Another day, another movie review and tonight’s is an interesting one given a horror movie in the middle of the Easter months. But Hollywood seldom makes sense and so I can’t really say that we have a lot to be surprised that tonight’s review is an exorcism movie in the hopes of having success at being a smash hit in the box office like many before it. Will it work? Can the once amazing gladiator strike another blow at the box office? Robbie K may not be able to fully predict that trend, but, he can at least give you his thoughts as he takes a look at:
Movie: The Pope’s Exorcist: (2023)
- Director
LIKES:
The Setting
-The movie may not be the most on jump scares, but the setting does great work to help this.
-The movie is dark, without being too dark, setting this ambience of foreboding doom that I absolutely loved when it came to the film, always showing the darkness with a hint of light.
-Use of lighting paints the movie in a horror tone, and though some of the lighting makes no sense in terms of story, I appreciated what they did to make this movie pop.
-The Abbey has great feel of being abandoned and the conclave for this entire ordeal, while the church has this majesty and regal atmosphere when we are there to sort of counterbalance it.
-This scenery is much of the thriller feel for this reviewer, and the movie theater adds a little ambience to help things out.
The Special Effects
-While not the movie with the biggest wow factor, I do admit I loved what they did in terms of making this movie come to life.
-The Sound editing is tops for most of the film, each element layering to be a tad creepy and disturbing, and then builds up much more horrifying sounds that work well with the music.
-I’ll group the music in this, but the orchestra work feels like a play back to the movies of the 80s-90s, but now with more definition and gruesome moments that make it more powerful.
-The visual effects arise to really start being a nice touch, blood looking much more realistic than some movies, while the powers of the demon really get these well-blended touches that I can’t say much about, but work well.
-Even during the CGI heavy moments, the visuals hold well, a tad fake here and there, but otherwise showing how the marriage of real and computer are the best hybrids for making something come to life.
-And for the makeup, well dang. I just love seeing these transformations, augmented by CGI, but really bringing this punch that works to make these gruesome, nightmarish scenes really stand out and get under my skin.
-Amazing.
The Acting/Voice Acting
-Ralph Ineson is the voice of the demon, and I think he knocked it out of the park. While it is certainly not the most unique voice, the dude has the emotions, inflections, and menace to sell the big bad antagonist of the film.
-Shout out to Peter DeSouza-Feighoney a kid who may not have said a lot of things in his own voice, but matched the intensity of Ineson’s voice work, and played possession really well at his young age. Really sold to me that he was in this state.
-Essoe was good as the mom for the time she is in. I think she needs a little more work on the crying and playing distraught, but otherwise had the role down pat for me.
-Zovatto did great for me. He’s got the vulnerability and strength of a believable character, with mannerisms and expressions that did well to convey his character’s journey through this ordeal. I absolutely loved his chemistry with Crowe, and the fact that someone so creepy, came off so amazing.
-Crowe though is the winner for me with Ineson. He plays this role so well, a combination of comedy, strength and vulnerability that I absolutely loved in the blend. He’s got delivery, he’s got timing, and he brings out some very good emotional game without going too far. So good at what he accomplished in this movie amongst the rest of the crew
The Thriller Aspect
-The movie isn’t so much a horror, but rather a thriller for me.
-The Jump scares are there, but it really has more an occult vibe with our heroes trying to stop this entity and I really liked the approach this movie took.
-It’s creepy, though not as scary, but the theatrics paint this monster picture that is super enjoyable to watch.
-I loved the pacing with it, the goals, the gradual expansion of the story, and the climactic ending that really feels like a war story from the Exorcism, with just enough horror elements to give it some edge rather than being an action thriller.
The Mystery
-Another great facet to the movie is learning the source of this possession and what all lies within it.
-The Pope’s Exorcist does so well with layering the story, giving qualities to the event and adding layers that most Horror movies fail to do.
-It’s paced nicely to carry throughout the movie, never taking too much from the thrills, but yet never feeling like it’s distraction.
