the element he’s least interested in. Goldberg’s director character describes his remake as a “psychological drama wrapped in the skin of a horror movie,” and that’s actually a fair assessment of The Exorcism itself. There’s nothing wrong with that approach, obviously, but it all gets more than a little cluttered as the third act ramps up the very horrors that those earlier themes seem indifferent to. Jump scares, shadow play, CG assists to contorting faces — genre beats start dropping fast and furious while character elements slowly diminish.

Miller and Fortin previously gifted genre fans with 2015’s The Final Girls , a horror/comedy that takes an even more meta approach while also delivering laughs, thrills, and genuine emotion. It’s a terrific film, and the promise that Miller showed as director there are noticeable here in smaller doses. The opening featuring a priest walking through an ominous home sees the camera pull back to reveal it as a soundstage, and it’s both a great visual and a tease regarding the artificiality of Hollywood. Too much of it feels far less inspired, though, leaving the film’s tone and atmosphere more than a little unmoored. His camera rightfully loves Crowe, though, and the actor once again compels your attention as he faces problems both familiar and supernatural.

Whether by original design or by belabored post-production efforts — the film was shot in 2019 and has been in the can since 2020 for various reasons — The Exorcism feels as if it’s being pulled in opposing directions. The metaphor of it all, whether for the soul-sucking nature of Hollywood and the church or for Jason Miller’s experience during and after The Exorcist , remains interesting, and there’s a far more controlled take on it all that exists (probably still in J.J. Miller’s head) waiting to be told. The horror beats that eventually take over, meanwhile, are all a bit too generic. Still, as it stands, those ideas and Crowe’s dedicated presence are enough of a draw here to make the film worth a watch. Or you could just skip it and rewatch The Pope’s Exorcist …

The Exorcism Review

A demonic-possession movie bolstered by russell crowe's presence and little else..

It's almost poetic how Joshua John Miller's The Exorcism feels as cursed as the tormented souls it portrays onscreen. From that painfully generic title to a post-production saga spanning nearly four years – an ordeal brought about by COVID delays – this riff on the offscreen troubles of The Exorcist has been marred by bizarre creative choices and a whole lot of bad luck besides. Originally slated for streaming under the title The Georgetown Project, Miller's film has now pivoted to a theatrical release under a new, humdrum moniker. ( Shudder drew the short straw for its eventual streaming debut.) The Exorcism is also hampered by a surreal coincidence: during production, its lead wound up starring in another similarly titled demon-possession film, to which The Exorcism will be inevitably, and unfavorably, compared. (The two are unrelated, which is more good news for The Pope's Exorcist .)

With a setup like that (and having watched the movie), it's difficult to recommend The Exorcism. However, the morbidly curious might appreciate its few redeeming qualities. There’s also the reliably sturdy presence of Russell Crowe, who anchors the film even when it eventually spins out into unintentional chaos. And, not for nothing, Miller employs one or two clever visuals to establish the meta-ness of it all, including an icy tracking shot that seems to establish a stately home only for the camera to pull back to reveal a dollhouse set constructed on a massive studio lot. In its first half, at least, The Exorcism shows promise.

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Crowe plays Anthony Miller, a former movie star struggling with personal demons well before a literal one worms into his soul. Here, the excesses of Miller's screenplay (co-written with M.A. Fortin) start to reveal themselves: Anthony's problems with addiction are compounded by profound guilt over his wife's untimely death, he's estranged from his troubled daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins), and there's the clumsily executed suggestion that his lapsed Catholicism is due to abuse he endured during his time as an altar boy.

Initially, there's hope for Anthony's comeback. Just as Lee returns home, he lands the lead in an unofficial remake of a certain iconic horror film set among the iconic streetlights and treacherous staircases of Washington, D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood. (Though never explicitly named, the project's working title is enough to get the point across: It’s The Exorcist.) Fortune comes with tragedy, however, as Anthony is only granted this unlikely opportunity after the sudden death of his predecessor in the role, who perished inexplicably on set after hours.

