The Pope’s Exorcist, if you can believe it, is based on the life of a real theologian. Father Gabriele Amorth penned two novels — and claimed to have performed tens of thousands of exorcisms — before Russell Crowe was tapped to portray him in Julius Avery’s new thriller. But even if you aren’t familiar with Amorth, it’s clear Crowe took quite a few liberties in depicting him. He feels much closer to the hero in a Dan Brown novel than a traditional man of the cloth, but that’s just one element that keeps The Pope’s Exorcist from becoming yet another exorcist movie with nothing new to say.
