The Exorcism

Moloch Or Velocet

The Exorcism
Directed by Joshua John Miller
USA 2024ish
Miramax
UK cinema cut.

Well now, I made the mistake of listening to a review of The Exorcism a little while after I bought the ticket and immediately regretted the purchase... because people are just trashing this thing. Not for any particularly good reason it turns out. I found the first three quarters of this movie to be pretty good. I think this hinges on something a friend once said to me. She said, whether a film has a bad or good ending is what tricks the audience into whether they think they’ve seen a good or bad film. Now, I certainly don’t subscribe to that theory for myself but I can see how, certainly in this case, this may well be true for a lot of people.

I’ll get to the ending soon enough but this film has a troubled history. Most of it was shot around five years ago... is my understanding. I think someone then deemed it unreleasable and just put it into storage... never to see the light of day. But then a funny thing happened... remember the Russell Crowe exorcism film from last year, The Pope’s Exorcist (reviewed by me here). Well it was a big hit and deservedly so (would like a sequel at some point please). So this movie was kind of ‘finished up’ and then earmarked for streaming but, I dunno, I’m guessing after Covid and the writers and actors striking, the studios are in short supply of stuff to put in cinemas so... yeah... here we are.

The film has a lot of interest if you are a fan of the original movie adaptation of The Exorcist. For starters, Friedkin’s movie starred Jason Miller as the young priest of the movie... and this film is both written and directed by his son, Joshua John Miller. So he would know something about the filming of The Exorcist which is handy because, well, this film stars Russell Crowe playing an actor (um... Tony Miller) who is brought out of a failed career ending in tragedy and drinking rehab, to star in the same role as Jason Miller, in a remake of The Exorcist. Although The Exorcist is not actually name checked, certain things like the title of the film within a film, The Georgetown Story and even more blatant pointers assure that 99% of the audience watching this will realise the characters are remaking The Exorcist. And even the director character is pretty badly behaved... maybe not so badly behaved as Friedkin allegedly was but, yeah, he’s not nice to his lead actor.

So the film is about Crowe coming onto the movie after the previous actor, seen dying from a demonic presence on the set in a pre-credits scene, has to be replaced. His estranged daughter, played by Ryan Simpkins, is also at hand, suspended from school and she, in an attempt by both of them at reconciliation, becomes his PA for the shoot, while staying in his apartment.

And I have to say, that’s all pretty interesting stuff and, yeah, I’d say about the first three quarters of the movie are pretty well put together... with a pop star who gets ‘together’ with the daughter played by Chloe Bailer, odd appearances from Sam Worthington and David Hyde Pierce as the ‘priest consultant’ who finally has to try and exorcise Crowe as he gets taken over by the demon Moloch, over the course of the shoot.

Alas, the last twenty minutes is awful. I have no idea how Crowe’s character is still alive after he appears to kill himself jumping out a window and the bait and switch nature of the final, rushed exorcism, where the original plot is parodied so Crowe can perform the exorcism on the priest instead, is just totally ridiculous. As is the bizarre epilogue of a happyish ending... it just all feels wrong after a certain point.

Still, The Exorcism isn’t as bad as some critics are making out and, yeah, it’s not great either. But it is interesting and sometimes that’s enough.