What would you rather see Russell Crowe busy himself with, aside from demonic possession movies?

Crowe stabilizes these early scenes by infusing his character with vulnerability and a glimmering sense of desperation. (It's fascinating to watch him shuffle around his urbane condo in flip-flops, repeatedly muttering ostentatious lines from his script.) Miller, known for the horror-comedy The Final Girls (also co-written with Fortin), tools with the story's psychological aspects by crafting testy dialogue between Anthony and Lee ("My name isn't 'Tony;' it's Dad") and establishing a hostile work environment on set. And while Anthony's interactions with a contemptible director (Adam Goldberg) tease out his dark, internal battles (and possibly serve as a swipe at the late William Friedkin – who can say?), their tensions fail to escalate once Anthony's inevitable relapse opens him up to infernal influence.

Other characters attempt to deepen the melodrama to varying degrees of success (if "success" is the word we want to use), like Father George Connor (David Hyde Pierce), a film consultant for all things "arcane and/or Catholic." Pierce brings a wryness that The Exorcism could have used much more of, while Sam Worthington, as Anthony's younger, studlier co-star, languishes in a shapeless role. Singer/actor Chloe Bailey fares slightly better as singer/actor Blake Holloway, who has been cast as a version of Linda Blair's Regan and whose defining character trait is superstition (she burns sage) as well as a marked attraction to Lee, who's there to work as a production assistant.

As the fraught production ensues and Lee observes her father's rapid psychological decline, Miller attempts to sow doubt about what's affecting him. Is Anthony undergoing demonic possession, as it most assuredly appears to be (computer-enhanced makeup often makes Crowe come off like his version of Mr. Hyde from Universal’s abandoned Dark Universe ), or is he simply off his meds and drinking again? That doubt might be reasonable or compelling had this material been handled more delicately, but Miller indulges the tired clichés of the typical possession movie often and to his detriment. Doors slam on their own accord, lights constantly flicker on and off, faces elongate to improbable lengths, modulated voices bellow terrible things – it goes on like this.

Two interesting bits of trivia shadow this otherwise dreadfully uninteresting movie. First, Joshua Miller is the son of Jason Miller, the Pulitzer-winning playwright who portrayed Father Karras in William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Second, its "movie within a movie" concept, based loosely on the famously rocky production of The Exorcist, came from (who else?) producer and Scream creator Kevin Williamson, who felt Miller's unique view of The Exorcist would bring (and I'm quoting from the press materials here) something "really true and emotionally original" to what became The Exorcism.

You don't need to know these things to understand why The Exorcism doesn't work as a standard-grade demon movie or as a piece of metafictional horror, but they're handy to have rattling around in your head should you watch this woefully compromised and haphazardly assembled folly. They suggest something far more nuanced and tragic than anything Miller and his collaborators managed to conjure: a missed opportunity to produce a thoughtful exploration of family, recovery, and faith, and a stirring, memorable response to perhaps the most impactful horror movie ever made from someone who’s been affected by its imagery all his life. And if that was, in fact, originally the plan, Miller's film only becomes sadder on reflection.

Bolstered by Russell Crowe's presence and little else, Joshua John Miller's The Exorcism is compromised by its unfortunate postproduction saga and a story confused by bewildering edits. What it has in its favor is its premise, a meta twist on the anecdotally troubled production of The Exorcist, yet Miller fumbles the execution with an unfocused, poorly assembled theatrical cut that attempts too much while saying too little. Not frightening even in the slightest, though the thought that a talent such as Crowe might be doomed to make undercooked genre crud for the rest of his career is chilling enough.

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The Big Picture

The meta concept of The Exorcism opens the door for fun jabs at the horror genre.
The film abandons interesting ideas for more drab scare sequences, lacking balance.
Russell Crowe’s performance falls short of matching the movie’s tone, leading to an empty experience.

