MovieChat Forums > The Pope's Exorcist (2023) Discussion > Better than most exorcism films.

Better than most exorcism films.

posted 2 years ago by [deleted]
7 replies | jump to latest

Pros;
- Russell Crowe is a great lead.
- It's more sexually charged than I was expecting.
- The finale is quite action packed.

Cons;
- These exorcism films lean far too heavily on The Exorcist (1973). The way the possession manifests in these types of films is always the same. It would be nice for someone to come along and shake the sub-genre up a bit.

I think what we got here is likely similar to what David Gordon Green will serve up later this year with The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Only that will have even more nods to The Exorcist (1973), being an official sequel and all, it will also be sexually frigid.

I'd give this a 6.5/10. It's better than some other recent exorcism films like Prey for the Devil (2022). It has some things going for it but the sub-genres rigid trappings are evident.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

Seems watchable. I'll give it a shot

[–] jinker (75) 2 years ago

Kept us entertained for the duration of the film. There are a couple of decent jump scenes and Russel Crowe played it seriously enough to make it interesting.

[–] ChipDouglas (1607) 2 years ago

It relied on The Exorcist name. Nothing else. You can't seriously be saying this movie is similar in anything other than genre.

[–] [deleted] 2 years ago

What I was speaking off;

- A child gets possessed. The mother is concerned and seeks help. The father isn't present.
- They speak a language they cannot know.
- They speak vulgarly and act sexually inappropriate.
- They want to have a face-off with a priest.
- They 'write things' on their torso, from inside.
- The head turning completely around.
- There is a 'crab walk' when possessed, not dissimilar to the famous 'spider walk' from The Exorcist (extended edition).
- In The Exorcist Regan vomits green slime in someone's face. In The Pope's Exorcist the priest who is hospitalized vomits blood in someone's face.

All this is present in The Exorcist and The Pope's Exorcist. This is what I mean when saying it's similar, and what I consider 'sub-genre trappings'. It's a touch played out and The Exorcist is the origin for all these aspects.

[–] SweetTooth43 (2074) 2 years ago

He got you there Chip

[–] thingmakersback (1396) 2 years ago

Absolutely. The thing this film lacks is the cold sense of dread that The Exorcist managed. And all the gothic trappings and excessive sfx make it less effective than The Exorcist which was firmly set in the ordinary world.

The one thing I rather like is the secret revealed to have been concealed by the Vatican. That was a clever way of excusing what were historically grotesque and evil crimes of the Church.

Overall, not bad film but not good enough to care about and not remotely worthy of the sequel set up in the end. Very Men in Black, the way that played out...

[–] TylerAArse (2898) 2 years ago

I agree. It's one of the better ones.