A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Pope’s Exorcist” (2023).
You have to hand it to Russell Crowe. He still carries a formidable screen presence. After his (very impressive I thought) psycho in “Unhinged” and his (very funny I thought) comic turn in the otherwise awful “Thor: Love and Thunder“, here in “The Pope’s Exorcist” he switches to being an Italian priest, and does it very well. As for the film, it has its moments but overall… Meh… watchable, but not memorable.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Father Gabriel Amorth (Russell Crowe) is the right-hand-man to the Pope (Franco Nero) in terms of exorcisms. But when faced with a possessed young Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) in an old Spanish monastery, Amorth realises that this is like nothing he’s seen before. This time the devil has his sights set on the very top of the Catholic church.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Horror, violence, bloody images, sex references, sexual threat, language”). This is definitely more towards the ’18’ end of the ’15’ scale!
Talent:
Starring: Russell Crowe, Franco Nero, Alex Essoe, Laurel Marsden, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, John Cornell.
Directed by: Julius Avery.
Written by: Michael Petroni & Evan Spiliotopoulos. (From a story by Dean McCreary, Chester Hastings & Jeff Katz and based on the books of Father Gabriel Amorth).
Twitter Handle: #popes_exorcist.
“When I find myself in times of trouble….”. (Source: Screen Gems).
“The Pope’s Exorcist” Review:
Positives:
- I really liked Russell Crowe’s character in here, based on the real-life Father Gabriel Amorth. This could have been a really po-faced portrayal but Crowe fills it with mischievous mirth. He genuinely twinkles here in a most pleasing way. “The devil doesn’t like jokes” he quips to his long-suffering fellow-exorcist Bishop Lumumba (John Cornell). But we do! I have been critical before about Crowe’s attempts at accents in previous films (most notably “Robin Hood”!) but here he nails his Italian accent, no problem.
- I liked the way that the script brushed off 98% of all the supposed “possessions” as being mental delusions, with Amorth acting most of the time as an unofficial, unlicensed and very much unorthodox psychiatrist. But it left that 2% of “real” incidents that the priest really did have to deal with in his professional capacity. (Not that I personally believe any of it in ‘reality’!)
- Hats off to London-born Peter DeSouza-Feighoney (a model and karate expert!) in his acting debut. (Though if he is to proceed in this business, can I suggest adopting a snappier stage name!) In a film like this it’s always difficult to interpret what is acting, what is practical effects and what is VFX, but the performance is genuinely creepy in a Linda Blair-esque way.
- The outcome of the bloody and naked Adella (Carrie Munro) threatening Lumumba in the finale is messily satisfying!
Negatives:
- I never felt I really got to know the family – Julia (Alex Essoe), Amy (Laurel Marsden) and Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) – before the mayhem starts. They all have such light colouring-in as characters – Julia: widowed, financially struggling; Amy: rebellious, sexually provocative; Henry: troubled, mute – that the impact of the ‘family in peril’ never really landed. I would normally praise a film for coming in at (just over) 100 minutes, but in this case another 10 minutes of character building would have helped.
- There are a few icky moments in this: coughing up the red bird (from the trailer) for me. And some decidedly creepy elements: the dead father (presumably) dragging Julia into the bed; the Virgin Mary rising up out of the pool. But overall, although not a Sunday School picnic, the film never managed to really scare me or even particularly unnerve me as much as less ‘horror flicks’ (such as “The Night House“, for example) have. I think horror officionados will feel a bit short-changed by this.
Summary Thoughts on “The Pope’s Exorcist”
I wasn’t ever bored by this one, and it had its moments. But “The Pope’s Exorcist” never quite managed to rise to its potential for me. Its early promise, in setting up the premise, tends to get dissipated in a rather generic Hollywood-horror ending. What lifts this up for me from a 2.5* rating is the central powerful presence of Russell Crowe: an excellent performance I thought.
The movie seems at the end to be nicely setting things up for 199 sequels! And if Crowe is on board, I’d certainly be interested in seeing what he does with another one.
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Trailer for “The Pope’s Exorcist”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJXqvnT_rsk .
