O Exorcismo

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.

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 know that this film was technically being worked on before the serviceable pope's exorcist last year, but I find it funny that Crowe took both nearly exact roles as an exorcist in a 4 year span. This is a guy that won an Oscar that was once held as a top five actor in the 2000s. That's not to say he still can't act well because in both of these films, he carries it with his tenacious intensity and dedication to the character. It just seems peculiar that he's not in really any other films.

While, this film doesn't do anything particularly different and the cliches run amok . It's still a passable exorcism movie with captivating enough visuals and ok story to keep you intertwined. The supporting cast is actually rather great as well. Sam Worthington proves once again he's quite underrated and never truly got the respect he deserved. Crowe of course pours every bit he has into these films and while I'd like to see him get other roles if that's even possible, he has found a particular niche As the go to aging exorcist.

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.

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!!