Holy Moly
Is there a better way to ease into summer movie season than with a good ol’ head-turning exorcism? There is not.
The Pope’s Exorcist
Director: Julius Avery • Writers: Michael Petroni, Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on books by Fr. Gabriele Amorth
Starring: Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, Franco Nero, Ralph Ineson
USA • 1hr 43mins
Opens Hong Kong April 20 • IIB
Grade: B-
Demonic possession movies are a comforting sort of horror property. You go in knowing you’ll get oodles of theology-babble in the same way you get techno-babble in sci-fi, but instead it’s a rando demon deep cut from, like, the Book of Zephaniah or some shit. There will be dusty church archives. There will be imposing baritones. Someone will scuttle up a wall and throw curses from the ceiling. There will be a salty, seasoned exorcist and a younger priest battling their own fears, wobbling faith, and sudden gusts of hellfire wind. It’s glorious and I am here for it.
The unreasonably and unexpectedly entertaining The Pope’s Exorcist unfolds in the mid-1980s when the soundtrack kicked ass and il Papa’s personal demon-slayer, Father Gabriele Amorth – played by Russell Crowe going full Mario with his mamma mia Italiano – is called before the Vatican board of directors to justify his budget at a time when The Church is trying to get hipper. Amorth has a reputation thanks to his unique brand of exorcism, some of which involves simple logic and/or a good shrink – and maybe a pig. But when il Papa himself (John Wick: Chapter 2’s legendary Franco Nero, an actual Italian person) sends him to a mysterious monastery in Spain, it nearly destroys said Church. Dun dun dun!
Mamma mia! It’s-a-demon
Young widow Julia (Alex Essoe) moves into a crumbling monastery that’s been in her dead husband’s family for generations. She has little to live on, so the idea is go to Spain, spruce up the place, sell it and make a mint, and she drags her rebellious-for-no-reason-we-can-figure daughter Amy (Laurel Marsden) and silent son Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) along. She meets the helpful eager beaver priest Father Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto, Don’t Breathe), who’s on hand because reasons. Before you can say “The power of Christ compels you!” a demon (voiced by the singular Ralph Ineson, The Witch, The Green Knight) starts messing with the traumatised Henry, and demanding they “bring me the priest!” The moment Julia summons Esquibel, who’s not the priest the demon was looking for, is one for the ages.
Enter Crowe’s Santa-ish Amorth, on his Ferrari moped (!) – I think he rode it from Rome to rural Spain – to dig up one of 200 (hello franchise) gates of hell (!!), at least I think it’s a gate to hell, and save the world’s most careless mother and silliest angsty teen. For all the weird It’s-a-Meisms of Crowe’s performance (brush up on your Italian, there are no English subs during those scenes) and his seeming ability to bust through doors better than the fitter Esquibel (!!!) he seems to be having a blast, and inserts a twinkling, cheeky sense of humour into the film that’s entirely welcome. And Crowe’s innate gravity manages to give the silly proceedings legit stakes, even though we’re pretty sure how it’s going to end.
To this day William Friedkin’s 1973 classic The Exorcist is the gold standard of demon-fighting and possessed innocents. So many films have been dragged to hell for botching an attempt to duplicate its sense of dread and pious uncertainty – The Last Exorcism was an epic fail – but just as many have done a sturdy job carrying the torch by exploiting the imagery (the aforementioned scuttle, the priest under a street lamp, the reveal of a minor but powerful demon, messages carved into skin and so on) and delivered some spooky, moody demonics: The Conjuring (duh), Deliver us from Evil and The Exorcism of Emily Rose all fill the void, not to mention possession adjacent stuff like The Evil Dead.
But The Pope’s Exorcist is an even more curious creature, based as it is on a real guy and on (ahem) real events, with a side trip to crazytown to retcon the Spanish Inquisition (da fuq?). Director Julius Avery applied a similar goofy touch to Overlord – the one about the Second World War zombie experiments – and tried again with Sylvester Stallone’s Samaritan, and he’s quickly making a name for himself as the go-to guy for spinning familiar tropes into something vaguely fresh. A few well-placed, ominous low angles and exploding demons (that is great, though) are not going to have Friedkin looking over his shoulder, but The Pope’s Exorcist is blessed (see what I did there?) with enough fun to justify its possible sequel. Bring on The Adventures of Fr Amorth. — DEK
Speaking in other tongues
Prince of Darkness (1987), d: John Carpenter
Science and religion clash in one of Carpenter’s most underrated films. A university think tank summons demons after decoding an ancient cylinder and text.
Event Horizon (1997), d: Paul W. S. Anderson
At the time it was labelled a mess and dismissed, but the Resident Evil maestro’s possessed spaceship epic is imaginative nightmare fuel at its best.
The Wailing (2016), d: Na Hong-jin
If you missed Na’s bonkers, possessed village horror drama – it’s smarter than it should be – go find one of South Korea’s best films of recent years. Go now.