The Pope's Exorcist

Oh dear. I'm not sure if the makers of this movie were going for comedy horror or something else but it didn't really work. It was basically a film of silly voices. There wasn't enough tension to hold my engagement or enough story to keep me interested.

Some of the effects were good but nothing I haven't seen before. Russell Crowe was enjoyable to watch but it was difficult to take his character seriously and I'm not sure as a viewer I was supposed to. It was all just a bit too silly for my taste. I didn't believe the setting, it was too fantastical and the family characters were more like caricatures. It sort of hinted at a story for them but that didn't really go anywhere. So, superfluous and silly but not awful.

Having not seen a decent horror surface for a long time, I was quite excited to go along and see Crowe's first horror flick.

It says "inspired by Vatican files" so I'm not quite sure how much of this film is factual but It's your typical possession story. However, Russell Crowe plays a solid and strong performance which makes his character very likeable and most importantly believable. I also liked his characters sense of humour which Crowe played very well..

Lot's of cliches, although it was a good watch but not very scary. The special effects and CGI for the most of the movie were very good but it did struggle during certain moments. The depth to the plot was good but I feel the other characters could have been stronger.

Overall, this is a good movie and Crowe carried it very well. I'd recommend that you go if you like this genre.

I honestly went in their with really low expectations. I walked out of The Devil in Me as we've seen it all before it's the same formula and nothing ever will live up to the original Exorcist. I think I can name 3 good exorcism movies. The Exorcist, Exorcist 3 and the Exorcism of Emily Rose. The plot really gets moving fast! There's no real character building but what I will say is Russell Crowe really does play the part well. It's a mixture of a great performance and a parody..whatever it is it works! It doesn't really do anything new, we've seen it all before but for some reason or another this was better than expected. Give it a watch.

It's a double edged sword when an actor becomes super famous. On one side, they are extremely marketable and gain great roles. However, on the other side, we tend to see the actor in the movie and not the character which distracts from the experience of the story.

This was not the case with this film. I'm not an accent specialist nor a native Italian speaker, but Russell's portrayable had me convinced.

The story itself was exciting and intriguing. There were some nonsensical aspects of course. Its a very fictional film with its own share of contradictions that are noticeable. The authenticity of the Vatican traditions and language barriers might have been compromised, but as a normal viewer, none of it was recognizable thus not bothered.

Overall I give this a 7. It's not going to leave a lasting impression on me, but It was a good to watch.

Like clockwork we have at least 2 possession films each year around the same time. Easter and Halloween it seems. They're usually hit or miss with the same cliches strewn about with maybe some attempts at being slightly innovative. While this doesn't break away too much from the plot formula, Crowe's powerhouse performance does and amplifies the overall film to enticing levels. He has clearly found his late career niche with thrillers/horrors of late and it works extremely well. The scares are serviceable and the story is as well. Visually it's one of the best possession films I've seen in quite sometime with fantastic settings and terrific practical and cgi features. This doesn't mean the cliches don't hinder it at times but overall a very welcome film for the genre.