For something that claims to be based on the actual documented cases of the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, Father Gabriele Amorth, one would expect something smarter, scarier, and perhaps not as trope-ridden as what viewers are given with The Pope’s Exorcist.

The film gives us Russell Crowe as Amorth, not quite chewing scenery, but definitely leaning into the Italian accent, and a story that is so familiar that viewers can predict exactly what is going to happen and how things are going to play out before it happens on screen.

An American family, single mother Julia (Alex Essoe), daughter Amy (Laurel Marsden) and son Henry (Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) have moved to Spain to move into the one thing Julia’s dead husband has left them, a rather impressive-looking (and suitably foreboding) manor.

It doesn’t take long for things to start to go wrong around the house, and it seems young Henry may be possessed. Enter Amorth, his time with the Church is coming to an end, because even those who serve there don’t believe that Satan is an actual demonic being, but instead a metaphor. Only Amorth and perhaps the Pope (Franco Nero) know better.

Sure there’s some talk of great exorcists, and the Spanish Inquisition, but there’s no new ground broken with this film, it’s all rote. Everything this film tries to do has been done before, and usually better.

I’m all for an exploration of the supposed investigations of a Pope-ordained exorcist, but let’s do something original with it. I know the basic themes of good and evil, sin and fallen angels have to be included, but this one just felt so, well, formulaic and a little too predictable as if the film was partially made by consensus.

Sure there are some interesting visual effects, but it’s also easy to realize they were done by computer. They lack the reality of happening on the set where even crappy practical effects can lend a reality to the film, especially in a horror movie! Because then something really happened to make that effect, not a computer image that your mind realizes was created in a computer and knows it’s nothing to be afraid of.

I’m not saying this movie was terrible, but I think they should have scrapped a lot of it, gone smaller, and grittier, make the scares worth it, and use as little computer effects as possible. Otherwise, people should just see if they can read Amorth’s actual case files instead.

Skip this and go back to the original, the best, The Exorcist, instead.