The Pope’s Exorcist

US, 2023, 103 minutes, Colour.

Cast:  Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Laura Marsden, Peter DeSousa-Feighoney, Franco Nero, John Cornell, Ryan O’Grady, Edward Harper-Jones.

Directed by Julius Avery.

The Catholic Church is in the cinema headlines once more.  Exorcisms again!  World audiences have become accustomed to exorcism films.  In fact, it is half a century since The Exorcist was released in 1973.  It caused some shocks at the time, but Catholic reviewers and audiences took it in their stride.

And since then there have been both sequels and prequels and a regular succession of films, some serious, some horror exercises, some spoofs.  So The Pope’s Exorcist arrives with a certain amount of cinema baggage.

The papal exorcist is based on the actual “Pope’s Exorcist”, Father Gabriele Amorth SSP, who wrote many books about his exorcisms, thousands of them.  There was a 68-minute documentary by William Friedkin, the director of the original The Exorcist, interviewing Father Amorth and a case, The Devil and Father Amorth in 2017, a year after the Pope’s exorcist died.

World audiences consist of non-believers (including those who do not give God or the devil a second thought) and those who are hostile atheists.  Then there is the audience, that of believers, especially Catholics.  The responses are quite different.

As regards to those for whom God is neither here nor there, maybe there but irrelevant, they will treat this film as another horror movie and like or dislike it accordingly: scares, special effects, some blood and gore…

The setting is 1987, Fr Amorth early in his exorcist career/ministry.  The film challenges us concerning Father Amorth as a credible priest.  In many ways he comes off well (but we don’t know if the portrayal represents the actual man). 

A bearded Franco Nero appears as the Pope, not particularly resembling John Paul II of 1987.  Scandinavian actor, Max von Sydow, was serious, very serious, in 1973.  But here of all actors, is a very portly Russell Crowe.  He speaks Italian and so has an accent, credible enough, when he is asked to speak English.  He rides a motor scooter, also has a sardonic sense of humour (and a whiskey swig now and again), joking a lot – and he reminds us that the devil does not like jokes.

At first we might wonder at his methods.  But he soon explains (perhaps to our relief) that many of his cases are psychological rather than satanic possession and have to be treated accordingly, with therapy.  Father Amorth has noted this in his books.

There is a case focus at the centre of this film, a family, a young boy, possessed (and the expected curses, foulmouthed, contortions…), the devil playing havoc with him, his mother and his sister.  But there are some more sinister aspects.  The setting is Spain, an Abbey in ruins with secrets that Father Amorth, with the local priest, Thomas, praying and attempting the exorcism.  In an eerie basement, they find the caged corpse of a Friar who in 1475 was possessed, inaugurating the Inquisition – so that all its subsequent actions were Satan-inspired.  It seems that the demon, Asmodeus, has engineered Father Amorth’s presence in order to possess him and work for the destruction of the church from the inside.  Horror fans may not notice any of this!

Serious audiences might be interested in The Rite (2012), with Anthony Hopkins and some background of the courses in Rome held for exorcists from around the world.

The Pope’s Exorcist is not essential viewing but has its interest as well as its exorcism-horror conventions.

By Fr Peter Malone MSC

The Pope’s Exorcist is now showing at local cinemas including Palace Balwyn and the Lido, Hawthorn.