Russell Crowe plays possessed actor in new exorcism film

After trying to get the demon out of people’s bodies in The Pope’s Exorcist (2023), Russell Crowe switches sides to play Anthony Muller, a possessed actor in the film The Exorcism, which hits theaters on July 7th. The plot is directed by Joshua John Miller (Death Guarantee) and follows the character working on a horror film when, suddenly, he begins to lose his sanity and is chased by evil entities. Meanwhile, his daughter Lee (Ryan Simpkins) tries to find a way to help him and questions whether he is returning to old addictions.

In the trailer, you can see Muller leafing through scripts that seem cursed, talking to himself and self-flagellating. Furthermore, we see bizarre events happening on the film set, such as lights flashing, spotlights falling to the ground for no apparent reason and people falling off the set.

;

Although The Exorcism don’t reference any movie directly, it seems like a satire on what happened to The Exorcist, released in 1973. At the time, several rumors emerged saying that the film was cursed and that everyone who worked on it had their lives negatively impacted.

In fact, there were some strange events, such as the fact that the entire film set caught fire and only Megan’s room, the possessed girl, remained intact. Furthermore, after Jack MacGowran’s character died in the film, the actor also passed away a week later.

Despite what happened, several bizarre situations that happened behind the scenes of The Exorcist, are mostly due to the terrible conduct that director William Friedkin had during the recordings, such as moral harassment and abusive behavior. He was armed and fired shots into the air to scare the cast.

From action to horror

Known for starring in many action and fantasy films such as Gladiator (2000), 72 Hours (2010) and Noah (2014), Russell Crowe recorded his name in audiovisual and became a niche, generally being cast in productions of the same genre. Since 2023, however, he seems committed to changing this reality. It was this year that he starred in the acclaimed The Pope’s Exorcistin which he was one of the only priests authorized by the Catholic Church to perform conjurations.

The plot was based on the real life of Gabriele Amorth, a priest who claims to have performed more than 100,000 exorcisms. Now in The Exorcism, he dons the cassock again, but this time “fakely”, since his character is an actor who plays a priest in a feature film of the genre. Abusing metalanguage — it’s a horror film showing what it’s like to create another — the production promises, at least, good scares.

Trending on Canaltech: