The Exorcism – REVIEW
Image: Source: Rialto Distribution
The Exorcism delves on a down and out actor who is given the chance to star in a supernatural thriller as a priest conducting an exorcism, after the lead actor is mysteriously killed. This role could rekindle his flagging career, but is it substance abuse which is affecting his performance or possibly possession by an evil entity?
Filmed as a movie within a movie, the story unfolds over 18 shoot days and as the days pass, the supernatural occurrences accelerate.
When one of the characters states, “there were supernatural occurrences during the filming of horror flicks Poltergeist, The Omen and The Exorcist” it becomes obvious what awaits these filmmakers. At first the priest uncharacteristically sleepwalks, has nose bleeds, his personality darkens, and strange incidents occur on set as heavy props are being mysteriously flung around the set.
It soon becomes apparent that there is something very sinister occurring on the set of this horror flick…
This movie is diabolical – not in the true sense of the word being ‘characteristic of the devil’ but more aptly the alternate meaning being ‘disgracefully bad’.
What was Russel Crowe thinking taking on the pivotal role of the priest! He’s definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one! Once the star of many hit movies including Gladiator, Les Misérables and LA Confidential, one has to ask, is his use by date as a Hollywood actor perhaps fast approaching?
The casting of Russell Crowe seems very peculiar as he portrayed a priest in 2023’s The Pope’s Exorcist. It would be excusable if people initially believed that this unrelated movie was actually a sequel to The Pope’s Exorcist when sighting the poster of the movie with Crowe in full priest attire.
This whole cinematic experience can be summed up in one line of dialogue uttered in disgust in a scene from the movie, when the director watched the dailies in the screening room, “I can’t watch anymore of this shit!!”
Ultimately this is a very average movie that offers moviegoers nothing that we haven’t seen before in movies about exorcists and exorcisms. It’s not frightening, perhaps because there have been so many movies produced on this subject. The writers attempted to give this movie an edge with the ‘movie within the movie’ concept but it added nothing to the enjoyment value.
For more engaging viewing revisit the 1973 box office hit The Exorcist – the original and still the best movie about demonic possession.
★★
In Cinemas June 13
