“The Pope’s Exorcist” Review: Russell Crowe’s Horror Film Is Hardly Scary At All

Russell Crowe is known for many things, but horror? Well, that’s probably not high on the list. But the newly-released “The Pope’s Exorcist” will take you on a wild ride into the world of exorcism and the Vatican, where Father Gabriel Amorth was the chief exorcist before his death in 2016.

The Oscar winning star, Crowe, plays the lead actor as Father Amorth, investigating a peculiar case of a young boy who has been possessed by an obscure demon. The R-rated horror movie also stars Ben Daniels and Alfonso Herrera, who play Father Lucas and Father Mendoza respectively.

The storyline is nothing like “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” or “The Rite”, but it does draw from real-life events about exorcisms performed by Father Amorth. The visuals done for this movie are quite unrealistic and feel very much unreal—and we’re not sure if it’s because they were done with green screen or if they were just bluntly bad graphics!

Let’s be honest, “The Pope’s Exorcist” doesn’t exactly deliver on the whole devilish promise. It may claim to be about the legendary exorcist Father Amorth and his daily chats with Satan, but it really just cramps every spooky scenario into an over-the-top-case. The climax was neither good nor bad, but Crowe did bring his humorous and comedic chops to the scenes.

Sure, the film tries to stick to the possession formula we all know, but it falls flat on its face when it came to jumpscares. Henry’s (the child) attempt at a demonic cockney accent is more likely to make you chuckle than cower in fear. 

But hey, at least the filmmakers tried to tackle the sexual abuse in churches and unfortunately, they do it in such a muddled way that some may take it as insulting. Blaming non-consensual acts on demonic powers had us rolling our eyes.  

While “The Pope’s Exorcist” isn’t really terrifying, it does have the feels of the good-old fashioned gore. And as far as Crow’s performance goes, he was – hands down – the star of the film. Would it score any award nominations? Absolutely no. But does it make for an enjoyable popcorn flick? Hell yeah! 

Watch the trailer here:

“The Pope’s Exorcist” is currently showing in theatres.