You would not be blamed for being confused about the existence of The Exorcism . The poster shows Russell Crowe donning the collar and holding up a cross, so it’s a natural assumption to think this is a follow-up to last year’s religious horror movie The Pope’s Exorcist , in which Crowe starred as the titular priest. Then you watch the trailer and see that it’s about the filming of a movie in which a priest must exorcise a demon out of a teenage girl’s body. Is this a riff on The Exorcist !? The connection to the 1973 horror game-changer is only reinforced once you learn that The Exorcism is directed by Joshua John Miller, son of Jason Miller who played Father Karras in The Exorcist —confused yet?

But no, this movie is an entirely stand-alone venture. Yes, it absolutely winks an eye at The Exorcist and many other ‘70s horror movies. The presence of producer Kevin Williamson is felt because as what Scream did for the slasher genre, The Exorcism is trying to do for religious horror movies . Emphasis on “trying.” The Exorcism has a fun concept that most horror lovers will enjoy, but unlike Scream, it can’t find its footing between comedy and horror, and right in the middle is Crowe giving one of his most heavy-handed performances to date.

The Exorcism (2024)

A troubled actor begins to exhibit a disruptive behavior while shooting a horror film. His estranged daughter wonders if he's slipping back into his past addictions or if there's something more sinister at play.

What Is 'The Exorcism' About?

Crowe’s Anthony Miller (a very on-the-nose nod to the director's father) is an actor past his peak, haunted by the death of his wife which led him to alcoholism and drug addiction , creating a tension-filled relationship with his teenage daughter, Lee ( Ryan Simpkins ). Lee has been suspended from school so she is accompanying her father on the set of “The Georgetown Project” (which The Exorcism was originally titled and should have stayed as). “The Georgetown Project” has the exact same plot as The Exorcist; a troubled priest is asked to save a teenage girl ( Chloe Bailey ) from the vicious demon that has possessed her. The only reason Anthony gets the part is because, as we see in the opening scene, the original actor died under suspicious circumstances on set.

As the film’s production starts under the direction of Peter ( Adam Goldberg having the most fun out of anyone), the role starts to take its toll on Anthony. He has a deep distrust of priests after a traumatic experience from his days as an altar boy, extending to Father Conor ( David Hyde Pierce ) who has been hired to consult on the film. As The Exorcism mentions, the sets of horror movies like The Omen and The Exorcist were haunted , and it seems “The Georgetown Project” is no different. Something has possessed Anthony, and learning his lines becomes the least of his troubles.

'The Exorcism' Has a Fun Concept But Doesn’t Execute It Well

As said before, there is a really fun idea at the center of The Exorcism . There are plenty of meta jokes that feel straight out of a Scream film. When the egotistical and obnoxious Peter is describing his film at the pre-production party, he tells anyone who can listen that it’s a “psychological drama wrapped in the skin of a horror movie,” riffing on recent trends of horror movies trying to claim they aren’t one. When something is clearly wrong with Anthony that goes beyond what we know of this world, his colleagues dismiss it as him going too method. It's also given a personal touch as Miller is framing Anthony as an extension of his own father and his role in The Exorcist . The first half runs on the steam of this meta-comedy, but it loses all speed when it tries to become a dense, dark, and heavy horror drama. Miller has proven he's a natural with satire and blending horror with comedy as seen in his script for 2015's The Final Girls . But around halfway through The Exorcism, it abandons everything it's been setting up to give way to formulaic and stale scare sequences.

russell-crowe-the-exorcism-social-featured

Russell Crowe Faces Literal Demons in New 'The Exorcism' Image

The supernatural horror film haunts theaters later this month.

There are glimmers of modern ideas that the movies it references couldn’t deal with, such as Anthony’s sexual assault at the hands of a Catholic priest when he was a kid. However, it shows him still going to confession and the movie doesn’t dive deeper into what it must be like for those devout to their religion who experienced unimaginable evil at the hands of the very people they were told to trust most. The film becomes so hellbent on trying to scare you and make possessed Anthony into a terrifying villain that it forgets about all of the themes and ideas it presents in the first half. Faith and the divide between good and evil are kind of prerequisites for movies like these, but The Exorcism can't be bothered to explore them . You start to realize how seriously this movie takes itself, a stark contrast to the meta-comedy that makes the first act so enthralling.

