L'esorcismo - Ultimo atto

This movie started out really great. A washed up, alcoholic actor gets a chance at a comeback role playing the priest in a remake of The Exorcist. But strange things are afoot. Is he still fighting his old demons in his mind, or is he fighting a real demon on set? Unfortunately, we know the answer as an opening prologue takes away that mystery before it's begun. But, let's see how it plays out.... Ooh boy, does it lose its way at the halfway point. Scenes are stitched together that make no sense, people behave as no normal person would, devastating injuries disappear, crazy behavior is blown off, a sudden fall to death - isn't? It's just ridiculous, and there's no comeuppance for the one awful character. It's like they stopped halfway through and just threw everything on the cutting room floor at the screen and then rolled the credits.

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.

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.

Why have exorcism movies become all the rage again? It's such a defeated sub-genre. There's no life left in it. I was really hoping 'The Exorcism' was going to do something unique or throw a twist on the concept. But no, it had nothing new to offer.

The only time this film really worked was during the interesting little glimpses behind the scenes of the movie within a movie being filmed. Like it wasn't overly captivating cinema, but compared to the tired "horror" the film was trying to put forward it was at least something with a pulse.

I never cared about the fate of any of the characters and never felt my heart-rate raise a single beat. This one was a miss. 4/10.