The Pope’s exorcist it ticks all the boxes on the expectations of a horror of a religious nature. There is blood (a lot), there is a gladiator priest (Russell Crowe) and there is a presence that seems to possess souls. The result is a project splatter on a figure who really existed (Father Gabriele Amorth), but peppered with quotations on the Apocalypse, phrases Avengerspursuits at Indiana Jones and a violence that would like to be a mix between Tarantino and Burton.
A mix of sacred and profane, directed by Julius Avery, which arrives at the cinema on April 13, a few days after Easter, so as not to disturb the most sensitive souls. Even if – apart from the name of the priest – the rest seems closer to fantasy than historical truth.
It is a horror in all its characteristics, which alternates whispered tones with deadly crashes, framed within the Vatican walls. That’s why massive doses of paranoia and conspiracy are added: the protagonist is yes the Pope’s chief exorcist (with the face of Franco Nero), but in the middle is mixed a soup of events and situations that make you laugh but not always for the reason right and they are scary for the wrong one.
The story is set in 1987 in a former Spanish monastery, currently inhabited by a lady and her children, all unaware that the place has been possessed by the devil since the fifteenth century.
In what looks like a Ghostbuster mission but takes itself very seriously, Father Amorth arrives on a Vespa to understand the situation. Everything is unleashed: we go from mystery to horror, from yellow to action with that pinch of introspection that never hurts.
Nothing is really as it seems and little by little they try to reveal the dark plots of the palace, trying to show the Church as a sort of summa of all human sins.
Anyway, the father does not like to talk about exorcisms, preferring to refer to these events as the manifestation of Evil. Absolute, unfathomable, unpredictable: who can ever prevail against such an enemy?
Especially if, between deceptions and subterfuges, Evil itself wants to take possession of the exorcist’s soul to make his faith waver.
At some point it is not so crucial to understand the intricate thread of events, but to enjoy the journey suspending all disbelief and even forgetting that the protagonist really existed.
Like a scary ride in an amusement park, the film can be read as a dark and light entertainment at the same time. So much in this film any contradiction is welcomeindeed warmly encouraged.
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Source: Vanity Fair
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