The Pope's Exorcist: Movie Review

Cast: Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Ralph Ineson
Director: Julius Avery

If you want subtlety in your exorcism horror, then look away now - because The Pope's Exorcist ain't it.

Russell Crowe, complete with dodgy Italian accent and placed upon a Vespa in B-roll moments, plays Father Gabriele Armoth, the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican. Berated for his choice of theatre in exorcisms, and on trial for the apparent possession and slaughter of a pig, Armoth is assigned the case of an apparently possessed child in Spain, whose grieving family members have just relocated to an ancestral abbey.

Initially dismissing it as a pointless exercise, Armoth soon finds his very core shaken when word gets to him from the Pope himself of the severity of the case - and the auspicious nature of the Abbey.

What's most frustrating about The Pope's Exorcist is how much potential it has, even if it is an extremely schlocky take on William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Once again, it's a child possessed and in danger, once again it's a flawed priest who must look within to save the day - it's all very familiar stuff that hits the tropes of the genre with about as much subtlety as a smack to the face.

But early on, as the conspiracy elements unwind, there's a real sense of unease here and a skating around some of the issues facing the church's past and the Vatican's complicity in them. Fortunately, Avery's not interested in any of that, and his hulking lead man even less so.

Abandoning it all for a series of escalating jolts and familiar beats, The Pope's Exorcist heads to an almost laughably bad conclusion that incorporates exploding bodies, two priests looking like they're dispatching catchphrases rather than demons and a set up for a series of sequels that will never come.

While Crowe's laughable in the role, switching from broad comedy to righteous anger, the vocal work of Ralph Ineson as the demonised child is perhaps the most terrifying thing here. With side characters that are sketched so lightly and lazily as to be inconsequential, Ineson's depth and sonorous tones give the demon its terror.

It's just a shame the rest of it never remotely rises to the level you'd expect - if anything, The Pope's Exorcist should be ashamed - it lacks shocks, lacks horror and in its worst moments of pure hokum, lacks any kind of respect for the genre it's in.