The Exorcism
Supernatural horror flick sports a bunch of inside baseball.
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Just to make things clear from the jump, “The Exorcism” (now in theaters) is not a sequel to “The Pope’s Exorcist.” They just happen to share a star in Russell Crowe.
Crowe stars as troubled actor Anthony Miller. Tony crawled into the bottle, bumped rails and chased tails when his wife got cancer. After her passing their daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins) is understandably upset with him. Lee’s been acting out ever since – she just got expelled from her Catholic boarding school for dumping a gallon of red paint on her headmaster’s car – and must now live with dear old dad.
Tony has a comeback opportunity when Tom (Adrian Pasdar), the star of the in-production supernatural horror film “The Georgetown Project,” mysteriously turns up dead. Director Peter (Adam Goldberg) has his doubts about Tony, but the actor assures him he just wants to do good work. Peter will make sure Tony makes good on his word ... even if he has to bully him into performing by bringing up personal information and prior traumas.
Since Lee’s not in school Tony gets her a job on set working as a production assistant. It’s here that she befriends starlet Blake Holloway (Chloe Bailey), who plays the movie’s possession victim. Tony’s protégé Joe (Sam Worthington) also has a supporting role as another priest on the picture.
Tony’s work suffers from the get-go and his behavior grows worse and increasingly erratic during shooting. Assuming something’s amiss Lee reaches out to the project’s spiritual advisor Father Conor (David Hyde Pierce) for holy intervention.
“The Exorcism” is directed by former child star Joshua John Miller and co-written by Miller and his life and work partner M.A. Fortin – they previously collaborated to pen the horror-comedy “The Final Girls” (this self-serious movie could’ve used some of that one’s humor). The film is also produced by “Scream” screenwriter Kevin Williamson. There’s a lot of inside baseball here, folks.
Miller, the son of “The Exorcist” actor Jason Miller (“The Georgetown Project” is a direct nod to this horror classic), co-starred alongside Pasdar in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Near Dark.” In an homage to the Williamson-penned “Scream,” Pasdar is killed off in the opening scene à la Drew Barrymore … itself a tribute to Janet Leigh in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” I’m pretty confident Goldberg’s Peter is modeled after late “Exorcist” director William Friedkin, who had the prop master fire blanks to get surprised reactions from Ellen Burstyn.
There’s a lot about “The Exorcism” that I admire. I liked a lot of the behind-the-scenes moviemaking stuff. I dug much of the supernatural stuff – especially later in the film. I just didn’t appreciate the way in which these disparate elements melded together. The flick’s a shade over an hour and a half and feels far longer. The metaphor between Tony’s substance abuse and his subsequent demonic possession is somewhat obvious. A subplot involving clergy molestation also comes across as being in poor taste. Despite disliking many elements of the movie, I must admit Crowe, Simpkins and Pierce are all very good in it.
“The Exorcism” can’t stack up against “The Pope’s Exorcist” as Crowe’s character doesn’t ride a Ferrari scooter in full vestments while Faith No More’s “We Care a Lot” blares in the background here like he did there. Maybe just skip this one and stream “The Pope’s Exorcist” on Netflix instead. That said, I’ll still show up for whatever demonic possession movie Crowe decides to star in next year.