THE EXORCISM

US, 2024, 93 minutes, Colour.

Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins, Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg, David Hyde Pierce, Adrian Pasdar, Samantha Mathis.

Directed by Joshua John Miller.

The Exorcism was released in 2024 although information is at hand that it was filmed at the end of 2019. Russell Crowe appeared as the Vatican exorcist in 2023, The Pope’s Exorcist. This seems to have offered an opportunity for The Exorcism to be released.

Interestingly, the film has been cowritten and directed by Joshua John Miller. He is the son of the actor, Jason Miller, who played Father Karars in The Exorcist – although Joshua John Miller was born the year after the film’s release but he may have been drawing on family discussions in the ensuing years about the film and its effect on his father.

The film opens eerily with an actor walking through the various storeys of the set, rehearsing his lines, then suddenly attacked and killed. Which means that there needs to be re-casting.

This is a film about the making of the film with some scenes of the film within the film. There is an elaborate set, the multi-storyed and a basement, the basement used, of course, for a dramatic climax. On the whole, the film is, literally, very dark. The apartment of the actor is full of shadows, sometimes sinister. Most of the action takes place on the set with some interior darkness. While there are some moments outside the apartment and the studio, they are generally night scenes, also dark.

And, the theme of the film is dark. Russell Crowe plays an actor, a back story of alcoholism and addiction, neglected wife and daughter, to rehab, being offered the role of the exorcist priest in the new film – which has links to the original, the screenplay in the film called The Georgetown Project. The name of the actor is Tony Miller – same surname as the director.

Tony Miller is diffident, is interviewed, does readings, gets the role, ups and downs in performance, some reconciliation with his daughter (Ryan Simpkins), suspended from school, attracted to the young actress who is playing the possessed victim in the film (Chloe Bailey). Things begin to go more wrong, the actor becoming more and more possessed, building up to an exorcism confrontation, especially with the priest adviser to the film, an unexpected appearance by David Hyde Pierce.

Final dramatics and melodramatics of exorcism. Compared with of the Exorcism films, this one seems rather slight in its imagination, not an essential exorcism film at all, but it must be said that Russell Crowe certainly gives his serious best in his performance.

1. Continued audience interest in films of exorcisms? The references here to the original Exorcist? The Georgetown Project? And the writer-director, son of Jason Miller, Father Karas?
2. A film about the making of the film and the film within the film?
3. The opening, the priest, rehearsing his lines, going through the set, the eerie experience, his death?
4. The focus on Tony Miller the introduction, his back story, Catholic, altar boy, abuse and the flashbacks to the sequences, alcohol, the death of his wife, neglect of his daughter? Rehab? Only going to the confessional, after 40 years, the return to the confessional? The offer of a comeback? Diffidence? Preparing the lines, his daughter returning, her suspension, his reactions? Rehearsing his lines with her? Encouraged by her? Making her his PA?
5. The director, his background, intentions, the choice of Tony, the discussions, the readings, interviews? The decision for Tony to act in the film?
6. The darkness of the film, even in the brief outdoor sequences, at night? The apartment dark? The set, the house with its several storeys? The musical score?
7. The signalling of the days of shooting? Tony, the scenes, his renditions, the director and his advice, dissatisfaction? The effect on Tony and his performance? At home? The temptation to drink? His finally succumbing?
8. The actress, Blake, the role of the possessed woman? Friendship with Lee, sharing, the sexual encounter?
9. Tony and his gradual deterioration, his becoming possessed? Not himself, the threats to others, confrontations, with Lee, her desperation?
10. Father Conor, expert advice, Tony asking about why he became a priest, his heroes? His study of psychology? The discussions with the Lee, the confrontations with Tony?
11. The desperation of the film crew? The pressure to get the film made?
12. The buildup to the climax, the basement in the set, the eerie atmosphere, Lee going down, Fr Conor offering himself? The behaviour of the possessed Tony, the priest and Blake, paralysed? Lee and the confrontation? Prayers, the litany of the saints, Tony recovering, Fr Conor and his being overcome, destroyed?
13. The culmination of the experience, this film as an exorcist and possession film, and the speculations about the effect of such a theme on the cast and crew?