Absurd, entertaining, not very scary, The Pope’s Exorcist ticks all the boxes for a fun movie to pop on at the weekend. The supernatural horror, which is based on a true story, stars Russell Crowe as an Italian priest tasked as the Pope’s chief exorcist.
Crowe cuts an unlikely figure in vestments and a bad Italian accent as he rides a vespa, knocks back whisky, and squares off against the devil in the form of a young American boy. Unfortunately, this so-bad-it’s-good film is leaving Netflix UK this month. Subscribers have only July 18 to stream the “shamefully entertaining” horror flick before it disappears off the platform.
What is The Pope’s Exorcist about?
The Pope’s Exorcist takes us back to 1987. Crowe, as Father Gabriel Amorth, is called to Spain where a recently widowed American mother and her two children have taken possession of an old abbey.
Father Amorth, dubbed the Pope’s personal exorcist, had claimed to have performed as many as 160,000 exorcisms. The film is based on two books: An Exorcist Tells His Story and Amorth’s own account, An Exorcist: More Stories.
Pope’s Exorcist reviews
There’s quite a disparity between what critics and audiences think of the horror film. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 50% critics rating contrasted with 80% from regular viewers.
The website’s critics consensus: “Dominus Crowe! The Pope’s Exorcist is standard-issue holy horror in most respects, but its star’s sanctified performance will be the answer to some viewers’ prayers.”
Even so, a roundup of the best movies to watch on Netflix by Time Magazine features the guilty pleasure film.
Why is it worth watching? Their film critic ,Stephanie Zacharek, explained: “This movie is shamefully entertaining; it’s an act of dorky blasphemy. Also, an alert for Camelot and Django fans: Franco Nero plays the Pope.”
“Step right up to learn about the possibly but probably not completely true adventures of a real-life exorcist!” she added.
“Russell Crowe plays Father Gabriel Amorth, a Vatican exorcism specialist summoned to Spain, circa 1987, to expel demons from the body of an American kid. In so doing, he exposes a secret long guarded by the Church.”
Rolling Stone reporter Chris Vognar also gave the film its due: “The Pope’s Exorcist will certainly never go down as a classic of the genre, but it’s better than it has any reason to be. Sometimes, the devil you know gets the job done just fine.”
What do viewers think?
One of the most popular reviews on Letterboxd reads: “Some movies tease one sequel, this one teases 199. F*** it, as long as Russell Crowe has an Italian accent and a Vespa I’m there.”
“This was a corny, old fashioned gore laden ‘shocker’ crammed with every exorcism cliche in the book,” panned a Rotten Tomatoes user, before adding: “However, it was a reasonably enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours and Russell Crowe was really good as the world weary but wryly humourous exorcist and his performance elevated the movie considerably.
“The plot moved along at a cracking pace and although it was extremely silly most of the time, it was also pretty entertaining.”
The most popular IMDB user review praised: “Visually it’s one of the best possession films I’ve seen in quite sometime with fantastic settings and terrific practical and cgi features. This doesn’t mean the cliches don’t hinder it at times but overall a very welcome film for the genre.”