REVIEW #279 The Popes Exorcist (2023)

Father Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist for the Vatican, battles satan and innocent-possessing demons. A detailed portrait of a priest who carried out 100,000 exorcists in his lifetime.

Now I must admit I went into the movie expecting the usual jump scare horror flick, centred around an exorcism. However it was actually a combination of horror and fantasy. The Popes Exorcist focused primarily on the battle between the faith and Satan and less on the horror aspect, which I actually enjoyed a lot more. Russel Crowe delivers a convincing portrayal of the Italian Preist but I will say that every time he spoke it just reminded me of Zeus from Thor love and Thunder and I really don’t need to be reminded of that! The performances across the board were pretty good, the young actor Peter De Souza-Feighoney done really well, playing the part of the possessed boy. Choosing Ralph Ineson as the voice of the demon was a great decision, I wouldn’t say it was scary, it was actually quite comical, but there is just something about the contrast between the voice and the actor Peter, that just worked!

The cinematography was actually one of the strongest aspects of the entire film, there are a bunch of really good shots that I didn’t expect to see from a film like this. The scenes set against the Italian architecture looked great and then the lighting work also helped create the eerie atmosphere. In terms of negatives, I think it could have been scarier, not necessarily full blown horror but if they leaned into it a little more I think they could have had the best of both worlds (horror & fantasy). The scarier parts were often counteracted by Russel Crows humour, his character was in fact very funny and the jokes did land, but it just seemed odd to find that in a film called the Popes Exorcist and I think it also hindered some of the more emotional scenes that were meant to explore the protagonists psyche. Overall a pretty solid film and one that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would, I’m a fan of fantasy so I certainly appreciated those aspects.

Overall (7/10)

Thanks for reading

Callan