The Pope's Exorcist is an American supernatural horror movie from 2023. It was written by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, and it was based on Father Gabriele Amorth's books An Exorcist Tells His Story (1990) and An Exorcist: More Stories (1992). Russell Crowe plays Amorth in the movie. Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, and Franco Nero also have parts in the movie.
When Screen Gems bought the rights to Amorth's true story in 2020, filming began that year.
After the director was changed and the story was changed, the movie was shot in Ireland from August to October 2022.
There have been a lot of movies about exorcisms. What makes this one different? It's based on a book by Gabriele Amorth, who was a real-life exorcist.
Amorth, along with five other priests, founded the International Association of Exorcists.
He was known all over the world for his work in demonology and exorcism. Father Amorth did thousands of exorcisms over the course of his career. He became one of the most well-known and controversial people in the Catholic Church in the modern age.
The film has very good special effects.
Another interesting detail is that in this film, the demon (Asmodeus) managed to carry out multiple possessions, he managed to possess the boy (Henry), the girl (Amy) and even the pope.
Interesting detail, the Pope is always considered a holy figure, His Holiness, so if it has been possessed it is because it is not pure or free of sins.
The only detail, which is common to all exorcism films, is that the demons are easily defeated at the end, by the priest, with Christian prayers in Latin. In reality this would not be possible.
Another detail that I didn't like was the film almost trying to clean up the church's image about the dark phase of the Inquisition, attributing the blame to the devil who possessed a bishop.
So, in that sense, they try to give an image of excusing the church for the era of the Inquisition.
But, in short, the film is entertaining.
It's curious, in this type of film the devil always tries to "enter" the church and contaminate it.
But in real life the Church is not a pure institution, it already has the devil inside, it has connections with mafia money and thousands of cases of pedophilia.
Trailer:
