‘The Exorcism’ Proves Russell Crowe Is Cinema’s New Demon Daddy

Russell Crowe is quickly becoming the reigning king of B-movies about demonic possession and the crucifix-powered religious practices required to thwart it and save innocents from Satan. On the heels of last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist (which is receiving a forthcoming sequel), the Oscar-winner now headlines The Exorcism, which hits theaters June 21.

The film is a meta story about an actor who stars in an exorcism movie that turns out to be plagued by an actual demon which preys upon his weaknesses. Silly and slipshod, it’s not the role that will catapult the acclaimed actor back into the types of projects he deserves. Nonetheless, there are minor pleasures to be had from watching Crowe transform himself into a latter-day Max Von Sydow, complete with sonorously recited prayers, agonized suffering, and staunch faith in the face of unholy evil.

In a prologue that sets the scene but is never properly explicated, an actor (Adrian Pasdar) reads from his script while walking through a massive multi-story house set on a giant soundstage. As this man’s lines indicate, the film he’s working on is a de facto remake of The Exorcist that we’ll later learn is called “The Georgetown Project.” If this is unimaginative, his fate is rather pedestrian: Upon reaching the bedroom where the climactic scene will take place, he’s suddenly cast into darkness and strangled by an invisible entity, thereby revealing that the production is haunted by the very sort of malevolent force that takes center stage in its fictional tale.

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