Russell Crowe has done Maximus and Robin Hood so why not Father Gabriele Amorth who performed more than 100,000 exorcists for the Catholic Church for nearly three decades. The mien and accent wouldn’t lead you to believe the casting agents did their due diligence.
Still, in The Pope’s Exorcist he displays a lighthearted quality for a man of God dealing with the ‘devil inside’ for the small percentage not relegated to medical professionals
From the director of Overlord it’s hard to find much distinction in the horror subgenera for what essentially is a ‘work of fiction.’
The possession phenomenon that concerned the unconventionally steely and colorful Amorth puts him in the crosshairs of much malevolent and skullduggery. From a remote Spanish ab bey on its way to restoration to the rigid Vatican council a Da Vinci Code aura takes hold given a centuries-old conspiracy that eventually comes to the fore.
Alex Essoe, Daniel Zovatto and Franco Nero co-star as the recent widow of her late husband’s estate, a younger priest retained in a terrifying possession.
So, what’s inspired by the late priest’s actual files navigators much ground in a manageable run-time and is sanctified by studio standards that leaves it more amusing than chilling. Thanks in part to Crowe’s fatherly, snappy intonations and fervor priding some consolation for what has as its best moments a darkly parabolic 1986 prologue.