by Joel Harley
Drawn from the case files of real-life figure Father Gabriele Amorth, The Pope’s Exorcist stars Russell Crowe as the titular demon buster, officially endorsed by the Pope himself. To be clear, if the title led you astray, the Pope isn’t the one getting exorcised here.
Father Amorth’s services are required as the Vatican’s top man when a troubled family unit moves into a grand mansion in Spain, also located above a portal to Hell. When traumatised pre-teen Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) suddenly starts spouting obscenities in the voice of Finchy from The Office, Father Amorth pops on his Vespa (all the way from the Vatican to rural Spain!) to investigate.
The exorcist movie tropes come thick and fast – running the gamut from swearing children to priests with dark secrets. Then, when all of that gets tired, director Julius Avery and the three credited writers dip into the haunted house playbook too, terrorising stressed single mum Julia (Alex Essoe) and sulky teenage daughter Amy (Laurel Masden) with night terrors and disembodied hairy arms. Daniel Zovatto has the unenviable task of playing straight man to all of this as Father Esquibel, Amorth’s rookie right-hand man.
Meanwhile, Crowe gives the film its much-needed novelty element, hamming it up as the hip flask-chugging, scooter-riding priest. If the prospect of Russell Crowe doing his Italian accent for ninety minutes wasn’t motivation enough (surprisingly similar to his Thor: Love and Thunder Greek one), there’s also Franco Nero as the Pope (!) and Ralph Ineson as the voice of the demon. All of these eccentricities go some way to disguise the flimsy story beneath – at least up until the ridiculous finale and irritating franchise setup which follows.
The Pope’s Exorcist is never particularly scary or thrilling, but it does manage to coast by on star power, thanks to a generously bonkers performance from Crowe, hip flask, scooter, and all.
THE POPE’S EXORCIST is out in cinemas now.
