If you follow my account recently you can tell I have been diving into the world of horror films, I find myself drawn to the latest addition to the exorcism sub genre, this iteration directed by Joshua John Miller this movie will portray the real and fictional world that blends with each other and the story itself is inspired by Miller’s own life and his father who acted in The Exorcist (1973). The movie is very close to Miller’s own life as he was raised on macabre stories about the events filming of The Exorcist (1973) where his father, Jason Miller played the part of Father Karras, I think such connection creates a kinda of meta horror for the audience, which makes the movie a worthy shot in the exorcism sub genre but I have a few problems with it, one been Russell Crowe coming from The Pope's Exorcist.
The main theme of the film revolves around the life of the main character, Anthony Miller played by Russell Crowe who is an actor given a role in a movie that kind off resembles his life’s struggles, including substance abuse, his character Anthony starts to exhibit pathological behavior that has his daughter, Lee played by Ryan Simpkins concerned. This is whether she should accept that her father has started to act like he used to do when he was an alcoholic or whether it is something more serious as Anthony is now subjected to bizarre incidents as the line between his actual life and the making of a horror film gets blurred. These are not mere dreams or hallucinations, as the author of the novel implies but are real occurrences in the evil forces that appear to be against the main character.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11240348/ - Platform: Theaters - Release: June 21, 2024
Plot Overview
When the events start to progress the viewers gets to see the sequence of scenes which shows frame by frame the main character’s transformation into a crazed maniac with behavior around those filming the documentary and his daughter gets worse as he tries to fight off the evil within him. The film has psychological horror with some supernatural appearances.
The scenes of exorcism are very painful and striking at the same time and refer to the tradition of exorcism films, it is not just Demons that Anthony fights but his own vices making the process of exorcism to be a very personal and horrifying experience, one can identify the major motifs of redemption, faith, and the centrality of family in the face of evil in the movie.
Production Insights
The filming of The Exorcism was done by some famous personalities who included Scott, Bloom, and Nelson. The brilliant and talented twins, who have written this script, are Miller and M. A. Fortin who have developed The Final Girls and Queen of the South, a USA Network drama series. This movie was produced by Kevin Williamson, Ben Fast, and Bill Block involved production companies; Miramax and Outerbanks Entertainment.
Another interesting fact about the movie’s making and shooting is its link with the ‘legend’ of the ‘cursed business’, Miller claimed that the sets adopted in The Exorcist were seriously linked with odd fires and death occurrences and therefore impacted “The Exorcism.” This sense of a cursed production can also be seen in the story line, specifically in Anthony Miller’s role of a character who encounters other worldly occurrences that accentuate the horror movie in which he is an actor, the production team attempt to do was to give the possession movie formula a new and more progressive twist.
Cast and Characters
The cast list is packed with talented actors all of whom have a vast experience in everything that they do in the film. Russell Crowe’s role is that of another troubled actor named Anthony Miller whose life starts degenerating while filming a supernatural horror movie. Crowe is an award winning actor who has been in the industry for some time now and has acted in movies such as Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001), after all Russell Crowe is well suited for the psychologically demanding nature of Anthony Miller.
Starring Ryan Simpkins as Lee Miller, Anthony’s estranged daughter who bear the burden of trying to understand her father’s condition, Simpkins is also famous for appearing in the film Pride and Glory that was released in 2008 and Fear Street trilogy movies of 2021, this are both skillful complex emotions that enrich the main focus of the movie namely the relationship between the father and the daughter.
Themes and Messages
From the few opinions I could find only I would say that many viewers consider The Exorcism (2024) to be more than just a horror movie about demons and the end of the world with some have pointed out that the movie is relevant to the present-day concerns and problems, just as The Exorcist was to the 1970s. The crucial narrative of the movie deals with the life of Anthony Miller who starts behaving like a maniac while shooting a horror film and the entire episode is symbolic of the reality where the human mind and the film that he is shooting are blurred and the trauma that the man has experience himself provides clues to his behavior, embrace the problem of mental health and the effects of trauma.
Another theme that has become a focus of the discussion is the reflection on substance dependency and the process of sobriety with Anthony Miller’s character is recovering from substance use disorders and his odd behaviors on set suggest that he is falling into his previous unhealthy habits or perhaps there is hidden motive involved, starts the fight of an addict and the constant fight for the freedom from alcohol, becoming more than just a horror movie, it was about time that it evolve into something more than just scare, blood and gore.
When I think of the plot of The Exorcism (2024) I can see this movie having the capability of being a powerful horror movie with a message but from the trailer the plot over all fell as a parody of what happens on a the set of a horror movie but nothing has been said or done, the movie has definite potential with its talented cast and its director who seems to have a good grasp of the horror film format, however, there is the challenge of standing out in a bracket that has been defined by having great films with the very recent release of The First Omen (2024) setting the bar high for horror movies.
This is one of the reasons why the film works and why it is more than just your typical horror movie, because it does not only provide the psychological horror along with supernatural but also touches on issues relevant to the society today, at least from what I can tell from the trailer and plot that I have found so far. The essence of the exorcism scenes goes beyond the ritual of driving out an evil spirit but also battling with the inner demons of Anthony because in a few scenes he even mention how he is not worth saving, how do you get evil out of a person that already surrender before the fight starts?. This aspect of the film has been mention by critics as one of the best features that makes the film unique and distinguish it from other horror movies
In conclusion, it is possible to say that the future value of The Exorcism (2024) can have impact on the horror genre, this combination of the psychological and supernatural horror with the potential of providing a suspense story that the audiences might connect with, specially with his Anthony's daughter, I'm a trooper and I don't denied myself watching a good underdog movie so I must admit that I am looking forward to this movie and HOPE that it will be an exciting experience, at least in the framework of the exorcism film sub genre.
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