SATAN’S CLASSIC BATTLE

IN REVIEW

CROWE BUILDS ON PREVIOUS SUCCESSES

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

The battle between good and evil takes many forms but no form is more obvious than when Satan occupies the bodies and minds of the living.

Russell Crowe plays the most skilled of the holy priests at the Vatican in dealing with such a haunting occurrence in The Pope’s Exorcist (2023).

Father Gabriele Amorth must travel from Italy to Spain to save a young child and his family from Satan in 1987.

At the onset, director Julius Avery layers over the title credits and early scenes a heavy, brooding score composed by Jed Kurzel. The composition sets the tone and creates the atmosphere moving forward through the scenes.

Crowe taps into the same character stream as Noah in Noah (2014) and as Jor-El in Man of Steel (2013) with that deep contemplation behind the dialogue and the mask. But the character of the exorcist is more involved, and more complicated with the ancient theologian mixed in with the contemporary trickster and that wry smile and dry wit that Crowe has tapped into for a bit of color for many of his characters.

Crowe really reinvents his many acting talents for the more mature actor enjoying a second career working beside a younger generation.

Daniel Zovatto plays the Spanish Father Esquibel in a supporting role who finds the presence of Satan a bit beyond his means and knowledge to deal with. Zovatto does a good job creating a character that compliments the wiser more experienced priest sent by the Vatican.

Alex Essoe, Peter DeSouza-Feighoney and Laurel Marsden play the family in distress after moving into the family owned Spanish basilica during renovations.

The special effects join with the score and the sound effects to create the haunting, all of which creates a compelling storyline about Satan remaining present despite the Holy Father’s efforts to cast him out.

The director uses the inner human frailties of the church and the sins of the people of the holy cloth as a narrative device, showing how the priests must deal with their inner sins before Satan can be cast out of the boy, Henry.

The narrative is for the most part linear with some introspective psychodrama flashbacks brought out by Satan’s presence stirring up everyone’s inner consciousness.

The film is a bit too tightly edited though with a short 1 hour 43 minute runtime that misses an opportunity for a grand showcase of Crowe’s talents and an expose of the real life battle between good and evil.

The narrative could have a few more twists and turns through the backstory.

For example, the century old conspiracy is just touched on the surface while the backstory behind the reasons for the family moving into the basilica has little mention. As well, the sins of the priests could have easily been subplots, but they were treated instead a bit superficially within the main narrative.

Avery does a good job though with the camera, creatively painting the narrative in the darkly lit scenes of a supernatural subject matter.

The Pope’s Exorcist is streaming on Apple TV.