‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ Featurette Gives Viewers a Look at a Real Exorcism

A new featurette for Russell Crowe’s upcoming supernatural horror feature, The Pope’s Exorcist combines the real with the fictional. In a series of side-by-sides, we see various scenes from the movie split against clips of Father Gabriele Amorth, the real-life Chief Exorcist of the Vatican who inspired the film’s story. While another featurette that was released prior to the film’s first trailer, shared the history of Father Amorth’s time in this dangerous position, today’s clip offers a look at the stranger-than-fiction events that the exorcist saw frequently.

The opening moments of the teaser explain that Crowe will be portraying Father Amorth in the upcoming film with a split-screen revealing the elderly exorcist making the sign of the cross with a group, presumably at the beginning of an exorcism. Below him, we see Crowe making the same motion before the narrator informs viewers that the film is based on Father Amorth’s case files. We then see what’s labeled as “footage of a real exorcism” on the bottom half of the screen during which the Father has his hand tightly gripping the blurred-out forehead of a demon-inflicted person. Again mirroring this close-up, the top panel reveals Crowe’s take on the Vatican’s Chief Exorcist as he too seeks to drive out Satan from a suffering person.

The remainder of the teaser gives us a lot of footage that we’ve seen before in posters and teasers as it gives audiences an idea of how the storyline for The Pope’s Exorcist will be shaped. From what we’ve seen, the film will follow Father Amorth (Crowe) on his latest mission to help a family whose young son has been possessed by a demon (Ralph Ineson). Although many of his religious peers shoot down his practice, Father Amorth proudly hangs on to his title of the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, which was given to him by the Pope (Franco Nero). As he sets out on this latest job, the Father will discover that there’s much more than meets the eye as he unearths a long-time conspiracy within the Catholic Church to cover up the presence of a sinister demonic entity.

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The True Story Behind The Pope’s Exorcist

As we mentioned, Father Gabriele Amorth was very much a real figure in the Catholic Church where he spent his career serving as the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican. During his lengthy time in the position, Father Amorth claims to have clocked in over 100,000 exorcisms but has also noted that many times it isn’t a possession at all but instead a mental health condition. A very interesting man indeed, Father Amorth founded the International Association of Exorcists and has had his story told time and time again in books as well as on-screen in William Friedkin’s (The Exorcist) 2017 documentary, The Devil and Father Amorth. The Pope’s Exorcist will take much of its plot from real case files shared by the late Father.

Check out the featurette below and get a front-row seat to Crowe’s battle with the devil when The Pope’s Exorcist arrives in theaters on April 14.