Studio: Screen Gems
Director: Julius Avery
Writer: Michael Petroni, Evan Spiliotopoulos
Producer: Doug Belgrad, Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, Jeff Katz
Stars: Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Laurel Marsden, Franco Nero, Peter De Souza-Feighoney, Cornell John, Bianca Bardoe
Review Score:
Summary:
Inspired by the real life of Father Gabriele Amorth, a priest uncovers a shocking demonic conspiracy while performing an exorcism on a possessed boy.
Review:
A conservative estimate might guess that an average horror fan has probably seen at least 100 demonic possession movies. Actually, that number sounds way, way low. It could be 200. Maybe three. Honestly, there’ve been so many fright films featuring screaming priests splashing holy water on makeup-caked contortionists, who can even keep track of them all anymore?
There’ve been so many such films in fact, one has to wonder, what’s the incentive for anybody to make another one? Better yet, what’s the incentive for anybody to watch another one?
I don’t think “Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of The Vatican” is the hook “The Pope’s Exorcist” hopes it is. I was preparing to make this paragraph a celebration of sarcasm, topped off by rolling my eyes at how much heavy lifting “actual” does in that tagline. As a former altar boy whose mother was once a nun (yes, really), yet who no longer puts stock in Catholic concepts, I’m prone to slinging skepticism at Bible-related beliefs. However, I recognize not everyone shares my cynicism, and I’d be angrily chewed out if I off-handedly likened angels and demons to fairies and Fraggles for the sake of a snicker. Let’s instead say, “Based on true events” has never made countless clunkers in this subgenre any better, and perceived legitimacy doesn’t help sell “The Pope’s Exorcist” either.
No, the real appeal of “The Pope’s Exorcist” is simpler to see. Someone undoubtedly flipped through a first pass of the script and quipped, “Isn’t this pretty much how every exorcism movie always goes?” Someone else then said with a twinkle in their eye, “Yeah, but the difference here is Russell Crowe plays the priest.” Hold up. “So it’s basically ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘The Last Exorcism’ or whatever, except Russell Crowe does the demon dousing, and with the delightfully drunken haughtiness of Oliver Reed plus the scenery-snacking sensibilities of Tim Curry?” Okay, that’s a good enough reason to drop a curious bucket down a well that’s been drained bone dry. I’m in.
Who wouldn’t be? From his first line of dialogue to his first close-up, “The Pope’s Exorcist” quickly makes clear that Russell Crowe is not your papa’s mundane man of the cloth, even if he is partly based on an actual person. Stepping onscreen in from-behind silhouette, Crowe compliments, “That’s a beautiful pig” to a bystander’s barnyard animal while striding toward a grim setting. And of course, the first full look at his face comes courtesy of a dramatic dolly forward where Crowe doffs his hat as heroically as Indiana Jones.
We also know Crowe’s version of Father Amorth isn’t a totally typical exorcist because he’s initially skeptical of any seemingly supernatural situation. As much Father Karras as he is Father Merrin, this Amorth first asks for proof of possession. When he’s informed that an Italian boy inexplicably spoke English, Amorth immediately questions if the family owns a TV. He’ll spout about fire and brimstone if and when he has to, but he doesn’t go in with presumptive rosary beads blazing.
Really though, Russell Crowe makes for such a sly casting choice because he’s at that Marlon Brando stage of his career where he can add a side order of ham to the main meal and it’ll still be delicious because his screen presence carries the natural gravitas to compensate for the camp. Throughout “The Pope’s Exorcist,” Crowe creates a complete alter ego by relishing minor moments like slugging healthy gulps of whiskey or taking umbrage with an admirer who idolizes him, yet hasn’t read any of his books. Whether it’s blowing through a confession session because he doesn’t have time to hear eight months worth of sins, or answering a demon’s introductory taunt by asking, “Who would you like to be vanquished by today, Jesus or his mother,” Crowe makes Amorth a character unlike any previously seen in what’s otherwise a routine role.
To someone who isn’t interested in the movie at all, I wouldn’t say Russell Crowe’s performance alone justifies seeing it regardless. He’s not moving mountains. But he bites off the right amount of meat from a Nicolas Cage steak of silliness while still staying serious, which keeps the movie entertaining in between the predictable possession tropes of bouncing beds, words slashed into a stomach, and kids crawling on walls like bent-backwards spiders.
Before accidentally awarding all credit to Crowe for shaking a satisfying sprinkle of fun onto the frights, it’d be a major mistake to not cite how deftly director Julius Avery keeps everything under control. Homed in on stunt-crashing action over typical psychological suspense, Avery rushes through required rigmarole relatively quickly. The little boy at the center of the story gets possessed, acts weird, is taken to a hospital for tests, and has his bad behavior escalate high enough to attract the Pope’s personal attention in a total span of mere minutes. Even though we have to go through these motions, we’re not left rolling our fingers forward while groaning, “C’mon, get on with it already.”
Avery and his editor always appear aware of the clock. They give the pace regular doses of energy through alt rock needle drops, light licks of humor with Crowe, or sinister surprises that come with the mystery surrounding a rather wild demonic conspiracy. The plot’s progression still follows a generic pattern, but there’s a subtle personality to proceedings to make “The Pope’s Exorcist” stand out among its possession movie peers without being insensitively comical.
By its end, “The Pope’s Exorcist” evolves, or devolves as detractors might say, into an explosive spectacle that borders on overly outrageous, yet Avery makes it slickly cinematic. Highlighted by a spontaneous suicide attempt, a body bursting into a big blast of blood, and an appearance from an imposter Virgin Mary shaped like every statue of her you’ve ever seen, the climax goes for an all-out blockbuster bonanza rather than anything remotely grounded in reality. I felt a smile form on my face as I tried to picture the real Father Amorth (who died in 2016) screening the film’s CGI insanity and either screaming in disgust or cackling in amusement, “My life wasn’t anything like this!”
When the film finally concluded on a clever callback joke, I realized how handily Avery and Crowe balanced the tone and I decided to raise the review score all the way into “go see it” green. It’s definitely not for everybody, no movie is, although it is definitely for people who have a sense of humor about the supposedly serious side of “real life” demonic possession.
Review Score: 75
If you want to see impossible amounts of blood explode crimson colors like the world’s worst version of a gender reveal, well, “Abigail” at least has that.