L'esorcismo - Ultimo atto

Anthony Miller (Russell Crowe) gets hired on a movie project which resembles The Exorcist (1973). He's trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter Lee Miller (Ryan Simpkins) and both are still dealing with her mother's death. In addition, Anthony has other past issues which may be resurfacing.

This project probably started with an interesting meta idea. The movie is rather muddled in the beginning, but it is mostly tired. If there is one word to describe this, it is tired. The characters are all tired. The actors are tired. The story feels tired even with its meta covering. This is dark and gloomy and tired.

It seems that Russell Crowe has recently found his turn in films about devil exorcism. He recently made The Pope's Exorcist in 2023. People quickly think that this film is a sequel to that and that is absolutely not the case. In fact, this film had been ready to be released since 2019, but was pushed over to a release in 2024. So The Exorcism was already made a lot earlier than The Pope's Exorcist. The film is directed by Joshua John Miller and whoever has done a bit of his homework finds out that this is Jason Miller's son. Jason Miller played the role of Father Damien Karras in the absolute classic of the devil's 1973 exorcist film The Exorcist. The funny thing is that Joshua John Miller is making a remake of The Exorcist in the film, only with a different title. Anyway, the film sounds interesting and we are getting set up for an exciting horror movie, at least...

The film has a fairly original story about a lowered actor who tries to find his way back up in the film world. After his wife has died and Anthony Miller finally has his alcohol addiction under control, he is offered the role of a priest in a film about devil expulsion after a bizarre incident. Together with his estranged daughter Lee, he starts the project full of good hope. For a short film of just an hour and a half, the film takes a huge run-up and it really takes almost an hour before something really starts to happen. This will greatly disappoint many viewers, especially if you are going to expect a movie like The Pope's Exorcist or The Exorcist. This film is a true slow burner and a lot of time is taken to deepen everything. A number of peripheral cases are also cited in this where you can question of course, because what the added value of daughter Lee's lesbian relationship is in this film is a big riddle and really adds absolutely nothing to the film.

Crowe shows that he really still understands his acting profession. In the last half hour, Anthony becomes possessed by a demon and Father Conor's help is called in. This role is played by David Hyde Pierce, who may know people better than Frasier's brother, Dr. Niles Crane from the comedy series of the same name Frasier. That part becomes a lot more entertaining, but the final plot is a bit far-fetched and actually quite ridiculous. A made up demon for the film really seems to exist and has therefore taken possession of Anthony's body. Now Father Conor, Lee and her lesbian friend together have to drive out the devil who has taken possession of Anthony. Still, it's quite a shame that the film has such a course, because for the rest the film was reasonable and it really seemed like something on the way. The final course may be too predictable for words and you can actually guess. Especially if you are familiar with genre peers that I mentioned earlier in this piece.

The Exorcism starts as a slow burner and seems to be on its way to becoming a nice movie, but unfortunately there are a number of things that don't work out well. For example, daughter Lee's lesbian relationship adds absolutely nothing to the big picture, a made-up demon for the fictional film suddenly turns out to really exist and then we are presented with the end. This doesn't really make any sense at all and is also extremely predictable. Is the movie as bad as the first reviews make you believe? No, not that, but we can't speak of a good film. Now it must be said that I didn't really like The Pope's Exorcist a good movie either. It is therefore the huge run-up that takes the film from a good hour that takes the film. Had worked out the ending better and the film would really have been a lot better. If you expect a scary movie about devil extrusion, I recommend that you increase the expectation a lot, otherwise you will be really disappointed.

I remember seeing the trailer for this movie and thinking it was some sort of sequel to The Pope's Exorcist, but its not. Its not related at all and yet it feels like the same movie. Odd!

Not sure what's going on with Russell Crowe's career. I know that some stars get older and phase out, forced to do lower value movies or take supporting roles over leads in bigger ones but what was the crime to Hollywood Russell Crowe committed to have to do such bad movies other than him getting fat?

(What? Don't act like that's not a crime in Hollywood?) From my perspective the movie is filled with well enough known names: Adam Goldberg Chole Bailey. David Hyde Pierce is in this movie! David High Pierce! I known it's been a while sense Fraser has been on the air but I feel like Miles Crane must give the movie some star power. And Sam Worthington! This was a real puzzle. Did Worthington owe someone money? Does the filmmaker have something on this dude that would get him canceled?

I can only imagine what this movie was suppose to be is sitting somewhere on a cutting room floor in Hollywood cause this is not making sense. It's amazing how someone could have watched this movie and thought this was going to fly and I can only assume what Crowe signed up for and filmed was totally different than the finished product.

I can clearly see a good idea that just was not done well at all.

The scene setting to start was good, strong pacing and intriguing.

Unfortunately it never developed from there...loose story line, there was never any reason behind the occurrences of the film.

What relation did any of the references have to the story line? You'd have to see it for this to be a spoiler... and I don't personally think you should...

What happened to the characters?

Would I recommend this film? Simply put, no, spend your money watching something else!

It's a shame watching a film with Russell Crowe headlining and coming away from it saying.. why has he decided to star in this movie? Is this a sign his acting career has possibly seen better days?

If you want a few cheap jump scares go for it, but you've been warned!!

I was genuinely hoping some sort of 'The Pope's Exorcist' tie-in at the end as compensation for the time I wasted on this, but I can only dream.

The entire movie is a giant mess. Unsolved mysteries, forgotten characters and storylines and just dark - in terms of lighting; it was very hard to see some of the actors during some scenes.

It's neither gripping or scary. This movie is so bad that I can't get myself to even praise Crowe's performance.

I understand the production had huge hurdles to overcome but that won't even serve as an excuse for this awful film. How this managed to be green lit by so many execs etc and make it to the big screen will remain the real mystery.

As the title suggest, give this one a miss. You're actually better off not seeing it.