Russell Crowe Supernatural Thriller Is Heading To Netflix
Grab a tub of communion wafers and a nice frosty glass of holy water because The Pope’s Exorcist is coming to streaming! The supernatural horror film stars Russell Crowe as real-life exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, who acted as the Pope’s own personal demon fighter in the 1980s. The Pope’s Exorcist will make its Netflix debut on August 16—well in time for Halloween.
The Pope’s Exorcist is based on Father Amorth’s 1990 book An Exorcist Tells His Story and the 1992 followup, An Exorcist: More Stories. The movie was directed by Julius Avery (Overlord) off of a screenplay by Michael Petroni (The Book Thief) and Evan Spiliotopoulous (Snake Eyes). The movie revolves around Russell Crowe’s father, Amorth, being sent by the Pope to visit a possessed boy in Spain named Henry.
Russell Crowe did an enormous amount of work to prepare for the role of Gabrielle Amorth, including meeting with one of the late priest’s friends who claims to have joined Father Amorth on over 150 exorcisms.
Father Amorth, together with local priest Tomas Esquibel (Daniel Zovatto), works to exorcise the Judeao-Islamic demon Asmodeus from the young boy. The film ends with the new exorcist duo of Amorth and Esquibel in Rome planning their next exorcism based on a list of 199 sites deemed evil by the church.
The movie started development in October of 2020 when production company Screen Gems acquired the rights to the story of Father Gabriele Amorth’s true-life exorcism adventures. Originally, Angel Gomez was hired to direct the film before later being replaced with Julius Avery for undisclosed reasons. Russell Crowe joined the project in 2022, followed the next month by Alex Essoe and Daniel Zovatto.
Franco Nero was cast to play the then-pope John Paul II.
The Pope’s Exorcist was filmed over three months in Ireland, Rome, and Italy. During that time, Russell Crowe came up with an idea for Father Amorth to use a Lambretta to get around. Crowe claimed he got the idea from watching other priests zipping around Italy on the scooters.
The Pope’s Exorcist, in which Russell Crowe plays a real life priest who reportedly locked horns with demons, will stream on Netflix starting August 16.
Russell Crowe did an enormous amount of work to prepare for the role of Gabrielle Amorth, including meeting with one of the late priest’s friends who claims to have joined Father Amorth on over 150 exorcisms.
Crowe was surprised to find out during the course of his research that Father Amorth’s favorite film was 1973’s The Exorcist—ironic as it’s the movie all exorcism movies, including this one, are judged against. Amorth loved the movie so much that he even became good friends with Exorcist director William Friedkin.
The Pope’s Exorcist was released theatrically on April 14 of this year and brought in a combined global total of $75.7 million at the box office. The movie’s budget is estimated to be around $18 million, meaning that it was fairly profitable during its theatrical run. Not too bad considering that, at the time, it was up against the smash hit Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Critical reception for The Pope’s Exorcist, on the other hand, was not as kind as the box office receipts for the thriller. The film scored a disappointing 49 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with the site’s critical consensus being that Russell Crowe’s performance is the only thing saving what is otherwise a run-of-the-mill possession movie.
The International Association of Exorcists—if you didn’t know that was a thing, don’t feel bad, we didn’t either—was even harder on the film, calling it “pretentious” and claiming that the movie raised “unacceptable doubt” in the public mind over who the “real enemy” is: Satan or the church.
According to The Pope’s Exorcist trivia section on IMDb, a Vatican-certified exorcist said that if Father Amorth were alive, he would be “disgusted” by the use of his name in the film.
Grab a tub of communion wafers and a nice frosty glass of holy water because The Pope’s Exorcist is coming to streaming!
Despite the Catholic church’s damning words regarding the movie, it was successful enough that a sequel is currently in early development. Russell Crowe is expected to reprise his role as Farther Amorth. No word yet on whether the sequel would also be released theatrically or if the franchise would pivot to a made-for-streaming model for The Pope’s Exorcist 2.
The answer might depend on how well the movie does once it hits Netflix later this month.
In the meantime, Russell Crowe is hard at work on a documentary about his band and the passion it takes to maintain a musical career while juggling being an A-list actor at the same time. The movie, titled Last Breath, is currently in production.
