El exorcista del papa

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.

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.

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.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed The Pope's Exorcist. After initially seeing the trailers, I wrote this movie off as a standard possession film that I have seen time and time again, and while most of that is still true, there is something about this film that made it a joy to watch.

The film does not attempt to do anything particularly new or groundbreaking in the genre, but everything it has is handled with care and precision. The direction is fantastic, with a very quick pace that makes each scene have a sense of urgency as our characters attempt to perform the exorcism. There is particularly deep lore that is established within the church structure, with different factions and politics at play that add a slightly different dimension rather than just your run-of-the-mill "insert random priest here."

My favorite aspect of the film is the acting. I think all of the adult characters do a tremendous job here. Russell Crowe kills it in every scene he is in and definitely gives an entirely different take on the exorcist character. Where most are intensely serious and melodramatic, Crowe adds a bit of whimsicalness and youth to the character that creates a calming presence to every intense scene. His rapport with Daniel Zovatto is excellent. The two really play off each other well and carried the film in many ways. Alex Essoe was great, although underutilized. The two children were okay. The boy gave a very stereotypical portrayal of a possessed child, and the daughter was flat in many ways.

My only complaint about the entire film is its lack of originality and the story. Every single beat is something that we have seen before; there were no new or fresh ideas that were interjected into the story. The tension was fine, but nothing was particularly scary. Overall, if not for the film's fantastic director and cast, it would have been a bomb.

Score: 63% 👍 Verdict: Decent.