Miller’s direction and scare tactics simply don’t match this subgenre of horror. The classic jump scares are created out of loud, obnoxious pangs of the score and the grim, bleak lighting that is meant to create atmosphere just cheapens the entire production, resembling a forgotten 2000s remake. The intensity with which the film tries to scare you doesn’t match the somewhat silly idea that the movie is founded on . The atmosphere and overall feel of the film become an attempt at an Ari Aster movie but with none of the rich characters and themes to make it work.

'The Exorcism' Doesn't Match Up to Other Recent Religious Horror Movies

Anthony’s possession is seemingly meant to mirror Regan’s in The Exorcist . Instead of a fresh twist on the “young girl gets possessed and needs to be saved by an adult,” it makes for some bizarre and downright uncomfortable moments. Anthony lingers licking on his own daughter's hand as she gives him his meds and when the demon has fully taken over, he makes outrageous sexual comments towards her as well as using homophobic slurs. For a film that is seemingly trying to take a modern approach to ‘70s horror, moments like this send it all the way back to the dark ages. On top of that, his own daughter has to watch him appear naked, and, in a nod to an early scene in The Exorcist , urinate on himself. It’s creepy but for all the wrong reasons. Top this off with an egregious comment from Peter about Anthony's sexual assault, and you have some of the most outrageously callous dialogue in recent horror.

With so many recent religious horror hits, from Immaculate which sees the horrors of how women are treated within the Catholic Church to The First Omen examining the parallels between the evils of the Church and the entities that it claims to protect us from, The Exorcism feels even more outdated . Like The Exorcist: Believer , there’s a grotesque mention of abortion for no reason and there’s an unignorable pro-Catholic Church message. Instead of dissecting Anthony’s complicated relationship with priests and his faith, it hails Father Conor as the ultimate hero, shedding the film of any nuance in its conversations around faith.

Russell Crowe’s Performance in 'The Exorcism' Doesn't Match the Movie’s Tone

An intense Russell Crowe in his priest uniform raises a fist, reciting a prayer in 'The Exorcism'

As much as this writer detested The Pope’s Exorcist , it can’t be denied that Russell Crowe was having a lot of fun in that movie — the image of him riding a moped in full priest getup is a gift in itself. Here, however, his heavy-handed and overly somber performance doesn’t go in line with the meta concept of the film. Sure, he’s a struggling actor past his prime who has gone through considerable trauma, but Crowe doesn’t let us see past those aspects of Anthony. He’s defined by his dark past and The Exorcism makes the fatal (and very common mistake) of asking the audience to invest in a character it doesn’t bother to fully form. Simpkin’s Lee ends up carrying the film to the end, aided by her sweet romance with Bailey’s Blake. The film landed two great actors for its supporting roles, Sam Worthington and David Hyde Pierce. For the star of two of the highest-grossing movies of all time, Worthington is given shockingly little to do. Pierce is confident in the role of the good-natured priest, but when his character seems to go against the ideas the film presents, it's hard to separate it from the performance.

The Exorcism seems to be a capitalization on the recent surge in interest in religious horror movies. Instead of being a remake, requel, or reboot, it set out to do something different while paying tribute to the ‘70s religious horror greats. It’s a commendable idea when the horror genre is inundated with uninspiring retreads of former glory. However, a fun concept does not automatically mean a quality film, as the overly intense direction, hollow scares, and imbalance of tone make it a thrown-together mess .

The Exorcism has an interesting idea at its core but ultimately falls victim to its self-seriousness and empty scares.

The meta quality of its concept makes for some fun jabs at the horror genre.
The Exorcism abandons all the interesting ideas it sets up in the first act to give way to drab scare sequences.
Russell Crowe gives a much less enlightened performance than his last horror venture.

