The Exorcism

Like Godard’s Tout Va Bien, the (figuratively and literally) storied set can make the viewer feel like a voyeur. The pacing can be too stately, but an impressive ensemble working through a surfeit of good ideas compensates for the lack of jump scares.

What's frustrating about this is that it had potential.

No self-respecting demon would want their IMDb page stunk up with what follows: a half-lit, unholy mess in which nothing is explained and nothing makes much sense.

A quick crick of the neck and a snapping, sideways smirk of pure evil; Crowe’s still got cinematic chutzpah.

Despite Crowe’s commitment to going balls-out nutso in the role, the film unravels, a casualty of slap-dash plotting, lazy directing and a reliance on tired Catholic horror tropes.

“The Exorcism” is an exercise in story and creative visuals that attempts to create a new type of horror. It may not succeed, but the attempt is admirable.

It turns into just another dispiriting pastiche of the original Exorcist – but sadly without its intelligence or its malevolent sense of dread.

The Exorcism’s exorcism is stunningly mediocre, and the glimpses of genuine potential it fails to grab makes it all the more blasphemous.



The Exorcism segues into an egregiously deliberate (and fairly dull) midsection and second half suffused with questionable attributes...

It’s an average movie, with enough thrills to entertain the horror fans, but with a story that felt overpacked. It felt like the movie was trying to do too many things.