By Victoria Hope
When the announcement was made about yet another exorcism film starring Russell Crowe, many imagined that this would be a sequel to the previous film by th star, 'The Pope's Exorcist', but both films deal with completely different universes and approeaches and it is just a coincidence that the same actor is in another film that addresses the same topic.
It is not quite clear who is behind the latest work choices of Crowe, who has already delivered masterpieces such as Beautiful Mind and Gladiator, but it is only known that in recent years, he has been involved in projects with a smaller budgets each time.
That being said, 'The Exorcism', tells the story of a has-been actor who is battling more than just supernatural demons, but also internal demons such as addiction, depression and the feeling that his time has passed. One of the few things this film gets right is the character study aspect of the main character, but of course, it's all thanks to Russel Crowe who gives 200% of his effort and charisma to try and tell this story.
 |
| The Exorcism / Picture: Miramax |
The Exorcism starts very well, with a scene that manages to capture the audience's attention in the first few seconds and for a few minutes, the film really works well, with excellent performances on screen and a good dramatic load that promises to bring a good possession story to light, but from the middle to the end, that's where the problem begins.
The film tries to mix a lot of interesting ideas and concepts, but in the end, it doesn't quite have much to say and doesn't get there, which is unfortunate as the story had the potential to be an excellent retelling or even homage to the original Exorcist. At some point, the story gets lost and doesn't come back until the final seconds.
That being said, it's not a 'bad' film, but rather a film that needed more polishing and more story development. Perhaps the runtime was too short to develop this side, but if the story had focused more on th family drama instead of just bringing unnecessary jumpscares at times, this could have been one of the most interesting horror films of the year. Had they focused on the main character and his child a bit more, maybe showing some bits of their past together, maybe this would be another story.
.png)
.jpg)
