Shadows on the Wall | The Exorcism

The Exorcism

dir Joshua John Miller
scr MA Fortin, Joshua John Miller
prd Bill Block, Ben Fast, Kevin Williamson
with Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, David Hyde Pierce, Chloe Bailey, Sam Worthington, Adam Goldberg, Adrian Pasdar, Tracey Bonner, Samantha Mathis, Marcenae Lynette, Hallie Samuels, Jayden Fontaine
release US/UK 21.Jun.24
24/US Miramax 1h33

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It's no coincidence that this horror thriller, set around an unofficial remake of The Exorcist, was made by Joshua John Miller, whose father Jason played Father Karras in the classic. While this offers plenty of opportunity for clever meta-flourishes, Miller instead takes a too-serious approach and replaces churning suspense with loud jolts and inky darkness. Without the needed depth, the movie is unnerving but never frightening.

Recovering from substance abuse that was triggered by his wife's death, Anthony (Crowe) hopes to resurrect his acting career with The Georgetown Project, a thinly veiled Exorcist knock-off. And his 16-year-old daughter Lee (Simpkins) is now back home, so he hires her as his assistant. But director Peter (Goldberg) pushes Anthony's buttons, using both his grief and his childhood trauma after being abused by a priest. So Anthony can barely look at Father Conor (Pierce), who has been hired to make the film as authentic as possible. Then something even darker takes hold of Anthony.

While sets are sharply designed, lights flicker everywhere, plunging much of the action into pitch blackness accompanied by a deafening mix of music and sound. So we squirm in our seats because this is physically painful to watch and listen to. There is only the barest whiff of background, from Anthony's simplistically strained relationship with Lee to vague glimpses of his past abuse. But nothing remotely complex is going on here: there's just a nasty demon on the loose.

Crowe is terrific in the earlier scenes, developing a nice connection with Simpkins' alert, likeable Lee while trying to reignite his career. Then he turns mumbly, mopey and downright deranged as he goes off his meds and turns inconceivably supernatural. These scenes don't actually give him much to do aside from looking menacing, so Simpkins ably steals the focus, hanging out with the movie's actress Blake (Bailey) in a half-hearted romantic subplot. Meanwhile, Pierce is giving it his all as the most intriguing person on-screen.

Aside from a warning that you mess with The Exorcist at your peril, there's very little going on here. The script never plays on its promising premise, it merely namechecks issues of grief, addiction and mental illness without dealing with them, and it persistently refuses to allow characters to emerge as fully rounded people. Briefly, there's an enticing idea that Goldberg's Peter is the true villain of the piece. Then the nonsensical demonic stuff obliterates even that.

themes, language, violence 18.Jun.24

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