In a reimagining of a well-known horror movie, Anthony Miller (Russell Crowe), a celebrity whose career has been destroyed by booze, is cast as a priest to replace an actor who has inexplicably passed away. Miller’s daughter Lee (Ryan Simkins) is concerned that her father may have succumbed to demonic influence as his behaviour grows more and more erratic.
Joshua John Miller, director and co-writer, comes from a family of horror enthusiasts. He portrayed the young vampire in Near Dark as an actor. Furthermore, he is the son of actor-turned-playwright Jason Miller, who portrayed Father Karras in The Exorcist, which served as the clear inspiration for the film-within-a-film being recreated in The Exorcism. Compared to, instance, last year’s The Exorcist: Believer, this is obviously a more intimate (and unofficial) Exorcist add-on, with star Russell Crowe riffing on widely reported real-life struggles.
The Exorcism is a horror movie with a low-key, noir vibe, but it’s also a drama about show business behind the scenes as much as it is a shocker. When demons in possession films want to destroy priests, director Peter (Adam Goldberg), such a serpent that you suspect the screenwriters have someone in mind, tries to pull a performance out of washed-up Anthony Miller (Crowe), spitting forth cruel, hurtful remarks meant to scar the psyche.
Russell Crowe is not so much scary as sorrowful.
The story’s demon-blighted house is represented by a multi-story house without a fourth wall on the studio level, where most of the action takes place. A pivotal scene is creatively set in “the cold room,” a makeshift bedroom set that was made in a cool, separate studio so that the actors’ breaths could be seen on screen (The Exorcist utilised one of these).
When the potential of Sam Worthington playing the lead is mentioned, he gleams with ambition. Chloe Bailey has a wonderful moment on set when Anthony is on the verge of a breakdown and she tries to console him despite her frightening, Regan-style possessee makeup. While this is going on, David Hyde Pierce plays a scary priest who serves as a technical advisor on site and is regrettably a living reminder of the torture Anthony endured as an altar boy (possibly adding too much anguish). Crowe continues the cycle’s lighter entry, The Pope’s Exorcist, but he goes deeper and is more sorrowful than frightful.
Although there are doubts about the film’s commitment to being a scary movie rather than an inside Hollywood drama, it does have one amazing jump scare as the character suddenly leaps out of an unexpected corner of the frame, just like in Exorcist III.