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Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  The Pope's Exorcist (2023)
Russell Crowe stars in this film based on the 1990's books An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: More Stories by Father Gabriele Amorth.
Crowe plays the Pope's personal exorcist who is sent by his holiness to attend to a seemingly possessed boy in the Spanish countryside.
I'll be clear straight away, i loved this film. Russell Crowe in something of an acting resurgence thanks to roles in genre cinema such as 2020's Unhinged and the following years Thor: Love and Thunder, gives the film genuine acting clout and the inspired casting of the great Franco Nero as the Pope adds extra gravitas and indeed class.
It's slickly directed by Julius Avery and has a well written script with tasty dialogue and some lines i found genuinely laugh out loud funny. For example as the child partially taken over by the demon, tells Crowe "I am your nightmare" to which the exorcist replies "My nightmare is France winning the World Cup"
At one point there's excellent use of the 5:1 Dolby Digital soundtrack as the boys older sister hearing banging in the house turns to look in terror in the direction the sound comes from in a home theatre speaker set up. I thought that was extremely clever direction.
The final battle with the demon Asmodeus is terrific. Whilst it isn't as groundbreaking as Friedkin's The Exorcist it's still executed superbly and is wonderfully tense. I couldn't take my eyes off it.
To almost top it all there's an early scene of an annoyed Crowe riding his Lambretta across Rome's St. Angelo Bridge as Faith No More's We Care A Lot blasts through the speakers. That's a music to image marriage that Tarantino would be proud of.
Anyone who likes atmospheric religious horror with plenty of demon lore and fine performances could do a lot worse than The Pope's Exorcist. |
Glad you enjoyed this one Dem, I was apprehensive about this but the more it went into the film and the somewhat thrown in curve ball about the ancestral family home, the edge of the sofa became a bit more comfortable
