Film Review - The Exorcism
Images courtesy of Rialto Distribution.
This is what the sovereign LORD says: Disaster! Unheard of disaster! – Ezekiel 7:5
As a fallen-from-grace actor begins to exhibit disturbing behaviour on the set of a supernatural horror film, his estranged daughter begins to question whether he’s relapsing into old addictions – or whether something far more sinister is at play. The eternal struggle of good and evil, faith and redemption, and the fragility of the human soul encapsulates the essence of Joshua John Miller’s latest offering The Exorcism.
No, not that one. The one with Russell Crowe.
No, not that one either.
A year on following a stint in rehab and the death of his wife, actor Anthony Miller (Crowe) struggles to reestablish a reputation sullied by his alcoholic transgressions. After he is cast in the role of a priest in a vaguely familiar exorcist-themed horror following a suspicious on-set suicide, Anthony’s shot at redemption is complicated by his battle with addiction and the arrival of his headstrong daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), who has just been expelled from school. As is par for the course, that’s when things begin to go bump in the night. And the day. I think. The colour grading is very dark and gloomy. But the things going bump intermittently are enough for Lee and the film’s on-set religious consultant, Father Conor (David Hyde Pierce), to conclude that Anthony is the vessel for something far more malicious.
Throughout its 93-minute run time, The Exorcism meanders along a tepid narrative born from sheer identity crisis. Does it want to be a self-aware supernatural thriller? Is it a scathing exploration of the follies of religious trauma? Is it a bold commentary on the concept of cursed films? At points it feels like less of a cohesive narrative, and more like a series of vaguely adjacent plot points stacked atop one another in a comically oversized trench coat. There’s plenty of exposition that insinuates greater meaning, yet it ultimately leads nowhere. The sheer aggravating banality is enough to make your head spin.
Ultimately, this film serves as an exercise of what could have been. From the outside looking in, it teases a conceptually intriguing character study which serves as a vastly semi-autobiographical vision reflective of Miller’s experiences with his father Jason (who played Father Karras in Friedkin’s seminal 1973 hit). Instead, it’s an incoherent blend of rudimentary motifs tacked together by cheap scares – ultimately leaving one to wonder how much studio meddling compromised Miller’s original vision. To put it bluntly, The Exorcism is an atmospherically stagnant cinematic offering akin to a long walk down a windy beach to a café that isn’t open.
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The Exorcism is screening in cinemas now. For tickets and more info, click here.