-Building the antagonist, learning about the ordeals leading to it, and even adding some chinks into the protagonist armor, all worked to build this movie up, and kept me intrigued to figure out what guesses of mine were accurate.
The Comedy
-I know, a comedy in a horror movie is a hard act to merge.
-Yet, this film did it, using it at just the right moments to relieve the tension, and again never going too hard.
-It’s a natural character quality to Crowe most of the time, his words and jokes a part of his tricks.
-Other times, the timing and delivery are so great, that I just laughed at the placing, appreciating that balance the writers did.
The Story/Character Development
-And surprisingly, this movie is indeed about the story elements and really bringing something to this movie to make it stand out.
-Crowe and the demon have a lot more levels than I expected, and they play so well together as their pasts come to light. It’s believable, relevant, and quite a great dance of strong wills that I enjoyed seeing this.
-Then you have the other priest who too has his own demons to face and it works to help further the plot and the story, expanding past the typical roles.
-There are subplots that melt into it as well, and this battle that the church is facing gets its fair representation without stealing the show, so it really does work for me in a narrative based movie.
DISLIKES:
The Predictability
-It is an exorcist movie, and unfortunately there is a lot of things you know are coming that you’ve seen before.
-The way the bouts occur, the usual tricks that they do, the nature of the story, it’s all in the usual deck of cards these movies do.
-Doesn’t mean it’s awful, but… if you are looking for that unique spin, you most likely won’t find much in this film, which is more a warning than anything else.
Crossed One of My Lines
-The over use of the F word is not my line, but for space sakes, the F word gets a tad overused in this film to the point of blatant use and boredom. Given it’s the second movie to do this, can’t say that it helped things either.
-No, the other line that crossed had to do with animals, and though CGI, there is an unnecessary need for this display when there were so many other things we could have done.
-This won’t be issues for most other viewers, but it’s another warning and a reflection of again, animal use for the sake of just being torturing.
Some Story Lines Needed More Work
-The movie is trying to juggle a lot of characters, and while they mostly work, their plots may have been lost to something else.
-For me there are two storylines that potentially needed some smoothing out, one slightly, the other majorly.
-One goes towards the opening scenes and this battle with clergy and Crowe. It’s got a rather build up moment, and then sort of fizzles out, only saved by the ending and a few fleeting scenes.
-The other has to do with the mom, daughter, and son. There is trauma, hurt, and a lot of other things to explore, but we get the bare minimum use of these characters and I think another ten to fifteen minutes would have done well to give them more use.
The Power Scaling At The End
-The movie is all about building up the power and seeing these legendary figures fight. It’s tough, the climb is a struggle and the realism is playing well as each dive into the mystery is revealed.
-But then the ending happens. Now we get anime levels of fighting that start to feel like somehow people not quite equipped become super equipped.
-The power scaling works with the theatrics, but after such careful and logical build up, this sudden miraculous birth of strength may be symbolic and metaphorical, but feels out of place given the pacing.
-It’s not the worst dislike, but for those enjoying the presentation, that finale Is a bit out of character for what they were doing for my tastes. Oh well.
The VERDICT:
The Pope’s Exorcist may not be timed well or the scariest movie of the year, but what it does achieve is a story driven horror, where the characters, narrative, and setting do the best job of making an engaging film. There is a lot more balance than I thought, and for those of religious faith, it really serves a great merit to the levels they dove into this man’s books and his struggles. With great acting, some good chemistry, and time dedication to making the world come to life, this thriller more than hits levels to make it worth the investment, with I believe the theater helping enhance a bit. Sadly, the movie will not hit the scare factor for most I believe, nor does it shine on the unique flavor you might be looking for. Story lines need some smoothing out alongside keeping the realism, but outside of that, there isn’t going to be much that I can really bash this movie for, nor do I want to. With this in mind the movie overall in my score book is:
Horror/Thriller: 8.0
Movie Overall: 7.0
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