Studio: Sony Pictures
Release Date: 6/13/2023
Rating: R
Film Grade: C+
The Story: It’s 1987 and we meet Father Gabriele Amorth as he visits the Italian home of a man thought to be possessed by a demon. A brief exorcism proceeds and Amorth is on his way back to Rome, where he has another problem. The bureaucracy of the Vatican doesn’t appreciate or respect his work and are out to dismiss his services.
Meanwhile, in Spain, an American widow and her two children are beginning to restore the family’s inherited abbey in hopes of selling it and then returning to the USA. The remodeling has disturbed something; something that the local parish priest cannot resolve, so the Pope sends Amorth to investigate.
My Take: The movie is based on the two memoirs written by the real Father Amorth. I’m not familiar with them, so won’t be offering any comparisons to the film. In a rarity for something coming out of Hollywood today, the movie features a generally positive portrayal of the church, even if presented with some warts. The clergy isn’t flawless, and gives the portrayals a bit of dimensionality.
This may sound odd, but I thought some of the best parts of the movie were the actual dialogs about theology, the struggle for power within the church, and the very human struggles people go through as they come to grips with decisions they’ve made in their lives. Unfortunately, that’s just a small element of the movie.
It doesn’t take long before we see the kinds of things we’d expect, with the movie taking more of a haunted house approach, and hidden secrets that are slowly reviled. While that isn’t handled badly, it doesn’t break any new ground. Add to that a simplistic investigation that’s breezed over, and an unnecessary amount of special effects that overshadow what should have been a more intensely personal drama.
Director Julius Avery (best known for Overlord) does a great job with the cast. Russell Crowe is almost jolly as Amorth, showing strength when needed, and also tempered with a genuine and caring personal touch. Both of the children turn in believable performances, and Peter DeSouza-Feighoney does a fantastic job during his featured scenes.
Video: This is a really good presentation, showing off the movie’s good set design, production values, and location shots. There are plenty of dark scenes, but nothing is lost in muddiness or shadow.
Audio: Sadly, the disc just has a DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack and begs for an Atmos or DTS-X version. That said, my HTP-1’s Neural X upmixer did an outstanding job. There are plenty of cues and effects throughout the scenes set in the abbey, and the designers did an excellent job adding to the tension and suspense of those scenes.
As a side note, the beginning of chapter 10 offers a great opportunity to test out your surround processor’s upmixing capabilities. I repeatedly played it and compared Dolby, DTS, and Auro 3D during that scene. Auro was the distant third of those. It was closer between Dolby and DTS, but to me Neural X was the winner. While both placed locatable sounds in the tops, Dolby seemed more localizable to the speakers, while DTS placed them in a wider variety of locations, independent of where the speakers are actually placed. The Neural X setting also seemed to add more presence to those scenes without feeling artificial in any way.
I’m greatly looking forward to the day when the HTP-1 gets its long-promised DTS-X Pro update to finally get those wide channels involved, which should improve these limited-channel-count movies even more.
Special Features: • Introducing Father Amorth
• What Possessed You?
Final Verdict: There’s always room this time of year for an additional horror film, and The Pope’s Exorcist almost fits that bill. What could have been a fresh take on the subject quickly turns into a standard haunting/possession film, with action/adventure/mystery elements added in. Unfortunately, that creates a muddled movie that can’t settle on a prevailing tone or mood.
Worth a watch if you’re looking to add something with a horror theme to your October viewing schedule, but nothing fresh or inventive.
Fun Fact: William Friedkin’s documentary The Devil and Father Amorth featured the titled character of this movie.
My Review System:JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup
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