Russell Crowe portrays an actor playing a Catholic priest in an exorcism film in Joshua John Miller’s horror.
You wait years to see Russell Crowe playing a Catholic priest in an exorcism film and two come along in the space of 14 months.
The Exorcism, which is not related to The Pope’s Exorcist, follows fallen actor Anthony Miller (Crowe), who is trying to get his career back on track after a stint in rehab following a drink and drugs scandal.
Trying to make amends with his estranged daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins), he recruits her as his assistant on his new horror, in which he plays Catholic priest Father Arlington. He was hired for the role after the original actor died in suspicious circumstances on set during pre-production.
While filming the exorcism movie (which is clearly a remake of The Exorcist), Miller slowly begins to unravel. Is he still battling his demons or is there something more sinister at play?
Is The Exorcism a horror about a cursed movie set or a psychological drama about an actor battling guilt, shame and a possible relapse? Well, director/co-writer Joshua John Miller tries to achieve both and this results in neither of the concepts really working.
The meta idea and initial set-up are promising but the film slowly descends into madness alongside its lead character, culminating with a baffling bad finale.
Some of the horror moments work but others are so silly that your first impulse is actually to laugh. There are a bunch of tense and unnerving scenes but the pacing isn’t right and the writing is pretty terrible.
Crowe does the best he can with what he’s given but even he can’t make a poor script sing. Simpkins comes out of this the best because her character is written relatively well and serves as the audience’s eyes into her father’s transformation.
On the opposite end of the scale, David Hyde Pierce cannot be taken seriously as Father Conor, a consultant on the film-within-a-film. Also, Sam Worthington and Chloe Bailey are fine performance-wise but they are given very little to do and have almost no bearing on the plot.
The Exorcism has some promising ideas and a couple of decent horror moments but the execution is totally off.
In cinemas from Friday 21st June.
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