The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

I'm just going to say it; Exorcism movies are generally just NOT scary. They rely on cliched tropes inserting them into scenes instead of touching on anything truly terrifying. Usually it's some child covered in scars saying swear words, sexual innuendo, or threatening violence. While this might be disconcerting (and in these films usually it doesn't go far enough to be actually disconcerting) it isn't scary. It often features the possessed manifesting some magical power that almost hurts people but rarely does, only to be stopped by some deus ex machina machinations by the hero priest that don't rely on any real suspense. Even the most famous example, while more frightening than most of its genre, remains far less scary than many other classic horror films. So most of the time I find films about exorcism to be dull and rather rote. 

The Pope's Exorcist is as dull and predictable as the rest but it does even farther down the road of being full of itself. There main thesis here, in a film that purports to be about the "real" experiences of an actual priest, is that a demon had possessed a real historical figure who then founded the Spanish Inquisition. Basically the film tries to absolve the Western Church of one of its most evil historical activities by blaming it on the devil!! Hmmm how convenient? The church can't be blamed for committing such atrocities because it was manipulated by the work of an invisible evil force! I hear they are making a sequel. Perhaps in that they'll discover a demon who possesses priests to have them assault children. 

Yes, yes, I get that the film tries to still tie blame to the church for the "cover up" but come on, that's still a huge dilution of responsibility. The film goes to great lengths to displace responsibility and that in itself is a kind of wrongdoing that would make a much better film difficult to enjoy. But add that to the fact that this film is just so standardly dull and the whole thing becomes almost unwatchable. 

The film's first sin is being rather boring and in no way scary. The second is the way it tries to absolve actual evil doers by blaming imaginary ones. 

The Pope's Exorcist

Starring: Russell Crowe

Director: Julius Avery

Writers: Michael Petroni, Evan Spiliotopoulos