Stream it:
|
With: Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, David Hyde Pierce, Tracey Bonner, Marcenae Lynette, Joshua John Miller, Hallie Samuels, Hannah Black, Samantha Mathis
|
Written by: Joshua John Miller, M.A. Fortin
|
Directed by: Joshua John Miller
|
MPAA Rating: R for language, some violent content, sexual references and brief drug use
|
Running Time: 95
|
|
Date: 06/21/2024
|
|
|
|
Demon Cut
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
A good idea for a demon-possession movie with a decent cast, Joshua John Miller's The Exorcism eventually goes downhill with themes under-explored, and characters losing their focus in favor of routine horror pyrotechnics.
Lee Miller (Ryan Simpkins) has been kicked out of school for an act of vandalism and heads home to stay with her estranged father, Anthony (Russell Crowe). Anthony is a once-successful movie actor who has recently become sober after a long addiction to alcohol and drugs, and is ready to work again.
He's up for the role of a priest in a demon possession movie, and he lands the role because the director (Adam Goldberg) thinks that Anthony's own abuse during his days as an altar boy will help inform his performance. When shooting begins, Anthony begins acting strangely, and Lee and the filmmakers fear that he has gone back to using again. But something far more sinister may be happening.
Having nothing to do with Russell Crowe's previous demon-possession movie The Pope's Exorcist, The Exorcism begins on a movie production called "The Georgetown Project," which is hinted to be a remake of the original The Exorcist.
It's fitting; director Joshua John Miller is the son of Jason Miller, who played Father Damien Karras in that classic. He is also no stranger to movie sets, having grown up in movies like River's Edge and Near Dark. Plus he and co-writer M.A. Fortin contributed the screenplay to the clever meta-horror The Final Girls. So everything was in place for a solid movie.
But after a promising start, and a strong father-daughter relationship between Tony and Lee, it falls apart. It feels like there are several pieces just flat-out missing. The demon just shows up for no reason, and characters that started developing into something are abruptly forgotten. Crowe goes through the usual demon-possession stuff that we've already seen, and his skills are wasted in what is eventually a pretty one-note role.
The horror is relegated mainly to jump-scares, brought on because it's always dark, and what little light there is keeps flickering out. (This seems odd since a movie set usually requires quite a bit of light.) The Exorcism reportedly had a troubled history; it began shooting in 2019 and was delayed due to COVID and other factors, but even so, it feels as if it just gives up the ghost.
|