The Exorcism comes to theaters in the U.S. starting June 21.

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The Pope's Exorcist movie review (2023)
The Pope's Exorcist. In his original 1973 review of " The Exorcist ," Roger Ebert wrote about how right it was to cast the role of the older priest battling evil with the great character actor Max von Sydow: "He has been through so many religious and metaphysical crises in Ingmar Bergman 's films that he almost seems to belong on a ...
The Pope's Exorcist
Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican (Academy Award®-winner Russell Crowe), The Pope's Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy's ...
The Pope's Exorcist Movie Review
Our review: Parents say ( 3 ): Kids say ( 2 ): The demon possession elements all feel quite familiar, but this film gets a pass for Crowe's committed, not-too-serious performance. His Amorth is cool and in charge, but also sometimes charmingly goofy. Based on books by the real-life Amorth, Julius Avery 's The Pope's Exorcist misses a chance to ...
'The Pope's Exorcist' Review: A Head-Spinning Genre Mash-Up
THE POPE'S EXORCIST - Official Trailer (HD) Watch on. Amorth has his work cut out for him, but luckily he is paired with the inexperienced but game Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto), which adds a ...
'The Pope's Exorcist' Review: Russell Crowe Saves a Trashy ...
And yet "The Pope's Exorcist" still exerts a lurid B-movie pull, in part because Australian genre stylist Avery demonstrates some command of fire-and-brimstone theatrics, but mostly thanks ...
The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope's Exorcist rides almost entirely on Russell Crowe's shoulders. Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 13, 2023. Vinamra Mathur Firstpost. Director Julius Avery uses every horror ...
The Pope's Exorcist Review
The Pope's Exorcist is a watch better saved for late nights with adventurous horror fan friends who need to scratch that curious itch of a Russel Crowe exorcism movie. Verdict
The Pope's Exorcist (2023)
The Pope's Exorcist: Directed by Julius Avery. With Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alexandra Essoe, Franco Nero. In 1987, Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican's leading exorcist, investigates the possession of an American boy in Spain, and discovers a secret the Vatican has tried to keep buried for centuries.
The Pope's Exorcist
Giosbet619. Dec 29, 2023. "The Pope's Exorcist" is a horror-comedy film that follows the story of Father Gabriele Amorth, the official exorcist of the Vatican, and his encounter with demonic possession. The movie is directed by Stanlio Kubrick and stars Russell Crowe as Father **** film is a fun and irreverent take on the horror genre, with ...
'The Pope's Exorcist' Review: Russell Crowe Vs. The Devil
Now though, with a bit of a twist we have a new entry, The Pope's Exorcist, which is hoping to lure audiences with the promise of the story of an actual exorcist — and not just any run-of-the ...
The Pope's Exorcist (2023)
Russell Crowe plays the real life Pope's exorcist, Gabriele Amorth. Father Amorth passed away in 2006 and its probably a good thing. While this movie is spooky and entertaining, its a big, exaggerated, and I assume highly fictionalized, version of a time in Father Amorth's life.
The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope's Exorcist Review. The year is 1987. The religion is Catholicism. Father Gabriele Amorth (Russell Crowe) is gainfully employed as the Vatican's chief exorcist. When a child in Spain ...
The Pope's Exorcist review: Russell Crowe dances with the devil as
The Pope's Exorcist ★★★. (MA) 103 minutes. It came as something of a shock to learn the Vatican's hierarchy includes a Chief Exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. It set me wondering if ...
The Pope's Exorcist is Devilish Fun, Despite Itself
But The Pope's Exorcist is an enjoyable watch whenever Crowe appears as Father Gabriele Amorth, ... TV Movies Reviews Streaming Recs Marvel Star Wars See All. Gaming.
