THE POPE’S EXORCIST

Name: THE POPE’S EXORCIST
Item: THE POPE’S EXORCIST
Author: Gaby Gaduh

"Christian Faith Ultimately Will Conquer Demonic Evil"

Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

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What You Need To Know:

THE POPE’S EXORCIST gives the Vatican’s chief exorcist from 1992 to 2016 the Hollywood treatment. At 63, Father Gabriele Amorth has only been the apprentice of the Vatican’s chief exorcist for a year, since 1986. Although Father Amorth won’t take that position himself until 1992, he’s proven himself to be a wise, capable defender of the Faith against Satan’s minions. A year later, the good priest faces his biggest challenge. A powerful demon has taken possession of an American boy at a Spanish abbey with an awful past.

Despite its sensationalized shenanigans, THE POPE’S EXORCIST has a surprisingly strong Christian worldview, with a terrific performance by Russell Crowe as Father Amorth. The movie has many strong Christian references to the Holy Trinity, Jesus, the Armor of God, prayer, faith, confession, absolution, forgiveness, and compassion. Eventually, faith conquers demonic evil, but not without an intense struggle. However, the demon in THE POPE’S EXORCIST spouts many obscenities and lurid insults against the priest and the family. The movie also has many scary, violent scenes and brief nudity in two scenes. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

Content:

(CCC, BB, RH, FR, LLL, VVV, SS, NN, A, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Christian worldview, with some biblical, moral elements, about a real life Roman Catholic priest who’s the chief exorcist for the Vatican, with very strong references to the Holy Trinity, Jesus, the Armor of God, prayer, faith, confession, absolution, repentance, forgiveness, and compassion, plus a mother’s love is compared to the love of God, but the movie’s main story about a young boy who’s possessed by a powerful demon is a fictionalized, sensationalized story that depicts Satan and his demons as more powerful than they really are

Foul Language:

About 22 obscenities (including about 15 “f” words), six light profanities, an obscene gesture, a possessed character spits up a dead red bird, and a character vomits blood in one scene

Violence:

Some very strong, graphic, scary violence includes a scene where a crucifix is placed on the forehead of a woman conjured up by a demon, and the body explodes, a woman is covered in blood, demon writes words on a possessed boy’s stomach, demon possesses the body of a priest at one point, the priest tries to hang himself to prevent the demon from controlling him to infiltrate the Vatican, demon flings people’s bodies into walls and other physical objects several times, scary images of skulls and skeletons, a demon possessed character tries to strangle another character, priest reaches for a key in a decomposing skeleton’s stomach, a fiery explosion sends a worker to the hospital in an ambulance, a flashback shows a troubled young woman flinging herself off a church parapet, soldiers are shot in a World War II flashback, a dead body in a car accident flashback appears to have been impaled by some object, an animal is shot off screen and its blood splashes on a side character, etc.

Sex:

Some crude sexual references and strong sexual language by the evil demon in the movie who taunts the Vatican priest, a local priest, and the possessed boy’s mother and teenage sister, plus a priest mentions a past affair and another priest fails to help a female victim of a third priest

Nudity:

Upper female nudity in two scenes (in the second scene there’s a demonic vision of a totally nude dead woman shot from behind and the side who’s covered in blood)

Alcohol Use:

Brief whiskey drinking in two scenes

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Teenage girl smokes in one scene, but her mother orders her to put out the cigarette, and there’s a scene where a possessed boy is given an injection to knock him out; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Teenage girl is rebellious and disrespectful to her mother.

More Detail:

THE POPE’S EXORCIST gives the Vatican’s chief exorcist from 1992 to 2016 the Hollywood treatment, in a fictionalized story set in 1987 where the Vatican sends the priest to help an American widow whose young son is possessed by a powerful demon while she tries to fix up a large Spanish abbey with an awful past that she inherited from her dead husband’s family. THE POPE’S EXORCIST THE POPE’S EXORCIST has a surprisingly strong Christian worldview, with a terrific performance by Russell Crowe as Father Amorth, but the movie has many scary, violent scenes, with brief nudity in two scenes, and the demon spouts many obscenities and lurid insults at the priest and the family.

The movie opens with Father Gabriele Amorth, the wise 62-year-old apprentice to the Vatican’s current chief exorcist, arriving in Tropea, Italy on June 4, 1987 to witness the possible possession of a young man. With a twinkle in his eye but a heart for God, Father Amroth tricks the psychologically troubled young man into showing there was really no demon inside him.

A month later, on July 1, a recently widowed American woman named Julia arrives at a large Spanish abbey in Castile that she inherited from her husband’s family. With Julia are Amy, her sullen teenage daughter, and her young son, Henry, who hasn’t spoken to anyone for a whole year. Julia is refurbishing the old abbey so she can sell it and provide for her family on the profit.

The abbey is filled with creepy sounds and dark corners, however. Then, a terrible accident causes all the workmen to split. To make matters worse, Henry starts acting extremely strange, scratching his own face. In a gravelly voice, he exclaims, “Bring me the priest!” The young local priest, Father Thomas Esquibel, arrives to help Henry, but the demon inside him flings Father Thomas across the room into the hallway.

The Pope sends Father Amorth to help the boy. He’s warned, however, that the Church has aways had problems at that abbey.

Amorth has problems from the start. He quickly determines that Henry is indeed possessed by a demon, but the demon proves to be very powerful, stubborn and knowledgeable. Eventually, Father Amorth learns that the demon plans to infiltrate the Vatican through Amorth.

Will the demon succeed? Can Father Amorth and Father Thomas turn the tables on this spawn from Hell?

Despite its sensationalized shenanigans, THE POPE’S EXORCIST has a surprisingly strong Christian worldview, with a terrific performance by Russell Crowe as Father Amorth. The movie has many strong Christian references to the Holy Trinity, Jesus, the Armor of God, prayer, faith, confession, absolution, forgiveness, and compassion. It also shows that the Devil is always trying to creep into the Church, to defame its name and the name of its Head, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and delivers us from evil.

However, the demon in THE POPE’S EXORCIST spouts many obscenities and lurid insults against the two priests and against the family. The movie also has many scary, violent scenes and brief nudity in two scenes. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution.

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What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.