The Exorcism (2024): Russell Crowe is too good for this movie - REVIEW
Another of the movies I was able to see over the weekend while I was recovering from my cold, "The Exorcism (2024)" a movie that you may confuse with "The Exorcist" just because of the name although they have nothing to do with each other, they are only related by the horror genre. I knew beforehand that the main character was Russell Crowe and after seeing the trailer I was hoping that it would be at least at the level of his previous movie "The Popes Exorcist" but the truth was not, it is quite disappointing to see an actor like Crowe fall to movies of such low popularity and that the truth is that they are not good at all. On this post I will give you my opinion of the movie so that if you ever decide to watch it you already have a clear idea of what to expect.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Starting with the plot or to be more specific the lack of plot because there was close to none. There is the main character of the story Anthony Miller, played by our man Crowe, who is a man in the process of trying to make things right for himself and his daughter after a stint of alcoholism. Anthony gets signed for this Exorcist like remake called "The Georgetown Project" and believes it may be the savior of his career the single opportunity he has been waiting for to start turning things around. His daughter Lee, played by Ryan Simpkins, appears as his personal assistant and the two seek to reconcile. It sounds promising, but this is where it starts to get too predictable and everything becomes super natural, Anthony behaves in a very peculiar way and people start to think that he's back to drinking or that there's something even darker behind it, of course the most obvious thing is that they are demons inside him.
Well, before we go on with the movie let's talk a little bit about the cast. Crowe, to some extent I feel that he really tries to pull off his role, sometimes I wonder if it's the actor or just a low budget movie or the script that is bad, I would like to see him in better quality movies. Especially in the first hour or so he plays this complex guy who has internal struggles (and external ones too, but the internal ones are portrayed through the supernatural elements). It's clearly portrayed that he wants to drink, the struggle he has to endure to not drink alcohol again, the guilt of leaving his daughter alone. It's good stuff, really. However, by the time possession occurs, it turns into googly eyes and creepy smiles like it's on the B-list of a horror movie. Still, Ryan Simpkins also has let's just say a good despemeñ in his role as Lee Miller. She perfectly captures the rage and affection one would expect from a daughter with an addicted father. I remember one scene where she tries to talk to a father but there are so many barriers and hurts in between the two that it's a bit touching.
The rest of the cast is quite variable. There's a slimy director, played by Adam Goldberg, who wants to take advantage of Anthony's angst to get a more convincing performance, and the actor is exceptionally obnoxious. It's funny that David Hyde Pierce plays this consulting priest, and frankly, it's a relief. He has that sardonic humor that mostly counteracts all the negativity that surrounds him. But then we have Sam Worthington in this role that looks like it was filmed for the movie but then deleted. But let's not talk about Chloe Bailey's character either, she's primed to be a breakout star, but her interaction with Lee seems pretty convincing and there was a good interaction, it looked pretty natural.
Within all my comments it seemed like it was a good movie but objectively the actors were never the problem, from what I have been able to read online, the movie has also been an enigma to most people. I personally liked the concept of the exorcism of an actor inside a movie, something like Inception but Exorcism, taking into account that Crowe is the actor only with an alias, but like a big part of the audience that trashed this movie on review websites like IMDB they are disappointed by the lack of horror and the predictable plot that almost doesn't exist. Maybe it would have been a better movie if they only focused on the drama about the addiction and the trauma it caused, but nothing to do with horror and terror.
I really wanted to like this movie, I really did. The theme was to dig into the less glamorous aspect of filmmaking, especially with the concept of a movie within a movie. And for the first half, I agreed, the way they built up the trauma of Anthony's past along with the stressful environment of the film set was somewhat compelling, but then it was like they hit the panic button and decided, "Fuck it, let's go into demon mode" and that's where they lost me.
The ending, to some extent, can be said to be unexpected, but it feels more like the ending of another movie. It's all chants and bells and Russell Crowe pretending to be possessed as Linda Blair. Oh well, while I'm sure some people will find it funny, for me it was just a matter of feeling like watching a low budget movie. Like they didn't think audiences could handle the more psychological horror they've tried to set up. Look, I get it, creating a movie is no joke and creating a good horror movie is one of those hercules tasks. "The Exorcism" feels like one of those movies that could have been so much more than it is, with a not common concept and a good cast I think its a direction and production fault that it didn't work out. It had all the ingredients to be something great: a great ensemble cast, an interesting concept, some scary moments. But at some point, it's like they decided to stop believing in their script and instead resorted to clichés.
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It's a shame that a talented actor like Russell Crowe didn't have a solid script to back up his performance. The premise of an exorcism within a movie is intriguing, but it seems like it wasn't executed in the best way.