Did someone say the Vatican? How about exorcists? Well, this is a story of centuries, and sometimes we wonder why it’s still so controversial?! We might not know the truth after all, but thank God movies exist! The International Association of Exorcists (IAE) has denounced Russell Crowe’s most recent movie, The Pope’s Exorcist. Yes, you’ve read correctly. The Sony Pictures film is said to have been “inspired by authentic files of father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican,” according to the trailer that was published last month, and you can watch it below:
Pretty harsh, right?! Not for a group of exorcists from the Vatican who think otherwise. How so?
The IAE, which Amorth himself formed in 1990, however, referred to the movie as “unreliable… splatter cinema” in a recent statement released. It also stated that there is “inadmissible ambiguity” about whether the devil or an ecclesiastical force is actually the “true enemy” due to the movie’s premise, which, as you can clearly notice, features a Vatican conspiracy.
What’s there to believe?!
The IAE stated:
The end result is to instil the conviction that exorcism is an abnormal, monstrous, and frightening phenomenon, whose only protagonist is the devil, whose violent reactions can be faced with great difficulty.
Apparently, the movie doesn’t match with reality because it’s the exact opposite: exorcism is beyond our comprehension, and it shouldn’t be portrayed like that.
Prior to the priest’s passing, producer Michael Patrick Kaczmarek optioned the rights to Amorth’s two autobiographies; An Exorcist Tells His Story and An Exorcist: Further Tales. So, as we can see, everything is being done under the best circumstances, and the attention is actually shared entirely.
Kaczmarek also came with a response, explaining:
I was able to convince [Amorth] that if he took the chance to work with me, that I would try to make sure the Catholicity would be preserved in the film – and that he would be respected as a person along with the Church and his religious order.
Are you excited about The Pope’s Exorcist movie?