Horror has been becoming my favorite genre these last couple of months. During these months, I watched a mix of Hollywood horror, Thai horror and loads of Indonesian horror. They used to scare the hell out of me but I remember, I consider myself sort of a heathen- and with that realization, there is really nothing to be scared about. In fact, if one thing horror taught me is that human is scarier than the ghost/spirit itself. These ghosts, spirit, Djin, Satan, Asmodeous, whatever the name attached to them only wanted a revenge of their unfinished business. Many of these plot comes with unfinished story that is often grim. They clenched their fists in the afterlife wanting to get a blow to whoever hurt them. I am guessing that their appearance here and there were to only to make others notice them. And if you don’t believe in these kind of spiritual realm, well... Father Gabriele Amorth has something to say based on his experience exorcising for the Diocese of Rome. Father Amorth is the real deal and The Pope’s Exorcist is based on his life. Whether everything is true or not, that is up to a discourse.

Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist was played by Rusell Crowe. Amorth was pictured as a father driving a Vespa with humorous banter and interesting approach to exorcism. During the first few minutes of the movie, you will be seeing Amorth was invited into the suburb of Italy with a task to exorcist a satan from a young man’s body. He only showed a symbol of Vatican and talked it out with the Satan to posses a pig. In this process, the exorcism wasn’t all about woo-woo practice, it was much more believable to a skeptical mind.

In this movie, we are also shown that Amorth did not remove the possibility of mental illness and remove all the possibility of getting a help from professional. He was first asking if that young man was taken to a doctor and calling him was the last resort and effort from the family. Throughout the movie, Crowe was speaking in a raspy voice and Italian which was quite intriguing given that he himself wasn’t italian. I do not know enough to judge but he was believable, charismatic and his italian accent sounds pretty Italian to me. I am sure the natives would say differently but I am also sure many would have agreed that Crowe did a good job to portray Gabriele Amorth when it comes to the Italian accent.

The story got more intense as a family from the US recently moved to an old house that they planned to sell once they did a little renovation. This family would soon meet their darkest nightmare and even that nightmare shook the Vatican. The secret that lies beneath the buildings, the “ Sin” that people did in the past were all soon revealed. Amorth with his comedic approach to exorcism, made this movie less frightening. In fact, it hooked you with the mysteries that are presented in the plot.

Whether it is true that the Spanish inquisition was the work of the devil and caused casualties. It was an interesting conspiracy to follow. Not to mention, In the movie is it also mentioned that the Church covered it up too and buried everything beneath that castle-looking place. There many questions to unveil that made this movie quite different from the other exorcist based movies and even movies like Constantine.

Nearing the end, inside that compound, Father Amorth found an important book that eventually helped them laid out the map of the devil which could hint a potential saga where he could travel with Father Esquibel portrayed by Daniel Zovatto. It is mentioned that there are 199 sites on earth where the devil resides and possibly buried under some ancient rites, passages, and even a normal looking burial ground. Anything could happen and this could hint a sequel, a saga, even series. As I am sure, this would sparked viewers curiosity even myself. Where are all the other sites on earth?

With that ending, anything is possible. I have to say that I am sold the idea of making a series based on Father Gabriele Amorth. I am also sold to the idea Russel Crowe and Daniel Zovatto going on crazy adventure with their black robe, hunting for Asmodeus, the devils, satan whatever there is. It could be an epic series although, this kind of movie/series could potentially receive a little backlash here and there.

With this type of movie, the element that gets you hooked is the story, the conspiracy, and the adventure filled with mesmerizing scenes and settings. Everything else could feel like secondary but personally, Crowe as an actor was successful in making us believe that he was the real Father Amorth and we were taken into his exorcist world, witnessing events that sometimes do not even making sense for our skeptical mind. I highly recommend this especially if you enjoy Vatican based stories, plots, and more importantly, a borderline conspiracy movie.