The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope's Exorcist is a 2023 supernatural horror film directed by Julius Avery from a screenplay by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the 1990 book An Exorcist Tells His Story and the 1992 book An Exorcist: More Stories by Father Gabriele Amorth. The film stars Russell Crowe as Amorth, with Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, and Franco Nero in supporting roles.
'The Pope's Exorcist' movie review: A brilliant Russel Crowe in a
Based on Gabriele Amorth's memoirs, An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories, The Pope's Exorcist is set in 1987, Castile. A grieving widow Julia (Alex Essoe), her rebellious ...
'The Pope's Exorcist' Review
Movies 'The Pope's Exorcist' Review - Russell Crowe Is the Saving Grace in Generic Exorcism Horror Movie. Published. 1 year ago. on. April 14, 2023. By. Meagan Navarro.
Is The Pope's Exorcist Worth Watching? Reviews & Where To Stream
The Pope's Exorcist reviews have a lot to say about Russell Crowe's devil-fighting priest. Premiering in 2023 from director Julius Avery, The Pope's Exorcist follows Father Gabriele Amorth (Crowe), the Pope's personal exorcist. A cavalier and insubordinate priest, Amorth is a talented exorcist, but he's constantly fighting the Catholic Church's bureaucracy and censorship.
'The Pope's Exorcist' Review: Russell Crowe Can't Save This ...
The Pope's Exorcist would have fit perfectly within the dire horror slate of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Scary imagery takes precedence over characters and plot, religion is weaponized to ...
Why Is Russell Crowe Playing a Whiskey-Guzzling Italian Exorcist?
The Pope's Exorcist tries to follow in these footsteps, and occasionally even succeeds, playing with ideas of faith and doubt and belief, parsing the differences between mere psychological ...
'The Pope's Exorcist' Netflix Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
The Pope's Exorcist (now on Netflix) has us wondering if Russell Crowe might've lost his mind a little. This grim-'n'-goofy horror escapade finds him brandishing an Italian accent like ...
The Pope's Exorcist (2023) Movie Reviews
The Pope's Exorcist (2023) Fan Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Learn more. Review Submitted. GOT IT. Offers SEE ALL OFFERS. GET DEADPOOL'S PREMIUM PACKAGE image link ...
'The Exorcism' Review: Has Russell Crowe's Career Gone to Hell?
'The Exorcism' Review: Russell Crowe Plays a Fallen Movie Star Playing a Priest in an Exorcist Movie. Is This the Sign of a Career Gone to Hell? ... "The Pope's Exorcist," was released ...
The Pope's Exorcist Review: The Power Of Crowe Compels
Jonathan Hession/Sony Pictures Releasing. "The Pope's Exorcist" is a movie that relies on a lot of heavy lifting from its cast, who are all keenly aware of how familiar this material is and the ...
The Exorcism review: Russell Crowe makes his second Catholic demon
His new film, The Exorcism, shares almost no DNA with The Pope's Exorcist.This is satanic horror played with an almost entirely straight face, its aspirations dialled up from B-movie to William ...
'The Exorcism' Review: Russell Crowe in a Tribute to 'The Exorcist'
The Exorcism represents Crowe's second recent foray into this particular sub-genre, following The Pope's Exorcist. At least that 2023 film maintained a cohesive storyline and delivered a ...
'The Exorcism' Review: Russell Crowe Meets His Demons and ...
The Exorcist directed by William Friedkin and written by William Peter Blatty is considered, still, perhaps the greatest horror film of all time, certainly the most popular. The 1973 movie was ...
'The Exorcism' Is a Bumpy Ride That Doesn't Quite Have Faith In Itself
Possession horror movies are typically rather dull affairs, in part because they often try too hard to copy William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973) in one way or another. The innocent victim, the ...
The Exorcism Review
The Exorcism Review A demonic-possession movie bolstered by Russell Crowe's presence and little else. ... (The two are unrelated, which is more good news for The Pope's Exorcist.) With a setup ...
'The Exorcism' Review
The poster shows Russell Crowe donning the collar and holding up a cross, so it's a natural assumption to think this is a follow-up to last year's religious horror movie The Pope's Exorcist ...

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