It’s certainly not uncommon for the widespread horror genre to enlist the help of profound Oscar winners — especially when said actor or actress is nearing the end of their illustrious career. As it turns out, this proved to be the case for Russell Crowe, who initially secured an Oscar for his groundbreaking performance in Gladiator. Flash forward to now, and the acclaimed performer has stretched out his arms to wrap success around The Pope’s Exorcist.
As is the case with most modern-day spooky flicks, the recently released project was placed on the chopping block over on the r/horror subreddit. And while the OP expressed being impressed by the movie and celebrating its strengths, that didn’t stop a large portion of Redditors in the comments from insisting that the film was simply “alright” and wasn’t scary.
Then again, when you feature a premise in a film that has long been done to death, it hardly comes as a surprise that a collection of naysayers have emerged from the shadows to bash it. That being said, there were also a fair amount of commenters both praising the film and Crowe’s performance, so the eye-popping pitfalls of uncertainty are just as high as ever before.
But for all of its flaws and heaps of uncertainty, it truly feels like a breath of fresh air to watch Crowe perform in a head-turning horror experience. It remains to be seen if the 59-year-old actor will continue to dabble in the paranormal scene, but we absolutely wouldn’t be opposed to the idea.