I honestly went in their with really low expectations. I walked out of The Devil in Me as we've seen it all before it's the same formula and nothing ever will live up to the original Exorcist. I think I can name 3 good exorcism movies. The Exorcist, Exorcist 3 and the Exorcism of Emily Rose. The plot really gets moving fast! There's no real character building but what I will say is Russell Crowe really does play the part well. It's a mixture of a great performance and a parody..whatever it is it works! It doesn't really do anything new, we've seen it all before but for some reason or another this was better than expected. Give it a watch.

Like clockwork we have at least 2 possession films each year around the same time. Easter and Halloween it seems. They're usually hit or miss with the same cliches strewn about with maybe some attempts at being slightly innovative. While this doesn't break away too much from the plot formula, Crowe's powerhouse performance does and amplifies the overall film to enticing levels. He has clearly found his late career niche with thrillers/horrors of late and it works extremely well. The scares are serviceable and the story is as well. Visually it's one of the best possession films I've seen in quite sometime with fantastic settings and terrific practical and cgi features. This doesn't mean the cliches don't hinder it at times but overall a very welcome film for the genre.

Father Gabriele Amorth is dispatched by The Vatican to assist a family, who's youngest member has become possessed by a powerful Demon, Amorth unearths all manner of secrets, some of which The Vatican would prefer stayed secret.

I'll be honest, I had low expectations for this film, let's be honest, how many possession films have been released in recent years, some low budget some high, one or two pretty good, the majority not white. The Pope's Exorcist actually rates quite highly.

There are the moments and sequences that you'd expect, the jump scares, the dialogues, the explosions, they're all there, but there is so much more, the characters are all well developed and have more depth than you'd expect, it delivers scares and emotional kicks in equal measure.

Father Amorth is the coolest Priest I've seen on the big screen, Russell Crowe was brilliant, he was tough, he was funny, he drove a Vespa, on my book, be rocked.

This film gave me back some faith in a genre that I thought had long since run its course.

8/10.