The Exorcism Review

The Exorcism is the second exorcism horror film to star Russell Crowe in recent times. This time the Australian actor is suffering from being processed instead of casting out demons.

Anthony “Tony” Miller (Crowe) is an actor preparing for his comeback role after a highly publicised drug addiction problem. He gets offered a role in the horror film “The Georgetown Project” but is forced to remember his childhood traumas. As Tony’s behaviour deteriorates his daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins) becomes concerned and is unsure if the cause is Tony’s memories, his addiction, or something supernatural.

The Exorcist has cast a long shadow on the exorcism subgenre. It was the film that set up many of the tropes of the subgenre and they get copied all the time by imitators. Even the legacy sequel The Exorcist: Believer was a copy of the original film with two processed girls. The Exorcism faced this issue head-on and was overt about The Exorcist connection. The film being made in The Exorcism was implied to be a remake of The Exorcist which would be Mark Kermode’s worst nightmare.

The Exorcism ended up being a meta-horror film but was treated seriously. It was like a Wes Craven horror film (i.e. New Nightmare and Scream) but without the comedy or satire. The Exorcism opened with an actor preparing for his role as a priest by walking through the film and mentioning one of the scenes that would feature him being vomited on. Father Coner (David Hyde Pierce) who worked as a consultant on the film said he was trained as a psychiatrist, just like Father Darras in The Exorcist.  Some scenes in The Exorcism were deliberately made to be copies from The Exorcist.

In The Exorcist Father Darras needed to determine whether Regan was suffering possession or a mental or physical ailment. The characters have the same questions for Tony. He was having to battle his personal demons which people were led to believe that Tony had relapsed. The director of “The Georgetown Project”, Peter (Adam Goldberg) was an utter bastard since he told Tony to relive all his trauma so he could perform. The Exorcism was following a trend that other recent horror films like Smile, Talk to Me and It Lives Inside where the horrific supernatural element was being used as a metaphor for a mental health struggle. Peter described “The Georgetown Project” as a psychological thriller in the disguise of a horror film. It was nice of The Exorcism’s filmmakers to spell out their themes to the audience.

The writers behind The Exorcism, M.A. Fortin and Joshua John Miller, attempt to pack their film with stories. Tony is getting attacked in multiple directions due to his guilt about his wife, his troubled relationship with his daughter, the trauma of being abused, and his substance abuse. It certainly gave Russell Crowe a lot more to work with than he did with The Pope’s Exorcist where he performed with a silly accent. Adding to the story was Lee’s perspective since she acted as the Chris McNeal in this film and she developed a friendship with Blake (Chloe Bailey), the lead actress of “The Georgetown Project.” Some of these storylines made The Exorcism seem like it was trying to be a drama rather than a horror film. It didn’t help that Crowe was phoning it in because of his lacklustre performance.

As a horror film, The Exorcism was unimpressive. It was reliant on Tony’s creepy and strange behaviour, dark cinematography, and occasional jump scares. Some of the scares were dependent on the classic movie it was referencing. Even with its meta-approach, The Exorcism fell into the same pit as other exorcism films.

David Hyde Pierce did give The Exorcism an air of prestige. He had a fatherly authority which one would expect from a caring priest. It’s good to see Pierce in a feature film, even if it’s of lesser quality. Sam Worthington got the short straw since he was in a minor role for an actor with his level of fame. It’s surprising, he would have taken this sort of role.

The Exorcism was an unfocused film that tried to skid into the cliches of its sub-genre with a level of self-awareness. Yet it was a bland, flavourless horror offering.