There’s something intriguing, even fun, in a horror movie premise that can be loosely described as ‘The Exorcist set during the making of The Exorcist’, with Russell Crowe’s alcoholic actor, Anthony Miller, cast in the Father Merrin role and an actual demon haunting the soundstage.
But no self-respecting demon would want their IMDb page stunk up with what follows: a half-lit, unholy mess in which nothing is explained and nothing makes much sense. There’s no attempt to establish any kind of Satanic back story or find logic in a film production where the response to seeing the lead actor contorting himself into origami shapes and screaming in a demon voice is just to recast the role. If director Joshua John Miller (son of Jason Miller, The Exorcist’s Father Karras) is connecting alcoholism with demonic possession, it’s done in a hamfisted that invites laughs rather than pathos.
No self-respecting demon would want their IMDb page stunk up with this
An oddly low-energy Crowe doesn’t help, and while Adam Goldberg is wonderfully odious as the auteur who will stop at nothing to get a performance, he’s shunted off midstream. Only David Hyde Pierce as the cursed production’s Catholic consultant and Ryan Simpkins as Miller’s dogged teenage daughter find something redeemable in this B-movie misfire.
In cinemas worldwide Jun 21.