Actor Russell Crowe will play a catholic priest in Sony’s upcoming film, “The Pope’s Exorcist.” Crowe’s character is based on the real-life priest Gabriele Amorth, who was the official exorcist of the Catholic church.
The first trailer shows Amorth sitting in front of the church council in Rome’s Vatican City. He says that the vast majority of cases he is called to don’t require an exorcist. His work is mostly just referring the “possessed” person to “doctors and psychiatrists.” That is until the Pope (Franco Nero) asks him to investigate a young boy who appears to be possessed by a demon. We see the boy displaying all the standard horror movie signs of possession discolored veiny skin, eyes changing colors, demonic screams, and some violent telekinesis. But it seems the boy is seeking out Amorth to play a good old fashion game of, got your soul.
Things really start to break off when in the course of his investigation, Amorth discovers a centuries-old conspiracy. Apparently, the Catholic church has had to contend with this particular demon before. In the process, he also puts himself at risk for possession. Causing the council at Vatican City to question what would happen if the pope’s exorcist were to fall victim to possession.
In real life, Amorth passed away in 2016. According to the National Catholic Register, he performed over 70,000 exorcisms over his three-decade career.
Julius Avery (“Overlord”) directs from a script by Michael Petroni (“The Book Thief”) and Evan Spiliotopolous (“Beauty and the Beast”). The plot comes from Amorth’s books, “An Exorcist Tells His Story” and “An Exorcist: More Stories.” In addition to Crowe and Nero, the film also stars Alex Essoe and Daniel Zovatto.
“The Pope’s Exorcist” hits theaters April 14th, 2023, better known as Burt Gummer Day. Check out the trailer below:
