The Pope’s Exorcist stars Russell Crowe as Father Gabriele Amorth, the titular Pope’s Chief Exorcist as he faces a demon that has the ability to tear the church and the world apart. Before I start the review, I wanted to say that my theater was legit packed for this movie. It always makes me happy when a horror movie can put butts into seats. I hope that is a trend that continues because there have been a lot of good horror movies in recent years and I want more people to see them.
My expectations were honestly pretty low coming into the movie. Exorcism movies have been chasing the high that came with the original Exorcist and more recently, The Conjuring franchise. The Pope’s Exorcist, to me, lacked the effective tension and scares to stand out from the rest of the pack. The film focuses more on Father Amorth than the exorcism itself, which is fine, but it left a lot to be desired.
It is a good story, as Father Amorth is essentially the Pope’s hitman against demons. He is haunted by a past case that ended tragically, and that drives him to do what he does. The scares were just so formulaic, I knew exactly when a jump was coming and what it would be every single time. Most of them were just cuts of eyes opening with the violin screech which is just jump scare 101. I’ll keep saying it, loud noises might get a jump, but they are not scary. Because of that, The Pope’s Exorcist failed to separate itself from all the other exorcism movies in my opinion.
Russell Crowe’s performance was pretty solid in my opinion. He has a thick Italian accent which makes some of his lines pretty hard to understand, especially when multiple people are shouting at the same time, but it didn’t take me out of the movie. I could’ve watched him ride around in his little moped for 2 hours and been entertained. He blends being powerful and confident with being terrified and emotional while sprinkling in some quips every now and then.
As I said, it was an interesting story. It was very reminiscent of Prey for the Devil, which came out last year where the focus is more on the character than the exorcism itself. My real gripe is just with how fast the story starts. Normally in a possession movie, there are a couple of scenes, in the beginning, to introduce the spirit and spook the family involved. The Pope’s Exorcist has the kid get possessed the first night his family moves into an old abbey. No build-up, just action.
The rest of the movie is better paced and the third act was very entertaining. I’ll let you in on a little secret: movies with batshit third acts are my favorite movies. Malignant is not a great horror movie but the ending scenes are so crazy I don’t go a day without thinking about it. While not on that scale, the final scenes are wild. The ending was very much to set up a sequel, which I didn’t love, but hey if they want to make another one, I’d watch.
Final Thoughts
While not completely effective, The Pope’s Exorcist is an inoffensive exorcism movie that may fade out of memory in a couple of weeks or so, but I was entertained the entire time. The scares were nothing special, but the final act was quite interesting. I recommend giving this movie a watch but don’t expect to be blown away.
