The Pope’s Exorcist ★★½

THERE are some actors you just don’t picture in horror films…people like Tom Hanks or Meryl Streep.

In terms of Australians, Russell Crowe is another.

He was good as a lunatic in the recent Unhinged, but that was more drama than traditional horror.

Against expectations Crowe is actually quite good as the real-life Father Gabriele Amorth whose role in modern Catholic Church history is partly depicted in The Pope’s Exorcist.

This 2023 American supernatural horror film works best when it’s examining the role of the traditional exorcist in the modern world and the divisions this causes within the walls of the Vatican.

This occurs during the first half before the film declines into the worst version of itself with increasingly poor dialogue, over-the-top scare attempts and average visual effects.

It’s a shame that the last act is so average and frankly a little laughable, because the first part of the film has a more serious, straight-forward tone.

I have no idea whether the studio decided to intervene and told Australian director Julius Avery to pump up the final act, but whatever happened it didn’t work.

The late Father Amorth is a very interesting character. He was born in rural Italy and spent some time fighting as a partisan during the war before entering the priesthood. His calling took a radical turn when he became an exorcist and a prolific one at that.

The controversial practice of exorcism, which pits religious faith against science, became even moreso during the latter part of the last century and interest in the practices of Father Amorth and others peaked following the passage of The Exorcist novel and film into mainstream public opinion.

Exorcist director William Friedkin made a documentary about Amorth and the man himself has written more than a dozen books reflecting on the thousands of exorcisms he has performed over the years.

Amorth does not shy away from the fact that some of the people upon whom he has performed exorcisms were most likely suffering from mental illness. But of course he is adamant that some were a result of demonic possession.

As one exchange early in the film depicts, Amorth and others, including many popes, believe one of the Church’s key roles is to combat evil and the Devil, putting them at odds with other church leaders who consider themselves more enlightened by their modern upbringings.

Despite the seriousness of his calling, Amorth was also a humorous man with a cheeky, defiant streak that also rubbed authorities the wrong way. But they were largelky unable to usurp his position as the Vatican’s chief exorcist provided a wide-ranging brief by the Pope himself.

If all this sounds interesting, you will be just as disappointed as I was by how quickly the film ditches this aspect of Amorth’s story for the sake of cheap thrills that fail to even please the crowd.