The Pope’s Exorcist (2023)

Directed by Julius Avery. Starring Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Laurel Marsden, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Franco Nero, Cornell John, Ryan O’Grady, (voice) Ralph Ineson. [R]

Goofy demon possession picture has a protagonist based on a real person: Father Gabriele Amorth, a Catholic priest and demonologist who co-founded the International Association of Exorcists (don’t worry—the events are over-the-top poppycock). An American family moves into a rundown Spanish abbey when the youngest child is possessed by some manner of evil spirit, so Gabriele shows up to do what he does best, but finds it to be a true challenge, filling him with regrets surrounding his own troubled past. The trappings, techniques, and story elements are too familiar for the film’s own good, and director Julius Avery’s sense of style and scare tactics are derivative of countless earlier genre exercises. Saved in part by a committed performance from Russell Crowe as Father “Gabe” (caricature-like accent and all), periodic tongue-in-cheek humor and offbeat touches (the sight of Crowe in papal robes speeding to his next assignment on a Lambretta motor scooter is almost worth the price of admission by itself), and some nifty visuals in the otherwise routine final showdown. Writers Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos used Amorth’s two memoirs (“An Exorcist Tells His Story”, “An Exorcist: More Stories”) as a springboard for the screen story.

59/100