The Pope’s Exorcist is a 2023 supernatural horror film directed by Julius Avery, based on the 1990 book An Exorcist Tells His Story and the 1992 book An Exorcist: More Stories by Father Gabriele Amorth. Russell Crowe stars as Father Amorth. Russell Crowe portrays Father Amorth, as the Pope’s personal exorcist, an earthy, scooter-riding, humorous, practical man who is a highly effective exorcist.
In 1987, Father Gabriele Amorth, visits an Italian village where a man is seemingly possessed by a demon. With the local priest, Amorth enters the room where the man is tied up. While exorcising him, using a Saint Benedict Medal sacramental, Amorth taunts the demon, challenging it to possess a pig; when it does, the pig is killed with a shotgun. However, this incident gets Amorth in trouble with a Church tribunal, since he acted without permission from superiors. One tribunal member is a friendly African Bishop, Lumumba, but another is a vicious American Cardinal, Sullivan, skeptical of demonic possession. Amorth replies that evil does exist and that he did not perform an actual exorcism but rather, some psychological theater to help the mentally-ill man. Disgusted, Amorth walks out of the tribunal stating that his appointment and his orders come directly from the Pope.
Meanwhile, a child called Henry, his mother Julia, and his rebellious teenage sister Amy who had traveled from America to take possession of a mysterious old Spanish abbey, Julia’s husband’s sole bequest to his family after he died in a car accident where Henry was present. The traumatized Henry has not spoken since the accident. Following a sinister fire, workers who were restoring the abbey so the family could sell it, leave. Henry starts behaving bizarrely, and supernatural events unfold; medical tests show nothing abnormal even though Henry had began to harm himself.
Diabolically possessed, Henry requests a priest to be brought to him; the local Father Tomas Esquibel arrives, but Henry obscenely derides him and throws him against a cupboard, stating he was the “wrong fucking priest“. Amorth arrives and enlists Esquibel as an assistant, though Esquibel is untrained as an exorcist. Esquibel has heard of Amorth but not read Amorth’s books; Amorth believes they are good books. Amorth advocates the importance of prayer, though Esquibel makes mistakes as an assistant exorcist, including strangling Henry when Henry antagonizes him, mocking him for his sins, including sleeping with the daughter of one of his parishioners.
The duo attempt to exorcise Henry, without success, as he utters blasphemous phrases during the rite. Henry’s demon even possesses Amy at times showing its power. Amorth convinces Julia has not been a religious believer since childhood. Still, he convinces her to pray after she reveals she believed her guardian angel helped her in her youth. Meanwhile in Rome, the Pope becomes ill while reading documents about the Spanish case and is hospitalized. Amorth finds a well on the abbey grounds going down to a complex sealed off by the Church as demonically dangerous. He learns that a founder of the Spanish Inquisition, an exorcist, was possessed, which let him infiltrate the Church and do many evils, including unleashing the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. Amorth also finds the Church covered this up and eventually discovers the name of Henry’s demon, Asmodeus, which will assist the exorcism.
Amorth and Esquibel participate in the sacrament of Confession and Absolution, mutually confessing and absolving each other of their sins: that after Amorth, an Italian partisan, survived World War II and vowed to serve God in gratitude, a mentally-ill woman asked for Amorth’s help, and died by suicide when he did not help her due to pride; and Esquibel fornicated with a young woman he did not later marry. The two ready themselves; Amorth instructs Esquibel to wear a Miraculous Medal necklace. During the exorcism, they have horrible visions of the women whom they failed. The exorcism succeeds only when Amorth offers himself to be possessed, which chimes with Asmodeus’s previously stating that he wants to destroy Amorth and possess an exorcist.
Amorth tries to hang himself, but the demon doesn’t allow it, preferring that Amorth infiltrate and destroy the Church. However, Esquibel helps Amorth drive away the demon and demonic appearances resembling the two women who troubled the men, who attack both men. The Pope recovers, as does Henry while the Vatican purchases and reconsecrates the abbey. The victorious duo visit Rome and find Sullivan has taken leave in Guam, being replaced by Lumumba. Amorth and Esquibel are admitted to a special Church archive; Lumumba tells them they will be visiting 199 other evil sites, with the help of a map Amorth discovered at the abbey, to combat the Devil; Amorth jokes that he and Esquibel would be going to Hell, setting up the scene for a sequel.
The movie follows all the usual Exorcism movie cliches but is refreshing in terms of Russell Crowe and his likeable performance although his Italian accent leaves something to be desired. Plump Crowe rolling around the countryside on his little scooter is also a highly enjoyable aspect of the movie, although it is not known if the real life Father Amorth ever drove around Rome on a tiny scooter. The other actors in the movie are not really up to the mark, although the possessed boy reminded me of Linda Blair’s performance in The Exorcist, which is very high praise.
The movie could have gone deeper in building the background behind the demons and the plot could have had more flesh to it. However, you cannot have everything and a plump Russell Crowe with a ready sense of humor, battling the forces of hell is all we could hope for.
JAY’S VERDICT
The Pope’s Exorcist is a one-time watch which is only so due to Russell Crowe’s entertaining presence – he is no longer Maximus of Rome but Amorth of Rome is good enough.
