The meta trope of making a film within a film is something that’s been toyed with numerous times and as a horror premise, it’s ripe with the opportunity to do something a little more than found-footage-style voyeurism. Something which is explored to varying results in The Exorcism.
When the original actor cast to play Father Arlington in a new possession horror ‘The Georgetown Project’ mysteriously dies, washed-up actor Anthony Miller (Russell Crowe) sees the project as his shot at redemption and a return to normality. Following years of drink and drug abuse, Miller is on the mend, and with his daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins) returning home after being expelled from school, The Georgetown Project is the perfect chance to prove to his daughter that he has turned a new corner.
Unfortunately, during the shoot, it becomes apparent that the movie’s demonic antagonist might not be the stuff of Hollywood make-believe and instead, a very real and very dark force is taking possession of the movie and its cast, with its eyes set firmly on the broken and vulnerable Miller.
The first third of the movie makes a solid stab at bringing something new to what on paper is a very gimmicky story and chooses to focus heavily on the father-daughter relationship between Miller and Lee. Crowe’s Miller is a deeply flawed, has-been actor, desperately seeking redemption and is digging deep to find the courage to face his own demons. Meanwhile, Simpkins’ Lee plays a pitch-perfect petulant teen, who wants nothing more than to be a daughter rather than a carer for her beleaguered father.
As engaging as the contained drama is, it soon takes a backseat as the movie inverts itself to allow the goofy possession plot to start to drive it. We get odd glimpses of genuine tension, courtesy of Adam Goldberg’s auteur director needling Miller to dig deep into his emotion and exploiting his vulnerability for the sake of his movie.
However, The Exorcism is packed with too many ideas and themes that nothing is properly explored and much feels tacked on. There’s a romantic sub-plot between Lee and Miller’s co-star (played by Chloe Bailey) that lacks any true depth and there are allusions to Catholic church child abuse, which feels rather flippant.
Director Joshua John Miller excels at delivering jump scares but there’s very little to back up actual horror. And with so many horrific themes laid on the table such as drug, alcohol and sexual abuse, as well as complex familial dynamics and the cut-throat nature of Hollywood, it seems a shame to see none of them fully realised.
This is Russell Crowe’s second outing in an exorcism movie (he enjoys himself no end in 2022’s The Pope’s Exorcist), and he shows up in full force yet again. His performance is delightfully subtle but clearly a cut well above the level the script commands. For the first 30 minutes, The Exorcism is a genuinely intriguing horror with potentially interesting avenues to explore. The rest, however, is too distracted and disjointed to really match and leaves you wondering what could have been.
