Today’s Halloween Horrors 2023 entry is the 2nd of the series to look at a film dealing with the subject of exorcism. Surely, this will be a topic that quite a few horror fans will be discussing this weekend, thanks to the release of The Exorcist: Believer in theaters yesterday. Even if that film proves not to be as successful as hoped, it’s safe to say that the films about exorcisms and the possessed are here to stay.

Of course, The Exorcist and its sequels and reboots are works of fiction. However, today’s film topic is one that is alleged to be based on true events, or at least a real person. Okay, so a lot of films make the “true events” claim, but not the “real person” bit.  Today’s topic also happens to be the newest film covered in this year’s series, released just earlier this year in April.

I’m pleased to welcome Melody Vena back to the series for a 4th year to discuss our second film regarding exorcism, 2023’s The Pope’s Exorcist. Melody first joined our series back in 2018 to share some thoughts on a film that has quickly become a Halloween classic for many, 2007’s Trick ‘r Treat. Melody has been a steady part of the Halloween series since then and has also contributed to the pages of Monster-Mania Magazine, as well as to iHorror.com. 

The Pope’s Exorcist is a 2023 supernatural horror film directed by Julius Avery from a screenplay by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, based on the 1990 book “An Exorcist Tells His Story”. The film stars Russell Crowe as “Amorth”, with Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe, and Franco Nero in supporting roles.

The film centers around only one of Father Gabriel Amorth’s exorcisms as chief exorcist for the Vatican. His duties seem to mostly include battling Satan and the innocent-possessing demons, while making a few wisecracks at their expense. The movie does a phenomenal job of showcasing one particular exorcism Father Amorth conducted. They would have had plenty to choose from as it’s said that in his lifetime he performed more than 100,000 exorcisms before he died in 2016. I guess that’s “job satisfaction”, right? Fun fact: he was known as the “James Bond of exorcists”. So, I think he lived by the “do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” motto!

The Pope’s Exorcist focuses on the 1987 possession of a child that Amorth investigates as the newly appointed chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. Father Amorth travels to Spain to shed light on the particular case of troubled Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney), a boy reportedly possessed by a powerful unholy spirit. As the child’s condition deteriorates, the grizzled priest joins forces with local Father Tomas Esquibel (Zovatto) to cast out the demonic legions from possessed Henry. However, the exorcism is just the tip of the iceberg. Will Father Amorth and the young cleric be able to conquer their own guilt and sins and navigate a centuries-old conspiracy before Henry’s soul, as well as their own, can be claimed? For evil, there would be nothing as juicy as the Pope’s exorcist’s soul!

Some back story on Father Amorth before my official opinion/review:

Born in Modena, Italy in 1925, Father Amorth joined the Italian Resistance during World War II. He earned a law degree and worked as a journalist before becoming a priest in 1951. In 1986, a year before our story, Amorth became the assistant to Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. He later took over Poletti’s position and held the job for the remainder of his life. Amorth chronicled his experiences in the memoirs “An Exorcist Tells His Story” and “An Exorcist: More Stories”, upon which the film was based. (Read the books. The books are good. Once you watch the movie you’ll get this.)

In 1994, he also founded the International Association of Exorcists (https://www.aieinternational.org) which is based in Rome. Like Alice following the white rabbit, I clicked on the site’s address and was greeted with a verse in Latin praying to the Virgin Mother, which I’ve learned is a common prayer recited before entering any place of evil. Of course, to join you must be ordained and follow a series of instructions. Alas, I cannot be an exorcist, but I digress.

The real Father Gabriel Amorth

Father Amorth found that 98% of the people who sought out his services didn’t need an exorcist; they needed a psychiatrist. However, the other 2% were truly possessed, and he remained in his line of work for so many years because of that 2% that needed his help. Before he passed away in 2016, Amorth performed tens of thousands of exorcisms. He even told William Friedkin, director of 1973’s The Exorcist, that he did not fear the Devil and that, in fact, the Devil feared him “because I’m uglier than he is.”

Exorcisms have long been a subject of fascination for Hollywood and horror fans. The Pope’s Exorcist is the latest in a long line of films pitting priests against demonic forces, the most famous of which being The Exorcist. The Pope’s Exorcist combines elements of truth and fiction. The movie references real events such as Emanuela Orlandi’s disappearance (which was the subject of Netflix’s recent docuseries Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi) and the Spanish Inquisition, while also exploring Father Amorth’s personal beliefs about evil and the Vatican.

I went into the movie with lowered expectations. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m not a Russell Crowe fan. Yet, almost immediately, it sucked me in. The opening possession gave my horror-addled brain an itch, and the story and performances of the cast helped scratch it! Truly, I do not think I could find one thing that I did not enjoy about this movie.

As I said before, The Pope’s Exorcist delves into the Spanish Inquisition. Per the film’s version of the events, the Spanish Inquisition seems to have been driven by a master exorcist possessed by the demon Asmodeus, who wanted to give a bad name to God and the church. While this may not really align well with the opinions of historians, Father Amorth’s own opinions find a voice in this particular element of the film’s story, in which the demon is focused on infiltrating the Vatican by possessing Father Amorth — the very reason why he requests for the priest to be brought to him after possessing little Henry’s body. The real Father Gabriel Amorth has even gone on record to claim that the Vatican was indeed infiltrated by the Devil, much as my horror collection will be infiltrated by this movie!